With a long leasehold property in West Ham, you are actually purchasing a right to reside in a property for a prescribed time frame. In recent years 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 may think about extending the lease sooner rather than later. Accepted thinking is that the shorter the number of years is the cost of extending the lease becomes disproportionately more expensive notably once there are less than 80 years remaining. Anyone in West Ham with a lease drawing near to 81 years remaining should seriously think of extending it as soon as possible. Once a lease has below 80 years outstanding, under the relevant Act the landlord is entitled to calculate and levy a greater amount, based on a technical calculation, strangely termed as “marriage value” which is due.
It is generally considered that a property with over 100 years unexpired lease term is worth roughly the equivalent as a freehold. Where an further 90 years added to any lease with more than 35 years remaining, the property will be equivalent in value to a freehold for decades to come.
| Lender | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Bank of Scotland | Minimum 70 years from the date of the mortgage. |
| Barclays plc | Leases with less than 70 years at the commencement of the mortgage should be declined (see exception below). Leases with greater than 70 years but fewer than 85 years remaining must be referred to issuing office. 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; |
| Godiva Mortgages | 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. |
| 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 |
| Virgin | 85 years at the time of completion. If it's less, we require it to be extended on or before completion. |
Irrespective of whether you are a tenant or a landlord in West Ham,the lease extension experts that we work with will always be happy to discuss any residential leasehold matters and offer you the benefit of their in-depth market knowledge and the close ties they enjoy with West Ham valuers.
Last Autumn Finn, started to get close to the eighty-year threshold with the lease on his one bedroom flat in West Ham. In buying his home 18 years ago, the length of the lease was of no interest. As luck would have it, he recognised he would soon be paying an inflated amount for a lease extension. Finn was able to extend his lease at the eleventh hour in July. Finn and the freeholder subsequently settled on the final figure of £6,000 . If the lease had fallen below 80 years, the figure would have escalated by at least £950.
Mrs Millie Norbert purchased a one bedroom apartment in West Ham in February 2004. We are asked if we could estimate the price would likely be to prolong the lease by 90 years. Comparative homes in West Ham with an extended lease were worth £246,800. The mid-range ground rent payable was £60 billed per annum. The lease came to a finish in 2076. Having 50 years unexpired we calculated the premium to the landlord for the lease extension to be within £44,700 and £51,600 plus legals.
An example of a Lease Extension decision for a West Ham property is 46 Credon Road in January 2014. On 11 September 2013 Deputy District Judge Price sitting at the Bow County Court made a vesting order that the freeholder surrender his lease and be granted a new lease of the Premises on such terms as may be determined by the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber).The appropriate sum as concluded by the Tribunal was £7225 This case was in relation to 1 flat. The unexpired term was 69.77 years.