Through the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, Homehold offers a tailored lease extension service ranging from all the necessary legal, valuation, negotiation, and conveyancing tasks, which is expertly handled by LLS, our in-house solicitors.
Upon completion of your lease extension, your lease will be an additional 90 years on top of its current term, and if you pay for ground rent, it will be reduced to zero.
Our team has extensive experience of providing lease extension services within Ealing in areas such as Southall, Northolt, Perivale, Acton and Greenford. There is a wide range of flats and maisonettes we have worked on in Ealing – from Post-War local authority developments to modern 2000s purpose-built blocks.
For ex-Local Authority properties, we are used to negotiating with Ealing Council to agree a fair price – which is all taken care of by one of our expert valuers. Furthermore, we have worked with several other prominent freeholders within the borough, such as the Northcote Housing Association and Catalyst, as well as private Landlords and smaller entities.
Who can extend their lease in Ealing?
Most owners of flats and maisonettes in Ealing have the right to extend their lease, and this will be the case if your freeholder is the London Borough of Ealing.
There are two key points to look out for:
You can only extend the lease if you have been the registered owner of the flat for two years. (However, if you are just shy of two years, we can start the valuation work and proceed once it has passed the two-year mark.)
You cannot extend the lease if you own a flat via a “shared ownership” scheme, this is where pay rent on the portion you don’t own.
How much does a lease extension cost?
The cost of your lease extension is dependent on three major factors.
- First, the value of your flat
- Second, the amount of ground rent you pay and how much it rises over time.
- Last, the current length of your lease
Most flats, where the London Borough of Ealing is the freeholder, have a 125 year lease from the mid-1980s onwards and a £10 a year ground rent. If this is the case with your flat, you can expect your lease extension cost to be comparatively low.
Whereas, if your flat has private landlord in Ealing, it is more likely to have higher ground rent or a shorter lease, which can be more costly to extend. An example of this is when we recently did a lease extension on Valetta Road – between Acton and Shepherds Bush - which had rising ground rent resulting in a higher premium.
According to Rightmove – “The majority of sales in Ealing during the last year were flats, selling for an average price of £461,671.” (At time of writing). This plays into the fact that the value of your flat has a large bearing on how much you will pay for the lease extension.
However, dependent on the location in Ealing, prices vary from flat to flat. We’ve done lease extensions on a 1990s purpose-built block on Cubitt Square in Southall from £200,000 and up to £500,000 on a period conversion on Corfton Road in Ealing Broadway.
A useful note is our director, Linz Darlington, lived in Greenford for many years so is very familiar with property in London Borough of Ealing. This gives us the edge in providing an accurate valuation of your flat.
What’s the process?
At Homehold, we take care of every detail of your lease extension. From the initial valuation report, expertly provided by the valuation team to negotiating the premium with your freeholder.
All the legal work is carried out by our in-house specialist law firm – Leasehold Legal Services - which is full authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Stage 1: Preparation and Valuation
A legal review of the documents relating to your flat and lease is needed, so that we have everything we need to do your lease extension. This is done by our solicitors at Leasehold Legal Services.
They will look at a copy of your existing lease, your title register and title plan and similar details for your block.
Once the solicitors have completed their initial review, they will brief our in-house team of lease extension surveyors to complete the valuation.
The valuation report provided by the valuation team is done by evaluating “comparable properties” which are similar to your own flat. The valuation is based on the sold prices, which will be adjusted based on the changes in the UK House Price Index for Ealing, over the past two years.
We’ll work out a fair valuation range which is between “Low” figure and “High” figure of what your flat is worth if it had a long long lease.
Stage 2: Notice Serving and Negotiation
Once you are happy with the fair valuation range, we can move on to the next step of your lease extension. The solicitors at LLS will serve your freeholder a “Section 42” notice. This legal document officially starts your lease extension claim by making an offer to your freeholder.
The freeholder has a maximum of two months (excluding time for postage) to respond back with a Counter Notice which includes the counteroffer of what they deem to be a fair price for the lease extension.
Our dedicated valuation team will work freeholder’s representative to negotiate hard for a fair deal for your lease extension.
Stage 3: Conveyancing and Completion.
Once there is an agreement for the premium on your lease extension, the solicitors will start to get the paperwork completed and registered at the Land Registry.
The freeholder’s solicitors will usually construct a short document confirming your lease is being extended by 90 years and your ground rent being reduced to £0. Once our solicitors receive the document, they will review and confirm the details are as they should be. They will then get the lease extension registered at the Land Registry.
How much do Homehold charge?
No one likes any hidden or added costs, so we charge an overall fixed fee of £2,325+VAT. This covers our service from instruction all the way to completion of your lease extension in Ealing.
The fee is broken up into three equal payments of £775+VAT.
This includes all the legal work performed by our subsidiary law firm, Leasehold Legal services (which is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.)
Why use Homehold for your lease extension?
At Homehold, we have vast experience of completing lease extensions on a range of different types of flats, making us a market leading specialist.
We are well experienced in providing expert advice to homeowners in Ealing and its surrounding areas in all subjects relating to lease extensions.
From Post War local authority developments of Southall to 1930s maisonettes in Greenford & modern eclectic 2000s blocks in Acton, we cover a wide range of flats and maisonettes all across the London Borough of Ealing.
Hear it from another flat owner in Ealing
The Homehold Team are nothing short of excellent. Their efforts, communication and consistent updates made a potentially stressful experience stress free. You never have to chase these guys and I honestly cannot recommend them enough. One of the best companies I have ever dealt with, if you need help with a lease extension stop at Homehold and go mo further. Brilliant
Donna Nolan
