Leaseholds

Our conveyancing team have a wealth of experience in dealing with various leasehold transactions and can assist and advise you on the following:

Purchases and sales

Compared to buying a freehold property – where you own both the property and the land on which it stands – buying a leasehold means you own the property but the land it is built on is owned by the freeholder.

If you are considering buying a leasehold property we can check the terms of the lease for you, including how many years are left on the lease, the ground rent and additional charges and any restrictions. We can also check the legal title documents sent by the seller’s solicitor and can carry out all appropriate searches.

In terms of selling a leasehold property, there can be more paperwork involved than selling a freehold house. We can guide and assist you with providing all the information the buyer’s solicitor will need. This will reduce the number of queries they come back with and ensure the process runs smoothly and efficiently.

If the current lease on the property is short, we can also help with making it easier to sell by advising you on the options of extending the lease or purchasing the freehold (see below).

Leasehold extensions

If you have owned the leasehold on a property for more than two years then you are eligible to extend the lease. Typically flats tend to have a lease term of between 99 and 125 years, and it is often advisable to extend the lease sooner rather than later, otherwise the cost of doing so becomes greater. Extending the lease is also a great way of retaining the value of the property and makes it more saleable if you decide to remortgage.

Where an agreement has been reached between the leaseholder and landlord or freeholder to extend the lease we can deal with the paperwork for the extension. In addition we will approve the deed confirming the extension and register the extension with the Land Registry.

Read more in our Guide to Leasehold Extensions.

Purchase of freehold

Buying the freehold on a leasehold property, also known as leasehold enfranchisement, has a number of benefits. Not only does it mean you can live in the property for as long as you wish, but it also means you can make changes to the land and property without having to consult the landlord. It can also make the property more appealing to buyers should you wish to sell it in the future.

At Rothera Bray we can help advise you on the financial and practical implications of a freehold purchase, as well as review the current terms of your lease.

Remortgage and Transfer of Equity

Re-mortgaging a leasehold property is the same process as with a freehold property.

It involves changing the mortgage on the property by moving to a new lender. You might choose to remortgage because your current mortgage deal is coming to an end or you want to increase the amount you borrow and another lender is offering a better deal. Our conveyancing team are very experienced in remortgaging for leasehold properties and work closely with banks and building societies to ensure the process happens quickly and without hassle.

We can also advise and assist on transfer of equity for leasehold properties, where you are looking to change the legal ownership of the property without actually selling the property (see our Transfer of Equity page for more details). With a leasehold property there could be certain requirements under the lease that also need to be dealt with, as well as extra disbursements such as a notice served on the landlord, which we can also advise you on.

Shared ownership

Taking out a shared ownership lease means you buy a share in your home and rent the remaining share at a reduced or subsidised rate, usually from a housing association through which the scheme is run.

Under the scheme you will have a lease with the housing association which details the shares in the property that you own and the housing association owns. The lease will also outline your rent amount, your obligations regarding maintaining the property and any restrictions.

Our experienced team can assist you in buying the property and advise you on the details of the shared ownership lease, as well as offer guidance on buying more shares in the property at a later date (known as staircasing).

Ground rents

As the leaseholder of a property, the landlord, who may also be the freeholder, will often charge you ground rent. This is a sum payable to the freeholder to occupy the land a leasehold property is built on. It will also include service charges which cover the cost of services including general maintenance and repairs, building insurance and heating and lighting.

In unfortunate cases leaseholders can find themselves at the mercy of their landlord. The landlord may decide to increase the ground rent or service charge at any time or fail to manage the property adequately. As a result it is not surprising that disagreements can arise between the leaseholder and landlord.

Why use Rothera Bray for leasehold property transactions?

You will be assigned a dedicated team member who will handle your case from start to finish and provided with their direct contact details.

We have eight offices across Nottingham, Leicester and Derby where you can see a member of our conveyancing team.

We can review a lease and its terms and advise you of your leasehold rights before you enter into any agreement

We will be upfront and transparent about costs so there are no hidden/extra charges.