Buying the Freehold and Extending a Lease

Our Residential Property Team has extensive experience in all areas of leasehold work, including extending leases and acting for leasehold owners who wish to purchase the freehold.

Whether you are a landlord/freeholder, flat owner/leaseholder, management company, or residents’ association of residential property (i.e., blocks of flats or converted buildings), we can assist you.

We appreciate that the lease extension and freehold purchase process (also known as enfranchisement) can be quite daunting. Our experience in this area allows us to carefully guide clients through the process, ensuring that they understand all of the options available.

The Leasehold Reform, Housing & Urban Development Act 1993 gave tenants (i.e., long leaseholders/flat owners) the right to either force a lease extension (to extend the term of the lease) or force a sale of the freehold.

The law is very complex with strict statutory time frames that must be adhered to. If you fail to follow the statutory procedure, the consequences can be very expensive and set you back time-wise too. It is therefore vital that you seek specialist legal advice.

The following are the types of work that our team would be delighted to assist you with:

For leaseholders/flat owners:

• Lease extensions (both voluntary agreed and statutory)
• Freehold enfranchisement (buying your freehold)
• Right of First Refusal (where your landlord/freeholder offers you the freehold)
• Lease variations – if your lease needs re-drafting or changing in some way

For freeholders/landlords:

• Lease extensions (both voluntary agreed and statutory)
• Responding to a request to buy the freehold from your leaseholders
• Selling your freehold, including Right of First Refusal where needed (see our separate page about this)
• Lease variations

If you wish to discuss any of the above, please do not hesitate to contact our Residential Property Team on 02392 660261 to discuss your situation and requirements.