With a residential leasehold premises in Fitzrovia, you are actually purchasing an entitlement to reside in a property for a prescribed time frame. These days flat leases typically tend to be for 99 years or 125. Many leasehold owners become complacent as this seems like a long period of time, you should think about a lease extension sooner rather than later. Accepted thinking is that the shorter the number of years is the cost of extending the lease increases markedly especially when there are fewer than 80 years left. Leasehold owners in Fitzrovia with a lease drawing near to 81 years remaining should seriously think of extending it sooner as opposed to later. Once a lease has less than 80 years outstanding, under the relevant Act the landlord is entitled to calculate and demand a larger amount, based on a technical multiplication, strangely termed as “marriage value” which is due.
It is conventional wisdom that a residential leasehold with more than 100 years unexpired lease term is worth roughly the same as a freehold. Where an further 90 years added to all but the shortest lease, the residence will be worth the same as a freehold for decades to come.
| Lender | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Chelsea 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. |
| Coventry Building Society | A minimum of 70 years unexpired lease at completion for all scheme types apart from Lifetime Mortgages (Equity Release), which require a minimum unexpired term of 80 years at completion. |
| Halifax | 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. |
Retaining our service gives you increased control over the value of your Fitzrovia leasehold, as your property will be more valuable and marketable in relation to the lease length should you decide to sell. The conveyancing solicitors that we work with are well versed in the legislation handling many hundreds of lease extensions or freehold purchase transactions.
Subsequent to protracted negotiations with the freeholder of her one bedroom flat in Fitzrovia, Victoria started the lease extension process just as the lease was approaching the crucial eighty-year deadline. The lease extension was concluded in August 2006. The freeholder’s costs were restricted to less than 700 pounds.
In 2012 we were approached by Mr and Mrs. E Ricardo who, having was assigned a lease of a garden apartment in Fitzrovia in November 1998. The question was if we could estimate the premium could be for a ninety year extension to my lease. Comparative premises in Fitzrovia with 100 year plus lease were worth £260,000. The average ground rent payable was £50 invoiced yearly. The lease ran out on 16 July 2099. Given that there were 73 years outstanding we approximated the compensation to the landlord for the lease extension to be within £9,500 and £11,000 not including professional charges.
An example of a Freehold Enfranchisement decision for a Fitzrovia property is 20 Avonwick Road in July 2013. The Tribunal was dealing with an application under Section 26 of the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 for a determination of the freehold value of the property. It was concluded that the price to be paid was Fifteen Thousand Nine Hundred and Seventy (£15,970) divided as to £8,200 for Flat 20 and £7,770 for Flat 20A This case was in relation to 1 flat. The number of years remaining on the existing lease(s) was 73.26 years.