Lease Extension Surveyor Orpington
Getting a lease extension in Orpington can be an excellent investment, as it has the potential to help you make more money from your property. A lease extension can boost the value of your leasehold and give you more security over it.
For help with lease extensions in Orpington, please call or email our team.
If you’re interested in getting a lease extension in Orpington, we have a great team of surveyors who can help you through the process and reach a fair outcome. Our lease extension surveyors understand the property market in Orpington and use this expertise to offer an efficient and effective service.
Our Orpington team are Lease Enfranchisement experts, and working with us gives you the tools to get the most out of your property. Among our services is lease extension support, where we strive to make the process as hassle-free as possible.
A lease extension is already beneficial, but partnering with us can make it even better. Contact our dedicated team in Orpington to see what we can offer you, or read on for more information about your right to a lease extension in Orpington.
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What is a lease extension?
In short, a lease extension allows you to add more years to the term of your lease, stopping it from expiring.
Leaseholds have fixed terms, and when they run out, the ownership of the property is automatically passed back to the freeholder of the land it’s on. Extending your lease prevents this, making your ownership more secure and bringing many great benefits.
Getting a lease extension will initially cost you, and various factors determine the amount you have to pay. Despite this initial cost, a lease extension in Orpington can help you earn more money in the future.
As a leaseholder, you have the right in the UK to extend your lease per the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 (the 1993 Act). As long as you’re eligible, you can get a lease extension as dedicated by the rules outlined in this act.
You can add 90 years to your lease term through the act, depending on your property type. As well as this, the freeholder has little influence over how much you pay, as a tribunal hearing can issue the final price.
All the freeholder can do is initially negotiate a price for the lease extension with you. However, you can get a final price issued from a First Tier Tribunal that must be agreed to, meaning that you have total control when getting a lease extension.
Despite having the right to get one, extending a lease is not easy. Getting a lease extension is complex because you must follow a specific process. Getting through this process independently is difficult, as you’ll need a lease extension surveyor to perform various tasks. Choose Copeland Yussuf to help you through the lease extension process, as our surveyors can save you time, stress, and money.
Why should you get a lease extension in Orpington?
There are so many reasons a lease extension in Orpington can be beneficial, especially if your current lease term is starting to run low. You shouldn’t be put off by the price of getting a lease extension, and the potential increase in value you can obtain will often outweigh this. In fact, getting a lease extension can be one of the best investments you make with your leasehold.
The main reason people get a lease extension is because of this increase in value. A lease extension can dramatically increase how much your house is worth, meaning it’s far better to sell your house after you extend your lease. This is because the less time you have on a leasehold, the lower its value. A house with a remaining lease of 80 years will be worth much less than the same house with 170 years left.
This means that getting a lease extension can help you fetch a higher price for your property when you sell it, protecting your investment.
Plus, people like getting a lease extension because it can make selling a house easier. Potential buyers will be offered more limited mortgage options if a lease is too low, as the property is seen as too much of a risk. As a result, if your house has around 80 years left to run, you won’t get as many offers for it, limiting who you can sell to.
Getting a lease extension before selling removes this issue and simplifies the selling process.
However, getting a lease extension is about more than just making money; it can also help you save money during your ownership. A lease extension in Orpington will reduce your ground rent to zero. Leaseholds bought before June 2022 have to pay an annual fee to the freeholder, known as ground rent. This was abolished in 2022, meaning that new or extended leases have ground rent removed.
Ground rent can be expensive depending on the property, so avoiding this fee can make living in your property a lot cheaper, especially if you’ll be staying there for several years.
Despite all these great benefits, it will only be worthwhile if you get your lease extension in Orpington early. The reason is that the fewer years you have left on a lease, the more you must pay to extend it. In addition, if you have a lease that has less than 80 years to run, extending it will cost you a lot more than usual. This is because you’ll have to contribute 50% of your marriage value. This makes your lease extension a lot more expensive.
Marriage value is the amount by which your property’s value increases after a lease extension. So if your property goes from £250,000 to £270,000, your marriage value is £20,000. Paying 50% of that amount when getting a lease extension will likely double how much you pay.
This is why you’ll benefit from getting a lease extension in Orpington as soon as possible, as you’ll avoid significant expenses. To save money, contact our lease extension surveyors in Orpington today to start the process.
What does a lease extension surveyor in Orpington do?
A lease extension surveyor will fulfil many roles during the lease extension process and are a critical part of the lease extension process. Without our lease extension surveyors in Orpington, you won’t be able to get a lease extension. It’s required per the 1993 act that you instruct a lease extension surveyor, so make that you partner with Copeland Yussuf to get the best surveyor in the Orpington area.
The leading role of a lease extension surveyor is to complete a property inspection. In this inspection, a surveyor will analyse everything to evaluate how much the property will be worth after a lease extension. This valuation is essential, as it determines your lease extension’s price.
With this valuation, a lease extension surveyor will determine how much you need to pay, using guidelines from the 1993 act to ensure accuracy and reliability. Once a price is generated, a surveyor will inform the leaseholder, usually presenting a range of prices so that the leaseholder can negotiate with the freeholder.
In addition to this role, a lease extension surveyor is needed to relay this price to a solicitor so that a Section 42 Notice can be served on your behalf. This notice is a crucial document sent to your freeholder that informs them that you want a lease extension and includes the price you’re willing to pay.
In addition to serving the notice, a quality lease extension solicitor can help you draft your Section 42 Notice, checking to see if you’ve included all the required information and details.
Our lease extension surveyors in Orpington do everything they can to abide by The Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, meaning you’ll get a quality experience when using our team.
The Orpington Lease Extension Process
The lease extension process can be long, lasting up to 12 months if you hit a snag during your negotiations with your freeholder. As things can take a long time, you must be aware of what to expect and what to do to ensure you get through the process smoothly. As it can take a long time, you must get it started early so it doesn’t prolong any other plans you may have for the leasehold.
To get a lease extension, you’ll need to follow this process:
Step 1. Hire a Orpington surveyor
First, you need to find a lease extension surveyor in Orpington and then instruct them to complete a property inspection of your leasehold. After this inspection, they can work out a valuation of your property. This valuation is used to help determine how much your lease extension will cost, making this a vital step.
Step 2. Section 42 Notice
After a surveyor has worked out the amount you’ll have to pay for a lease extension, you’ll be informed of this amount. With this information, you’ll then need to serve a Section 42 Notice to the freeholder. This notice informs your freeholder of your plans and includes your first offer of what you want to pay based on the advice from the surveyor.
Step 3. Freeholder Response
Once sent, the freeholder has two months to respond to the notice. They’ll reply through a Section 45 Notice, where they will either accept your offer or return with a counteroffer if they feel it needs to be higher.
Step 4. Pay deposit
If you can agree on a price, you must pay a deposit to confirm your lease extension. This needs to be paid within 14 days. Otherwise, the extension is void. The price will vary between the larger of £250 or 10% of the lease extension cost.
Step 5. First Tier Tribunal
If your Section 42 Notice was rejected, you have six months to negotiate a price you both can agree on. If you can’t reach an agreement before six months, you’ll take the case to a Top Tier Tribunal. Here, officials will assess your case and issue a final price that both parties must agree to.
During this process, there’s never a chance that your lease extension application will fall through as long as you’re eligible for one. It’s your right as a leaseholder to get an extension, meaning that even if your freeholder rejects your offers, a final price will be issued eventually.
Why Choose Copeland Yussuf in Orpington?
We’re one of the most celebrated and trusted lease extension surveyors in Orpington, offering top-quality services that are industry-leading in the area. We’ve assisted with multiple lease extensions in the area, giving our team the experience to help you too.
We work with multiple housing groups and councils in the Orpington area and beyond, being the preferred panel surveyors for many of them.
We are also regulated by RICS, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. As a result, we ensure that we deliver a service that is at the pinnacle of the industry, working tirelessly to offer a professional experience. We do everything per the guidance from The Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, making all our work accurate, fair, and trustworthy.
We offer a whole host of Lease Enfranchisement services for leaseholders in Orpington, and for lease extensions, we can:
- Check that you’re eligible for a lease extension
- Complete a robust property inspection to create an accurate valuation
- Help you with negotiations
- Support you during any court cases and tribunals
We’re the best lease extension surveyors in Orpington. Contact us today to see how we can help you and your property.
Lease Extension Orpington FAQs
Do you need a lease extension surveyor in Orpington?
You need a lease extension surveyor at multiple stages of the lease extension process. They're required at the start to give your property an accurate valuation, with that valuation used to determine how much the lease extension will cost.
As well as that, you need a lease extension surveyor to serve the Section 42 Notice to your freeholder, as you can't do that yourself.
What's the difference between a statutory and informal lease extension?
When you get a lease extension in Orpington under the 1993 act, that is known as a statutory lease extension. This means that you have a legal right to an extension and that the term you can add will be 90 years, depending on your property. The freeholder cannot block your request, and the value of your house heavily determines the price you pay.
However, some people may not be eligible for a statutory lease extension. If this is the case, they'll need an informal lease extension. You have no protection from the 1993 act, meaning the freeholder can reject your request or demand an inflated fee.
Am I eligible for a lease extension in Orpington?
To have the right to get a lease extension, you must pass two eligibility criteria. First, you must have owned your property for more than two years. Secondly, your lease must have been over 21 years when you bought the property.
How much does getting a lease extension cost?
The amount you pay for a lease extension is heavily tied to how much your property is worth. As this valuation can fluctuate a lot between properties, it's hard to say how much a lease extension in Orpington will cost without the necessary data.
As well as this, many other factors can influence the amount you pay, meaning that it's different depending on the circumstances. The following criteria are some of the main things that will be considered when working out how much you have to pay:
- The amount of the freeholder's interest decreases because of the additional years added
- The amount the property's value increases by
- How much your ground rent cost
- The properties location, as that influences its value
- The number of years you have remaining on your lease
As well as the fee for the lease extension, you'll also have to pay for your lease extension surveyor. You're also liable for covering any expenses the freeholder has accumulated during the lease extension process. We have a lease extension calculator you can use to get an idea of the costs.
Can you get multiple lease extensions in succession?
Leases can be extended multiple times as long as you can afford the cost of doing so. That said, it's unlikely that you will need to extend the same lease more than once.
As you'll usually add 90 years to a lease when you extend it, there's little point in adding another 90 before that original extension runs down. Once a property reaches a specific term, adding more years won't affect its value much. For example, a property with 150 years left on its lease will be worth similar to a property with 240 years left.
Another reason you're unlikely to extend a lease more than once is that by the time the extension has run down, you would have probably sold the property.
What's the difference between a freehold and a leasehold property?
As a freehold owner, you'll possess both the property and the land it's on. You'll have ownership indefinitely, with it only changing ownership once you sell it.
In a leasehold, the leaseholder only owns the property, and the land is technically still owned by the freeholder. As well as this, a leasehold will expire after a set period. When it does, ownership returns to the freeholder. Thankfully, you can extend your lease to stop this from happening.
It's common for a leaseholder to have far less control over what they can do to the property and may also have to pay ground rent.
Can a freeholder refuse a leasehold extension in Orpington?
Your freeholder must allow you to get a lease extension, as it's your right under the 1993 act. They can't reject or block your request and can only negotiate the price you pay for it.
They only have the power to refuse your lease extension if you don't meet the 1993 act's eligibility. Here, they can reject your lease extension request as they see fit.
What if I can't get hold of the freeholder?
You must get a Vesting Order if you don't know how to contact your freeholder and can't send them a Section 42 Notice. This allows you to continue the lease extension process without them having your premium confirmed by the court.
However, to get a Vesting Order, you must first prove that you've made a reasonable attempt to contact your freeholder. This includes proof that you've placed an ad in the local newspaper, hired a search agent to find them, visited their last known address, and searched the probate records.
How common are leasehold properties in Orpington?
Only 8% of houses in the UK are leaseholds, meaning they are pretty rare. However, they are more common as flats, as over half of all flats and apartments in the Uk are leaseholds.
London has the most leaseholds than elsewhere in the UK, meaning they will be far more common in Orpington, Bromley, and other surrounding areas. At Copeland Yussuf, we have a good understanding of the changes in the area and use this experience to help you when ti comes to leaseholds.
Is there a minimum requirement on how long a lease extension has to be?
When you get a lease extension via the statutory route, the 1993 act dictates that you can extend your lease by 90 years for a flat and 50 years for a house. This means that these terms are both the minimum and maximum you can extend a lease at a time. This could change to a longer term in the future, but nothing is yet confirmed.
If you're getting an informal lease extension because you don't meet the eligibility criteria, then there's no minimum limit to extending your lease. In fact, your freeholder will likely prefer if you extend your lease by as little as possible, so shorter lease extensions are more common when you do them informally.
Our Orpington Lease Extension Experts are ready to help
We have an outstanding reputation in Orpington, Bromley, and multiple other boroughs of London, making us the premier lease extension surveyors in the area.
Our team works hard to give every customer a great experience, working professionally, efficiently, and per the 1993 act to deliver great results for you.
We’re proud of the feedback we’ve gained from our past customers in Orpington and are driven to maintain this legacy in the area.
To better understand how we can help leaseholders like you, here are some things past customers have had to say. Reviews have been sourced from Google Reviews, Yell.com, and private feedback.
