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Top reasons for Bicester lease extension


Main reasons to commence your Bicester lease extension today:

Increase your lease and increase your Bicester property value

With a domestic leasehold property in Bicester, you are actually buying an entitlement to reside in a property for a prescribed time frame. In recent years flat leases are usually granted for 99 years or 125. Many leasehold owners are unconcerned as this seems like a lengthy period of time, you may think about a lease extension sooner rather than later. The general rule is that the shorter the lease is the cost of extending the lease gets disproportionately greater notably when there are less than 80 years remaining. Leasehold owners in Bicester with a lease drawing near to 81 years left should seriously consider extending it without delay. When a lease has fewer than 80 years left, under the relevant legislation the landlord can calculate and charge a greater premium, based on a technical multiplication, strangely termed as “marriage value” which is payable.

An extended lease has roughly the same value as a freehold

Leasehold properties in Bicester with more than one hundred years unexpired on the lease are sometimes referred to as ‘virtual freehold’. This is where the lease is worth the same as a freehold interest in your premises. In such situations there is often little upside in purchasing the freehold unless savings on ground rent and service charges justify it.

Lending institutions will not finance a property with a short lease

The propensity since over the last decade has been for banks to tighten lending requirements generally - this has extended to the types of security over which the home loan is to be granted. This has resulted in the minimum number of years remaining under the lease required by mortgage companies has increased. Historically mortgage companies were content with 25 years plus the term of the loan - typically fifty year leases but those requirements are being increasingly undermined by the requirement for longer and longer leases - many now have a minimum term of 75 years as a prerequisite.

Lender Requirement
Birmingham Midshires Minimum 70 years from the date of the mortgage.
Leeds Building Society 85 years remaining from the start of the mortgage.
Lloyds TSB Scotland Minimum 70 years from the date of the mortgage.
Skipton Building Society 85 years from the date of completion of the mortgage

For Buy to Let cases:
- lettings must not breach any of the lessee’s covenants; and
- consent of the lessor to lettings must be obtained if necessary
Yorkshire Building Society 85 years from the date of completion of the mortgage. Please ensure that you explain the implications of a short term lease to the borrower.

Why use us for your lease extension in Bicester?

The lawyers that we work with handle Bicester lease extensions and help protect your position. A lease extension can be arranged to be completed to coincide with a change of ownership so the costs of the lease extension are paid for using part of the sale proceeds. You really do need expert legal advice in this difficult and technical area of law. The lawyer we work with provide it.

Bicester Lease Extension Case Summaries:

Evan, Bicester, Oxfordshire

Last year Evan, came perilously near to the eighty-year threshold with the lease on his garden apartment in Bicester. Having purchased his home two decades ago, the lease term was of no interest. Luckily, he realised he needed to take action soon on Extending the lease. Evan extended the lease just in the nick of time last April. Evan and the landlord in the end settled on the final figure of £6,000 . If he failed to meet the deadline, the sum would have gone up by at least £1,050.

Bicester case:

In 2011 we were e-mailed by Mr and Mrs. I Nguyen who, having took over the lease of a purpose-built apartment in Bicester in October 2005. The dilemma was if we could shed any light on how much (roughly) premium could be for a 90 year lease extension. Comparable flats in Bicester with an extended lease were worth £230,800. The mid-range ground rent payable was £60 billed yearly. The lease lapsed on 23 August 2085. Having 60 years as a residual term we estimated the compensation to the freeholder to extend the lease to be within £24,700 and £28,600 plus expenses.

Bicester case:

Last Summer we were phoned by Dr U Torres , who owned a newly refurbished flat in Bicester in July 1997. We are asked if we could shed any light on how much (approximately) premium would be to extend the lease by a further 90 years. Similar premises in Bicester with an extended lease were valued around £210,000. The average ground rent payable was £50 invoiced every twelve months. The lease concluded on 15 April 2105. Considering the 80 years outstanding we estimated the premium to the landlord to extend the lease to be within £8,600 and £9,800 not including legals.