Owners of residential flats can force their freeholders to extend their leases (once they have owned their flat for two years). They can also, collectively with other flat owners, acquire the freehold or the right to manage in respect of their block or building. These are particularly important rights for flat owners particularly with short leases in difficult ecomonic times.
Not only can we help flat owners to exercise their rights, we can also assist Landlords to minimise the adverse effects of the tenants' rights. Jason Richardson Joanna Botely and Tony Wilson can provide detailed assistance to both landlords and tenants.
Few flat owners know that (if they have owned their flats for two years) the right to extend can be transferred to their buyer. Please contact us for more information before you sell. More and more flat owners are increasingly aware of the importance of extending their leases before they become too short and the cost prohibitive. Even more however only become aware of it when their flat is put on the market for sale and the agent advises that the lease needs to be extended for the flat to be sold. In mid 2009 the market is showing signs of recovery. As leases continue to become shorter . the window of opportunity open for flat owners to delay action in the hope that a decline in value would mean a drop in the cost of a lease extension.. well .. unfortunately that window is rapidly closing. The cost of extending your lease could now rapidly increase.,.so action is worth considering now.
The general rule is that if your lease has less than 90 years remaining you should think about extending your lease, especially if the purchase of the freehold with the other flat owners is not an option for you. If your lease has over 80 years to go you need to act urgently before it drops under 80 years and marriage value is payable to the freeholder.
A freeholder wanting to avoid enfranchisement can offer bulk lease extensions. This is helpful for flat owners where there may not be a majority.
If as flat owners you are thinkng of collectively acquiring your freehold then you need to bear in mind that it is probably now best for all flat owners to participate in the purchase as the freeholder is entitled to recover a sum of money for every "non participator." in any event (following the Sportelli case.)
We have links with companies who liaise with flat owners for you to achieve this objective.
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