Lease extension

[avinalarf]

I need some advice please.
My daughter is buying a flat in Crickewood, London.
She wants to extend the present 60 year lease and the seller is willing to serve a section 42 notice.
I have been quoted £800/900 + vat ,by a surveyor to act for her and supply a valuation.
Can you tell me if this fee is about right ?
If not can you recommend a surveyor ?
Any other advice welcome as I've not dealt with this before.

[kingston12]

avinalarf said:

I need some advice please.
My daughter is buying a flat in Crickewood, London.
She wants to extend the present 60 year lease and the seller is willing to serve a section 42 notice.
I have been quoted £800/900 + vat ,by a surveyor to act for her and supply a valuation.
Can you tell me if this fee is about right ?
If not can you recommend a surveyor ?
Any other advice welcome as I've not dealt with this before.

We paid £400 + VAT for a valuation, but that was part of a valuation of a block a 4 similar flats, so the surveyor ended up with £1,600 in total and may have taken that into account when quoting.

Even the £400 seemed very high for the amount of work that went into the valuation, but professional fees are always higher than I expect!

Someone a bit more knowledgeable will no doubt be along shortly, but my understanding is that the seller will have to manage the whole process themselves because a new buyer will not become a qualifying tenant until they have owned the lease for 2 years.

I'd expect this to mean that the surveyor/solicitor will work for the seller and your daughter will reimburse the costs after completion (or just pay a higher agreed sum for the flat itself). She wouldn't want to hand any money over first, especially as the premium for extending a 60 year lease on a flat in London is likely to be very expensive.

[sideways sid]

I'm not an expert, but it would seem more straightforward for your daughter can buy it and extend the lease when she has owned it for two years.

Alternatively, the seller extends the lease and owns a marginally more valuable and more marketable property that he may prefer to sell to somebody else?

[avinalarf]

Thanks for your help gents.

[kingston12]

sideways sid said:

I'm not an expert, but it would seem more straightforward for your daughter can buy it and extend the lease when she has owned it for two years.

Alternatively, the seller extends the lease and owns a marginally more valuable and more marketable property that he may prefer to sell to somebody else?

The latter would be the best option if the seller is prepared to do it.

The problem with the OP's daughter extending it herself after the 2 year qualifying period is that no formal valuation of the cost of doing so will take place now.

She would have to buy the flat based on an expectation that the lease extension will cost a certain amount and it could end up costing a lot more (or less) once the deal is agreed. Additionally, time is of the essence when a lease is a short as 60 years - each extra year could cost quite a lot extra, and this would be compounded if property prices find a way to continue the meteoric rise we have seen in the past fifteen years.

[Planet Claire]

Have you (or your daughter) seen this website?
http://www.lease-advice.org/

I suggest you look into this in great detail. My advice would be to get the existing owner to extend the lease before selling to your daughter (provided they've owned the property for two years) or find out how much it's going to cost before she purchases it and factor that in to the agreed price.

As an example I sold my flat last year with about 71 or 72 years remaining. I enquired to the cost before I put it up for sale and it was going to be the best part of £20k. They [the freeholders] have you over a barrel so tread carefully.