Do you own a leasehold property? Are you worried that the lease is getting too short and you might have problems selling or re-mortgaging the property now or in the future?
A lease is often described as a diminishing asset because when it gets shorter through the passage of time, it loses value. This is why it costs money to increase its length.
Well, help is at hand! There are two ways a lease can be extended – by contacting the freeholder (the landlord) to negotiate a new lease or by exercising your rights under the law and serving a special Notice on the landlord to force they to extend the lease.
Under the first option, the landlord may offer whatever it pleases and you have no right of appeal. However, you might get a good deal but you might not. Under the second option, you will be given an additional 90 years on your lease and the ground rent will be immediately reduced to zero (a peppercorn).
