With a long leasehold property in Mill Hill, you are actually purchasing a right to live in a property for a set period of time. In recent years flat leases typically tend to be for 99 years or 125. Many leasehold owners are unconcerned as this seems like a lengthy period of time, you may think about extending the lease sooner as opposed to later. The general rule is that the shorter the number of years is the cost of extending the lease gets disproportionately more expensive particularly when there are fewer than eighty years left. Residents in Mill Hill with a lease drawing near to 81 years unexpired should seriously think of extending it as soon as possible. When the lease term has below 80 years remaining, under the relevant legislation the landlord is entitled to calculate and demand a greater premium, based on a technical multiplication, strangely termed as “marriage value” which is due.
It is conventional wisdom that a property with more than one hundred years remaining is worth approximately the same as a freehold. Where an further 90 years added to all but the shortest lease, the property will be equivalent in value to a freehold for many years in the future.
| Lender | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Bank of Scotland | Minimum 70 years from the date of the mortgage. |
| Birmingham Midshires | Minimum 70 years from the date of the mortgage. |
| Leeds Building Society | 85 years remaining from the start of the mortgage. |
| Santander | If the property is leasehold, the remaining unexpired lease term at the end of the new mortgage term must be at least 50 years where any part of the mortgage is on Interest Only and 30 years if all loan parts are on Capital Repayment and Interest. You must report the unexpired lease term to us and await our instructions if:
|
| Royal Bank of Scotland | Mortgage term plus 30 years. |
Engaging our service gives you better control over the value of your Mill Hill leasehold, as your property will be more valuable and marketable in relation to the lease length should you decide to sell. The conveyancers that we work with are well versed in the legislation handling many hundreds of lease extensions or freehold purchase transactions.
Elijah owned a conversion flat in Mill Hill on the market with a lease of a little over 59 years left. Elijah informally approached his landlord being a well known local-based freehold company for a lease extension. The freeholder indicated a willingness to grant an extension taking the lease to 125 years subject to a new rent to start with set at £100 per annum and increase every twenty five years thereafter. Ordinarily, ground rent would not be payable on a lease extension were Elijah to exercise his statutory right. Elijah procured expert advice and was able to make an informed decision and handle with the matter and sell the flat.
In 2014 we were approached by Mr J Anderson who, having moved into a first floor apartment in Mill Hill in November 2004. We are asked if we could approximate the compensation to the landlord would likely be for a 90 year extension to my lease. Similar residencies in Mill Hill with an extended lease were worth £174,200. The average ground rent payable was £55 collected every twelve months. The lease lapsed in 2077. Taking into account 51 years as a residual term we calculated the compensation to the landlord for the lease extension to be between £31,400 and £36,200 exclusive of legals.
An example of a Lease Extension case for a Mill Hill premises is Ground Floor Maisonette 17 Milton Road in January 2014. The Tribunal determined the premium payable by the Applicant to the should be £13,299 This case affected 1 flat. The number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 71.73 years.