Northwood Lease Extension - Free Consultation

Before you progress with your lease extension in Northwood
Get a quote from one of our lease extension experts with over 20 years experience.

Let them guide you for FREE on the various options available to you.

It may end up saving you thousands.

Main reasons to start your Northwood lease extension


Why you should commence your Northwood lease extension today:

A Northwood leasehold property depreciates with the years remaining on the lease.

Northwood leases on residential properties are gradually losing value. The shorter the remaining lease term becomes, the less it is worth – and as a result any extension of the lease gets more expensive. The majority of owners of residential leasehold property in Northwood enjoy rights under legislation to extend the terms of their leases. Where you are a leasehold owner in Northwood you really ought to check if your lease has between seventy and ninety years left. In particular once the remaining lease term slips under eighty years, the compensation to the landlord for any lease extension sharply increases as part of the premium you pay is what is known as a marriage value

An extended lease has roughly the same value as a freehold

It is conventional wisdom that a property with in excess of one hundred years remaining is worth roughly the equivalent as a freehold. Where an additional 90 years added to all but the shortest lease, the premises will be equivalent in value to a freehold for many years in the future.

Banks and Building Societies may decide not to issue a mortgage with a short lease

The trend since the credit crunch has been for banks to tighten lending criteria across the board - this has extended to the types of security over which the home loan is to be granted. This has meant the minimum number of years remaining under the lease required by lenders has increased. Historically lenders were content with twenty years plus the term of the loan - routinely fifty year leases but those requirements evolved by the requirement for lengthy leases - many now have a minimum term of 75 years as standard.

Lender Requirement
Birmingham Midshires Minimum 70 years from the date of the mortgage.
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.
Leeds Building Society 85 years remaining from the start 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.

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

The conveyancing solicitors that we work with handle Northwood 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 conveyancer we work with provide it.

Northwood Lease Extension Example Cases:

Zoe, Northwood, West London,

Subsequent to lengthy negotiations with the landlord of her first floor apartment in Northwood, Zoe started the lease extension process just as the lease was nearing the all-important eighty-year threshold. The legal work was finalised in January 2006. The landlord’s costs were restricted to about five hundred GBP.

Northwood case:

Mr and Mrs. U Bernard moved into a one bedroom apartment in Northwood in November 1998. We are asked if we could shed any light on how much (approximately) compensation to the landlord could be for a ninety year extension to my lease. Comparable premises in Northwood with 100 year plus lease were worth £166,800. The mid-range amount of ground rent was £50 invoiced per annum. The lease finished on 1 February 2076. Considering the 50 years unexpired we estimated the premium to the freeholder for the lease extension to be between £32,300 and £37,400 plus expenses.

Decision in Hillingdon

An example of a Lease Extension decision for a Northwood premises is Flats 8, 11 and 15 Craigmore Court 46 Murray Road in December 2013. The tribunal held that the price payable by the Applicant tenant of Flat 8 to acquire an extended lease shall be £26,438 plus £1 to the intermediate lessee . The tribunal held that the price payable by the Applicant tenants of Flat 11 to acquire an extended lease shall be £26,791 plus £1 to the intermediate lessee. The tribunal held that the price payable by the Applicant tenant of Flat 15 to acquire an extended lease shall be £26,638 plus £1 to the intermediate lessee . This case affected 3 flats. The unexpired residue of the current lease was 71 years.