How Long Does it Take to Extend a Lease?
Key Takeaways
- This article answers: How long does it take to extend a lease on a leasehold flat. If you are interested in the steps to lease extension, read our next article: Lease extension process
- In total the formal lease extension process can take anywhere from 2 to 12 months to complete the lease extension and then 3 to 12 months before the new lease is registered at the Land Registry.
- The actual time it takes to extend your lease depends on several different factors.
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 was passed on the 24th May 2024, but is not yet in effect and the date for this is not yet clear. We will update our content as and when the finalised legislation is published.
Some of the expected changes include:
- 990 year standard lease extension for houses and flats
- Standardised format for service charge bills, for greater transparency
- Leaseholders will no longer have to pay their freeholder’s costs when making a claim
- Freeholders who manage their building directly must belong to a redress scheme, so leaseholders can challenge them if needed (already applies to managing agents)
- Ban on sale of leasehold houses, except in specific circumstances and schemes
- Fair and transparent buildings insurance handling fees
- Removal of two year requirement before statutory extension
While the existing act abolishes ground rent on lease extension and new leases, the new act does not cap ground rent on pre-existing leases.
How long does a lease extension take?
- After the landlord has received the Initial Notice (section 42) they have 21 days to request evidence of the leaseholders right to a formal lease extension.
- After the landlord has received the Initial Notice (section 42) they have 2 months from the date of the notice to serve their Section 45 - Counter-notice.
- After the landlords has served their Section 45 - Counter-notice the leaseholder has 6 months to negotiate the premium with the freeholder before they must apply to the Tribunal
- After the landlord and leaseholder have agreed a premium then then it can take between 1 to 3 months to finalise completion
- After completion the new lease can take between 3 to 12 months to be registered at the Land Registry
There are several external factors which can delay the lease extension
- Are you assigning the rights to a buyer?
- Is it a formal or informal lease extension?
- Do you have an absent landlord?
- Does the freeholder dispute your premium?
- Do you dispute the freeholder's legal fees
Free initial leasehold advice
![Lease Extension Solicitors Consultation](/userfiles/images/LeaseExtensionConsultation2.png)
- Lease extension
- Purchasing the leasehold, freehold or share of freehold
- Selling a leasehold property with a short lease
- Extending the lease at the same time as you sell
- RICS Lease Extension Valuation or L2 Homebuyers Survey
- Serving of the section 42 notice, or section 13 notice on the freeholder
- Negotiation with the freeholder (with the support of your RICS valuer)
- Completion of the legal work, including deed of variation
- Application to Tribunal to determine the premium
- Vesting order for absent landlords
How can you speed up the lease extension process?
Check you are eligible to extend
- check you if you are eligible by clicking hereUse a specialist RICS lease extension valuer
- getting a wrong valuation, or not getting a formal valuation and just using an online lease extension calculator, is one of the key reasons for delays with the lease extension. By offering an incorrect premium, you may inadvertently annoy the freeholder who may feel that you were trying to get the lease extended for under market value. This reaction can occur in negotiations so to combat this you should always get a lease premium calculated so you know it is correct.Make a reasonable offer
- once armed with a premium to offer, it is your responsibility to put forward how much you want to offer to extend the lease. If you choose to start very low and work upwards, similar to the above, you could push the freeholder away from the negotiation table and it is likely they;ll start with a higher figure. It is often best not to start at the lowest point, but not the highest point. A reasonable offer in the middle is more likely to reduce negotiation time.Check you have the finances
- after you get our premium from your surveyor, work out if you can afford to extend your lease by adding up all the lease extension costs.Speak to your freeholder
- before you serve your Section 42 Notice you should speak to the freeholder and look to agree in principle the premium to extend the lease. This isn't legally binding, however it is quicker and cheaper than using your solicitor and you can normally agree a figure before the formal notice is served. If you don't do this then you may find your offer comes a shock to the freeholder which can cause delays as the freeholder gets their own valuation (that you have to pay for) and you could then be faced with long negotiations.Get your finances in order
- if you are selling or remortgaging to fund the lease extension then you need to ensure you have completed the required work to tie in the lease extension with when you will get the money to pay for the costs.
How do you extend your lease?
- RICS Lease valuation survey (read more about how this is calculated)
- Serving of the section 42 notice on the freeholder
- Negotiation with the freeholder
- Completion of the lease extension legal work
How long does the informal route take?
How do you speed up the informal route?
![How long does it take to extend a lease?](/userfiles/images/Lease-Extension-Process-2018.png)
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Caragh is an excellent writer in her own right as well as an accomplished copy editor for both fiction and non-fiction books, news articles and editorials. She has written extensively for SAM for a variety of conveyancing, survey and mortgage related articles.