Do you own a flat or maisonette in High Wycombe, or perhaps one of the surrounding towns of Holmer Green, Hazlemere or Wooburn Green? If so, you’re probably eligible to extend your lease.
Homehold offers a fixed-fee lease extension service which incorporates both the valuation and negotiation work required to ensure you get a fair price for your lease extension, and the legal work which will be completed by our solicitors.
Using your statutory rights under the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act we will add an extra 90 years to the length of your current lease term. One of the additional benefits is that your ground rent, if you have one, will be reduced to £0.
High Wycombe and the surrounding areas have a diversity of different flats – from modern buildings off the Desborough Road in town, to 1970s blocks off the Straight Bit in Flackwell Heath or a flat above commercial property on the High Street in Marlow. Whichever it is, we can help you extend your lease.
Which residents of High Wycombe can extend their lease?
Most flats are eligible for a lease extension, whether the freeholder is the local council, Red Kite Housing Association or a private landlord.
Two examples of flat owners who are not eligible to extend their lease are those who have not yet owned their flat for two years and those who own their flat as part of a shared ownership scheme where rent is still paid to the landlord for the share of the flat they do not own.
How much will my lease extension cost me?
When you do a lease extension you have to pay a price – known as a premium – to your freeholder to purchase the extra year and “buy out” the ground rent.
This is dependent on three things:
- How much your flat would sell for if it was sold with a long lease
- The amount of ground rent that is payable to your freeholder, and how it rises over time
- How long your lease is at the moment.
Many of the ex-Local Authority properties have been leased on long leases of 125-years from the 1980s and require leaseholders to pay £10 a year for their ground rent. Although these leases are sufficiently short enough they need extending, the cost is still reasonably low.
What your flat is worth has a big bearing on how much you pay for your lease extension – particularly when your lease drops below 80 years. At the time of writing, Rightmove were reporting that the average flat value in High Wycombe was a little under £230,000. Of course, prices in the areas surrounding High Wycombe do vary widely, with some flats in Beaconsfield reaching as much as £2,000,000. In contrast, there are also flats marketed off the West Wycombe Road for around £125,000.
If you would like an indication of the cost of doing a lease extension on your flat, you can use our lease extension calculator.
What’s the lease extension process?
Homehold offer a fixed-fee lease extension process, which is £2,325+VAT. The valuation work is completed by our in-house valuation team, and the legal work is completed by our own firm of solicitors, Leasehold Legal Services.
Stage 1: Preparation and Valuation
Our solicitors will review the paperwork and documents which relate to your flat and the block or development which it is located within. Usually, these documents are available from the Land Registry. As part of the process, the solicitors who will find out who your freeholders are.
The valuation team will be briefed by the legal team. The valuers will then complete a valuation, the purpose of which is to give you a really good idea of how much your lease extension will cost but almost more importantly to make sure they have the evidence they need to negotiate a fair price with your freeholder.
They will be looking for, and analysing, the sales of similar flats which have sold in recent history which are located close to you own. For example, if you own a flat in a large, modern block off the London Road in High Wycombe, they will be looking for other flats with a similar proximity to the town. It is rarely possible to find identical comparable properties, so they will adjust the sale price of the flats to reflect how they are different to yours.
Stage 2: Notice Serving and Negotiation
Once you’re happy with your lease extension valuation, our solicitors will make an initial offer to your freeholder using an official document called a Section 42 Notice. This essentially claims your right to lease extension and sets out how much you would like to pay for it.
Your freeholder will be given two months to respond, plus some time for postage. They will then respond to our solicitors with how much they want to charge for your lease extension.
Using the evidence that they have found in the earlier stage of work, the valuers will then negotiate a fair premium to pay for your lease extension. We usually find that, when a freeholder knows you are properly represented, they are prepared to accept a fair price negotiated for the lease extension.
Stage 3: Conveyancing and Completion.
Once the premium for the lease extension has been agreed, the next stage is to get the paperwork completed and registered at the Land Registry.
It is usual for the freeholder’s solicitors to draft the paperwork and to send this to our solicitors to review. Our solicitors will check your lease extension document thoroughly to make sure that it adds an additional 90 years to your lease, reduces the ground rent to nothing, but doesn’t make any further changes that are disadvantageous to you.
How much do Homehold charge for a lease extension?
We work on a completely fixed fee for all lease extensions, and this is £2,325+VAT.
Our fee includes the valuation and negotiation work to ensure that you receive a fair price, but it also includes the work done by our own firm of lease extension solicitors, Leasehold Legal Services. They are fully authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Why choose Homehold for your lease extension?
We’re a specialist firm who only do lease extensions – and we have experience working in High Wycombe and the surrounding areas.
“High Wycombe and the nearby towns are very much my patch – because I live in Flackwell Heath, just up the road. One of the interesting things about valuing in the area is the diversity of different types of flat and apartments.”
Linz Darlington, Director
Hear it from another flat owner in High Wycombe
From the off the team were very professional and kept me informed weekly about the progress of my extension.... Linz was very knowledgable and even though there were some timing issues due to my freeholder taking ages to reply or agree the premium; the team kept me informed every step of the way.
Julie Lashmar
