Leasehold Extensions – am I eligible?

There are only three basic criteria that you need to meet if you are going to be eligible to extend your lease, but it is very important that you do meet these terms as you won’t be eligible for a leasehold extension otherwise.

• Residential lease – your lease must be a residential lease i.e. commercial leases are not eligible for lease extension

• Originally granted at least 21 years – your original lease needs to have been granted for at least 21 years. It is highly likely that this will be the case, but it is definitely worth checking to make sure how long your original lease was before you begin proceedings to extend it

• 2 years ownership – in order to qualify to extend your lease, you need to have owned the lease for a period of at least two years. However, you do not need to have lived there for all that time , or indeed at all – you simply need to have been the owner for at least two years. So if, you are a buy to let landlord, and have owned and rented out your flat for two years – you are still likely to be eligible for a leasehold extension

Property not eligible for leasehold extensions

Other than the need to have owned your property for at least two years under a lease which was originally granted for at least 21 years, the only flats which are ineligible for leasehold extensions are;

• if the property is owned by the National Trust

• if the property is a Crown owned property [ NB A Minister recently stated in the House of Commons that the Crown has apparently agreed to agree to the extension of lease extension to Crown property – but this is the is not bounding on the Crown]

• if your property is within cathedral boundaries

• if your property is a shared ownership lease it is not eligible – until you have increased your ownership share to 100%

If you are in any doubt or are unsure as to whether or not you qualify for a leasehold extension, get in touch with our team today.

Grounds for refusing a lease extension

It worth noting that the only reasons a landlord might successfully turn down your request to extend your lease are if they are planning to demolish or remodel the property, or if they believe you are not eligible to apply for lease extension. Apart from that, the main areas for potential dispute with your landlord are over your eligibility for lease extension first place, the need to follow the correct procedure and any dispute either over the price to be paid for the lease extension or whether or not the landlords costs [which you have to pay as part of the cost of extending your lease] are reasonable.

Interested in Leasehold Extension? Contact us today

Leasehold extensions involve a highly specialist area of law and very few solicitors deal with them regularly – if at all. Our team are leasehold extensions experts – so for lease extension advice to rely on, contact us today;

• email our team at advice@leaseextensionuk.co.uk

• or for a FREE initial phone consultation call 01722 422300