At Homehold we often get asked the question “How long does a lease extension take?” – and the unavoidable truth is a lease extension usually takes between six and twelve months, from the point at which the work starts up until the point at which application is made to register the extended lease the Land Registry.
This is because there are fairly generous deadlines to get tasks done with a lease extension, and generally freeholders and their representatives work on a "just in time" basis - they have no incentive to work more quickly.
If your question is really “How long does it take to register a lease at the Land Registry?”, then skip to this section.
This article explains the timeline for a lease extension in more detail and how Homehold have refined our processes to complete lease extensions as quickly as possible. It also gives you some tips of what else you can do to complete your lease extension more quickly, if you’re really in a hurry.
Want to talk to us about our lease extension service?
Setting you up as a client (a few days to a week)
Before they can start work, any law firm will need to have signed you up as a client. This means getting you to sign their contract and through their identity and Anti-money Laundering checks.
We do all of this electronically, as it speeds up the process – and please make sure you do anything asked of you as promptly as possible.
Getting your documents from the Land Registry and reviewing the title (a week)
A lease extension specialist will always do a detailed review of your title at the beginning of the process – doing so helps identify what might cause delays further down the line.
We purchase all the legal documents relating to your flat from the Land Registry – while these can usually be provided instantly, in some cases the Land Registry must send them via post. Where post is used, they usually take up to about five working days to arrive. Accordingly, we always request Land Registry documents at the same time we start the ID checks, to avoid any potential delay.
It's important when you do a lease extension that the notice (see below) is served on the right people and on an address they have specifically given for service. Accordingly, we usually attempt to validate this address at this early stage, so if this takes a week or two to confirm it, it doesn’t delay the notice being served later.
Doing a valuation (a week)
A solid lease extension survey is a must if you want your valuer to negotiate a fair price for your lease extension.
Our valuation team turn these around in a week from the point at which they have been briefed by our legal team.
Drafting and Serving Notice (a week)
Our legal team do the legwork for drafting the lease extension notice when they review the title, to make this part of the process as quick as possible.
Once the valuation has been completed and we know how much your freeholder should be offered as an opening figure, the notice can be drafted quickly.
Waiting for Counter Notice (2 months)
This is where the fun starts: by law, you must give your freeholder two months from the date your initial notice is delivered to respond with their counteroffer. However, it is common to add a few additional days to this timeframe to ensure there is plenty of time for the notice to work its way through the postal service. While we serve using Special Delivery, it doesn’t seem to guarantee next day delivery!
Our experience is most freeholders work on a “Just in time” basis, and serve their counternotice just before it’s due.
Accordingly, it’s usually about three months after the start of the process before you get the Counter notice back.
Negotiation (2 to 6 months)
Once the counter notice is back, then your valuer will start negotiating the premium.
If you want to move quickly, you need to instruct someone who is going to be proactive at chasing and is a specialist in lease extensions. This is a small sector, and most valuers know each other – and this can be used to your advantage.
This is because we find that generally once we have worked with a valuer a few times, they’ll be quicker to make concessions and less likely to try funny business - because they know it’s not going to work in their favour.
We have several tricks to speed up the process. One example is we religiously collect and record mobile numbers of leasehold valuers in a central database. This means even if they are slow at responding to emails and their office line is ringing off the hook, we’ve got a better chance of getting them at home or in the car to get a good settlement reached.
Often the freeholder comes back high in their counter notice, but then makes a concession shortly after negotiations start. However, if you want to get the best price for your lease extension, your valuer will have to keep hammering away at them through multiple rounds of negotiation.
One way to speed up the process is either to accept the figure in the Counter Notice, or to settle for a higher figure than might be achievable if you were to let negotiations take their course, saving time. Obviously, it will be your choice to do this and this will depend on what they’re offering, and your appetite to accept a higher figure to get the deal done.
What is true is that if you want a fast negotiation, there won’t be time to negotiate the lowest price – you can’t have both fast and cheap!
Agreeing Lease (one week to two months)
Lots of solicitors don’t ask for the lease until the price for the lease extension is agreed. This usually delays the process somewhat.
However, wherever it is possible, our legal team will try and get the lease agreed in parallel with the valuation team doing the negotiation – although some freeholder’s refuse to do this.
When it is possible, this saves time.
Just like negotiations, using a specialist legal team for your lease extension will also mean they are more likely to know the solicitor working for your freeholder – and what they can say or do to get the lease agreed promptly.
Completing Transaction (one month to two months)
Once the lease is agreed then all parties need to sign it – which you need to make sure you promptly and correctly to ensure that you’re not causing a delay. Where possible we’ll get this done electronically.
Frustratingly, some freeholders are very slow to produce final documents, get them signed and complete the transaction – so again having specialists working on your behalf to chase them is very important.
You should make sure that your service charge / ground rent account (if you have one) is up to date before you head to completion. You’ll need to get any arrears paid off before your freeholder will grant you a new lease, so it is better to get this cleared up beforehand.
Finally, it is very important to make sure you have the money ready for the lease extension – so when the final bill is produced, you can pay it promptly.
Registering at Land Registry
Once the lease extension is complete, your lawyer will need to register your lease at the Land Registry.
Often it takes a few weeks to get the final copy of the documents from your freeholder. We often prepare applications before completion, so as soon as we have the documents, the lease can be registered at the Land Registry.
However, as soon as the application is made it enters a very long queue for the Land Registry process their paperwork. If they’re left to it, this will usually take about 18 months!
However, this is nothing to worry about! If you need to either remortgage or sell your property, your lawyer can ask them to expedite the process – we don’t charge to do this.
Do a lease extension early!
We strongly encourage people to extend their leases well in advance of wanting to sell their flat or remortgage it.
The last thing you want is your lease extension getting in the way of a sale progressing, or remortgaging on to a lower rate.
Start early to avoid disappointment!
What about an informal lease extension – is that quicker?
Some people are enticed by the idea of an informal lease extension, because the freeholder will promise to do it more quickly (although they’re not bound to do so!).
Many freeholders like nothing more than signing a leaseholder up to a bad deal - so they're happy to do it very quickly! Read why we don’t recommend informal lease extensions.
In conclusion:
Wherever possible you want to organise things so you’re not doing a lease extension in a hurry – having time on your side will mean you can negotiate the best price, and you won’t find the process is delaying other parts of your life.
You should always choose specialist professionals to do a lease extension – they’ll do their best to move the process through as quickly as possible.
