If you are a leasehold or shared owner, it is worth checking to see how many years remain on your lease.
This is especially important if you bought your home during the 1980s or early 1990s, or if you have recently purchased your home from an existing owner without your lease being extended at the same time.
Most of our leases are 99 years for houses or 125 years for flats, based on the date we bought or built them.
If your home has an unexpired lease term of less than 80 years, it may be more difficult to sell your home or get a re-mortgage. A lease with only 70 years left to run will have a much lower sale value than a lease with 90 plus years remaining.
Extending your lease can be quite straightforward. When a lease is extended a further 90 years is added to the existing lease term.
To get things started we will need a valuation to be done of your home. We have a panel of approved valuers for you to choose from. The valuation will cost you from £300 to £350 (including VAT). Once the valuation is done, we will tell you the cost of extending your lease and you can decide whether to go ahead or not. If you decide to go ahead, we will instruct solicitors to complete the deed to extend your lease. You will need to pay the valuation fee to us beforehand and we will charge you for any legal fees upon completion.
If you do not have your lease to hand, please contact the homeownership customer service team.
If you wish to find out a rough estimate of how much your premium may be valued at, visit the Leasehold Advisory Service website. This website contains a lease extension calculator, which will provide you with a cost guide. If you do not pay ground rent, please enter a “0” in the appropriate box.