Stop! Your Lease Extension in Biggin Hill Could Be FREE

Many leaseholders in Biggin Hill are unaware that their original lawyer had a duty to warn them about future mortgageability and saleability issues. Before you pay thousands to your freeholder, let us audit your purchase history. You might have a claim that pays for your lease extension in full

If you are facing a significant premium because your lease in Biggin Hill has dropped toward the 80-year mark, your previous lawyer may be at fault. Our panel of experts specialise in recovering lease extension costs from negligent firms who failed to protect your investment.

Main reasons to start your Biggin Hill lease extension


Why you should commence your Biggin Hill lease extension today:

Increase your lease and increase your Biggin Hill property value

When it comes to long leasehold premises in Biggin Hill, you effectively rent it for a certain amount of time. These days flat leases are usually granted for 99 years or 125. Even though this may appear like a lengthy period of time, you may think about a lease extension 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 notably when there are less than 80 years left. Leasehold owners in Biggin Hill with a lease nearing 81 years left should seriously think of extending it as soon as possible. Once a lease has under 80 years remaining, under the current statute the freeholder is entitled to calculate and levy a larger premium, assessed on a technical multiplication, strangely termed as “marriage value” which is payable.

An extended lease has roughly the same value as a freehold

Leasehold premises in Biggin Hill with over 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 property. In such situations there is often little to be gained by purchasing the reversionary interest unless savings on ground rent and estate charges warrant it.

Mortgage lenders will not lend with a short lease

Most mortgage lenders have tightened lending criteria in recent years and borrowers are encountering difficulties in arranging funding or re-mortgage against flats with shorter lease terms, particularly under seventy years as they are deemed to be insufficient security.

Lender Requirement
Accord Mortgages 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.
Barclays plc Leases with less than 70 years at the commencement of the mortgage are not acceptable.

Leases with fewer than 70 years should only be referred to the issuing office where the following scenario applies, as discretion may be applied subject to bank approval:

• Property is located in any of the following prestigious developments: Cadogan, Crown, Grosvenor, Howard de Walden, Portman or Wellcome Trust Estates in Central London AND
• The value of the property subject to the short remaining term is £500,000 or more AND
• The loan to value does not exceed 90% for purchases, 90% like for like re-mortgages, 80% for re-mortgages with any element of capital raising and 80% for existing Barclays mortgage borrowers applying for additional borrowing;
Halifax Minimum 70 years from the date of the mortgage.
Leeds Building Society 85 years remaining from the start of the mortgage.
Royal Bank of Scotland Mortgage term plus 30 years.

Get in touch with one of our Biggin Hill lease extension solicitors or enfranchisement solicitors

The conveyancers that we work with procure Biggin Hill 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 conveyancing solicitor we work with provide it.

Biggin Hill Lease Extension Example Cases:

Benjamin, Biggin Hill, Kent

18 months ago Benjamin, started to get near to the eighty-year mark with the lease on his one bedroom flat in Biggin Hill. Having bought his property two decades ago, the lease term was of no relevance. by good luck, he recognised he would imminently be paying way over the odds for a lease extension. Benjamin arranged for a lease extension just under the wire in April. Benjamin and the freeholder via the managing agents subsequently settled on sum of £6,000 . If he had missed the deadline, the price would have gone up by a minimum £1,100.

Biggin Hill case:

In 2009 we were contacted by Mrs N Bonnet who, having purchased a purpose-built apartment in Biggin Hill in October 2004. The question was if we could approximate the price would be for a 90 year lease extension. Comparative residencies in Biggin Hill with a long lease were in the region of £290,000. The mid-range ground rent payable was £45 collected quarterly. The lease ran out on 20 August 2099. Taking into account 73 years remaining we calculated the premium to the landlord for the lease extension to be within £8,600 and £9,800 plus fees.

Decision in Bromley

An example of a Lease Extension case for a Biggin Hill flat is 1 Southlands Court Southlands Road in September 2013. The Leasehold Valuation Tribunal determined that the premium to be paid by the tenant on the grant of a new lease, in accordance with section 56 and Schedule 13 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 was £30,541 This case was in relation to 1 flat. The unexpired term as at the valuation date was 50.57 years.