House lease extension or buying the freehold

[ade73]

I've been in my new home for two years now so I can look at either extending the short lease that is on it or maybe buy the freehold.

On speaking to the company we pay the peppercorn rent to, they say its a £141 fee to get the valuation to do this, but that its £141 for either of these options so actually £282 to get the prices for both options.

Is this the norm? never been in this boat before so any info appreciated.

[GazV70R]

It is normal to pay for this; this is the freeholder's valuation fees and/or legal fees I'd have thought.
Whereabouts in the country and have you a surveyor in mind who deals specifically with lease extensions and enfranchisement or do you need some advice with this?

[Jamp]

If they want £141 from you just to tell you how much money they want, I think we can guess how reasonable their demand will be for the extension/freehold. I'm not certain about houses, but with flats there is a well defined process to formally request a lease extension or freehold reversion, and there is no weight in informal negotiations before that unless you have a friendly freeholder who's willing. If they want a fee just for an informal quote, they are very likely to try to bleed you dry, so I would think very carefully about starting the process at all I'm afraid to say. If you do go for it make sure you are well researched before you start and don't trust lawyers or surveyors to actually know what they're doing with regard to leasehold.

[ade73]

GazV70R said:

It is normal to pay for this; this is the freeholder's valuation fees and/or legal fees I'd have thought.
Whereabouts in the country and have you a surveyor in mind who deals specifically with lease extensions and enfranchisement or do you need some advice with this?

I'm in Durham, calling to ask about it was the first thing we have done. No surveyors or anything in mind, any advice welcome Cheers.