How do I extend my lease?

If you're a shared owner or leaseholder, you'll have a lease for your home. A lease is a contract that allows you to use the home for a specified term, normally 99 or 125 years. The original lease term will decrease over time and as the term gets shorter you may be in a position where you'll need to increase the length of the term of the lease.

Why is this important? 

Some mortgage lenders may be reluctant to lend money against a lease with a short term, making the sale of your home more difficult. This varies considerably with different lenders. As an example, some lenders will request an extension on a lease with 80 years left (in order to lend funds) whilst other lenders may request a lease extension on a lease with a term of 50 years remaining.

You may qualify for a statutory right to extend your lease, but there are a number of conditions that you'll need to meet. If the statutory right to extend isn't available to you, we will consider applications to extend through the voluntary route. Shared ownership leases don't qualify for lease extensions unless you have purchased 100% of your home. 

How to extend your lease

You'll need to formally tell us that you want to extend your lease.  This can be through your solicitor or by you. A valuation will need to be prepared by a Registered Chartered Surveyor (RCIS). The valuation will establish the cost of extending the lease. You'll need to appoint a solicitor to complete the necessary legal work. You will also need to cover the cost of the valuation and our legal feesas well as your own.

Under the requirements of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, we are required to extend your lease for 90 years plus the remaining life of your existing lease (eg if you still have 70 years left on your lease your new lease will be for 70 years + 90 years = 160 years). You'll be responsible for your legal fees as well as reasonable costs incurred with extending the lease.

If you don’t qualify for a statutory right to extend your lease, we will be happy to consider a request to extend outside of the statutory regime. This applies to shared ownership leases too. In such cases, you would need to cover the cost of us obtaining a valuation to determine the price for the additional years and you would also need to cover our legal fees as well as your own for documenting the extension.

Please note that there will be an increase in the premium payable for the extension where the remaining term of the lease has dropped below 80 years.

We would always recommend that you seek independent advice from a solicitor who specialises in lease extensions to deal with your enquiries.

If you would like further information on lease extensions, please contact us.