Extend your lease and buy the freehold

Find out how you can apply to extend the period of your lease and buying the freehold of the building or estate.

Leaseholders handbook

Extending your lease

At the end of the lease the property owner will have to hand the property back to us as the landlord. You can apply to extend the period of your lease.

Your rights are:

• To apply to the landlord for an extension of the lease of 90 years (plus the present unexpired term) at a peppercorn ground rent – effectively no ground rent
• To do this you must have owned the lease for at least 2 years. If the leaseholder has died, those who inherit it have 2 years from the date of probate to exercise the right to an extension
• You must serve a notice on the landlord offering an amount you are prepared to pay and the landlord must reply within 2 months. The landlord may either, accept your offer, accept your right to extend but propose a different price, or state why, in their opinion, you do not have the right to extend the lease
• A minimum period of 2 months is allowed for negotiation of the price. After that period, either you or the landlord can apply to the leasehold valuation tribunal to determine the price payable and any other issues

You are strongly advised to seek your own professional advice from a solicitor and/or surveyor about any application for extension of the lease. It is advisable to do so before the lease has less than 80 years left.

Buying the freehold

You and other leaseholders in the building may want to join together to buy the freehold of the building or estate from us. You would still be a leaseholder, but you would become your own landlord jointly with the other leaseholder(s). This is called enfranchisement.

You have the right to enfranchise if:

• At least 2/3rds of the dwellings in a building are occupied under long leases – originally for more than 21 years
• Not more than 25% of the internal floor area may be non-residential use or intended for non-residential use eg. as a shop
• The number of leaseholders participating is equal to at least half the total number of dwellings in the building

This can be complicated and expensive, so you should seek expert advice from a solicitor, surveyor, or similar who understands this process.