Lease Extension And Conciliation

It is often the case with leasehold extensions people demand their legal rights and offer the freeholder any amount that they see fit and expect them to take it. After all it is a legal obligation for the freeholder to award the leaseholder the extension no matter what, right? Wrong!

It is extremely important when starting the process for a leasehold extension that you keep the freeholder on side and willing to partake. If your freeholder is not on side then the whole procedure can take an extremely long time and can become particularly grueling. However if the freeholder is keen and respected, then it is likely that the process will be done in good time.

A good example of how the whole process can be delayed right from the beginning is in issuing a lease extension Section 42 Notice. This notice officially informs the landlord that you wish to extend your lease and also provides a figure for the lease premium. However if your freeholder is keen and willing, you are likely to get a repsonse within a week or so. However if not, they will probably ignore your request until they are statutory require to issue a response i.e. in two months time.

Once the freeholder has issued there counter notice there is a statutory period of 2 months in which negotiations over the extension can happen. Again these timescales will either drag on or will be dealt with promptly depending on the approach from either party. This point should be brought up with your solicitor to emphasise that you also want them to be particularly prompt in their responses to the other party.

If the negotiations begin to break down, you should try to discuss with your solicitor the best way of getting the freeholder back on board. Reason being is that you will wish to avoid having to put a case before the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal. The LVT will slow down the process massively as it can take up to 6 months to get a slot in front of the Tribunal, not to mention all the additional costs which will be incurred.

As well as the above, the leaseholder should make all efforts to ensure that they stick to their own deadlines so that they are not responsible for any delay. One easy way you can help acheive this is by maintaining good relationships with your freeholder and keep lines of communication open with both them and all legal bodies involved.


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Do you want to know more about Lease Extension? Bonallack & Bishop are specialist Leasehold Extension lawyers. Senior Partner Tim Bishop is responsible for all major strategic decisions at the firm, which he has grown by 1000% in 13 years. Tim sees himself as a businessman who owns a law firm.