Property Law Online

Conveyancing

Lease extension

A longer lease, ground rent reduced to nothing, and the notice served correctly. One fixed fee for the legal work, agreed in writing first.

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A lease extension adds years to your lease and, on the statutory route, reduces the ground rent to a peppercorn in return for a premium paid to the freeholder. Property Law Online serves the notice, negotiates with the freeholder's representative, completes the new lease and registers it at HM Land Registry, across England and Wales.

Why instruct us

  • Fee agreed in writing before we start
  • Covering England and Wales

Who needs a lease extension?

A lease is a wasting asset. Every year it shortens, the flat becomes harder to mortgage and the premium to extend it rises. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 has changed the rules in the leaseholder's favour, but the arithmetic of a shortening lease has not changed, and the cheapest day to extend is still today.

Flat owners with a lease nearing 80 years
The point at which marriage value has traditionally added to the premium. The 2024 Act abolishes marriage value, but until the valuation provisions are in force the 80-year line still matters (not yet in force as at 19 September 2026; no commencement date announced).
Owners who cannot remortgage or sell
Lenders set a minimum unexpired term, and they do not set the same one: the requirement is answered lender by lender in part 2 of the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders' Handbook rather than by any industry standard, and it may be expressed as years left at completion or as years left after the mortgage ends. So the question is what your lender requires, not what lenders generally require. Buyers' representatives advise against short leases. Extending restores both markets.
Recent buyers
The two-year ownership requirement for a statutory extension has been abolished (section 27 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, in force 31 January 2025, checked 19 September 2026), so you can serve notice as soon as you are the registered owner rather than waiting.
Owners of leasehold houses
House lessees have their own statutory right under the Leasehold Reform Act 1967, which will also be to a 990-year term once section 33 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 is in force (not in force as at 26 September 2026). Buying the freehold may be an alternative: see buy the freehold, and we tell you which is better value.
Owners paying an escalating ground rent
A rent that doubles or tracks inflation makes a flat hard to sell and hard to mortgage, and some lenders decline it outright. It no longer turns a long lease into an assured tenancy: paragraph 3D of Schedule 1 to the Housing Act 1988, in force 27 December 2025, takes a fixed term of more than 21 years out of that regime whatever the rent. A statutory extension reduces the rent to a peppercorn for the whole term. Checked 20 September 2026.
Not right for
Leases where the immediate landlord is a charitable housing trust and the flat is part of its charitable housing provision, which section 5(2)(b) of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 takes outside the right, and shared ownership leases that have not been staircased to 100 per cent, which section 7(1)(d) does not treat as long leases at all. Crown land is dealt with separately under section 94. We check the lease and the title before you pay for a valuation.

Which lease extension route applies to you?

Two questions decide whether to serve notice now, negotiate, or apply to the court. Answer them and we tell you the route.

How many years are left on the lease?
What is the freeholder's position?

Answer both and we tell you the route, no details needed.

What does a lease extension include?

One fixed fee covers the legal work from the first check of your lease to the registration of the new one. The premium, the valuer and, where they still apply, the freeholder's costs are separate and named before you instruct, never afterwards.

  • Lease and title check

    The unexpired term, the ground rent and its reviews, who the competent landlord is, whether any intermediate landlord exists, and whether the lease qualifies.

  • Working with your valuer

    We instruct or liaise with a specialist enfranchisement valuer, who sets the opening figure and a realistic ceiling. The premium is the biggest number in the matter and the valuer, not us, is the right person to advise on it.

  • The section 42 notice

    Drafted, checked and served on the freeholder and any intermediate landlord, with the valuation date fixed. A notice with an error can be invalid, so it is prepared with care and protected at HM Land Registry.

  • Counter-notice and negotiation

    The freeholder's counter-notice is reviewed, the premium negotiated between the valuers, and, if agreement is not reached, any contested First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) hearing referred to a solicitor or an authorised advocate in time for the statutory window, while we stay on the file for the conveyancing and the new lease.

  • The new lease

    The deed of surrender and regrant or the new lease drafted or approved, with your lender's consent obtained and its charge carried across to the new lease.

  • Completion and registration

    The premium paid, the new lease completed and registered at HM Land Registry with your mortgage noted against it, and the updated register sent to you.

How does a statutory lease extension work?

Five stages on the statutory route. The notice fixes the valuation date and starts the freeholder's clock, so getting it right is the whole job.

  1. Lease checked and valuation obtained

    We obtain the register and the lease, confirm you qualify and identify the freeholder. A specialist valuer inspects and reports on the premium.

    Weeks 1 to 4

  2. Section 42 notice served

    The notice states the premium you propose and the terms of the new lease. Service fixes the valuation date. We register a notice at HM Land Registry to protect your claim against a sale of the freehold.

    Weeks 4 to 6

  3. Freeholder's counter-notice

    The freeholder has at least two months to respond, admitting the claim and stating a counter-proposal or, rarely, disputing the right. It may also ask for a deposit, and if it does, the deposit is 250 pounds or 10 per cent of the premium proposed in your notice, whichever is the greater, payable within fourteen days of the demand and held by the freeholder's conveyancer as stakeholder (Leasehold Reform (Collective Enfranchisement and Lease Renewal) Regulations 1993, SI 1993/2407, Schedule 2 paragraph 2, checked 20 September 2026). No deposit is payable unless the freeholder asks for one.

    Months 2 to 4

  4. Negotiation, or the Tribunal

    The valuers negotiate the premium. Every date runs from the counter-notice, so put that date on the front of the file. No application can be made until two months have passed from it, and the application must be in no later than six months from it. Six months from the counter-notice, not six months from the day talks broke down. Sections 48(1) and 48(2) of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, checked 19 September 2026. Miss it and the notice is treated as withdrawn. In England the tribunal is the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber); in Wales it is a leasehold valuation tribunal. If the premium is not agreed, the Tribunal application and any hearing are passed to a solicitor or an authorised advocate in time for that deadline, and we stay on the file for the conveyancing and the new lease. If the counter-notice disputes your right rather than the price, a different route and different limits apply, so tell us at once.

    Months 4 to 8

  5. New lease completed and registered

    Terms agreed or determined, the new lease is engrossed, your lender consents, the premium is paid and the lease is registered at HM Land Registry with your mortgage carried across.

    Months 6 to 12, then HM Land Registry processing

What does a lease extension cost?

Property Law Online is not yet taking instructions, so there is no fee to quote today. This section explains how the cost of this work is usually made up.

Every lease extension is quoted as one fixed fee for the legal work before you instruct us, in writing, with our fee shown separately from the premium, the valuer, any freeholder's costs that still apply and HM Land Registry. Tell us the years remaining and the route, and we reply by email.

Usually covered by the professional fee

  • Lease and title check, and confirmation you qualify
  • Section 42 notice drafted, served and protected at HM Land Registry
  • Counter-notice review and negotiation with the freeholder's representative
  • New lease approved, lender consent obtained and completion
  • HM Land Registry application and registration

Paid to others, passed on at cost

  • The premium payable to the freeholder
  • Your valuer's fee, and any expert evidence needed at the Tribunal
  • The freeholder's reasonable legal and valuation costs, where the Act still requires you to pay them (not yet in force as at 19 September 2026; no commencement date announced)
  • HM Land Registry fee, set by the HM Land Registry fee order
  • Any Tribunal application and hearing, which we pass to a solicitor or an authorised advocate who agrees their own terms with you
  • Tribunal fees, where an application is made

What can add to it: an intermediate landlord, a freeholder who cannot be traced, or a lease with a defect that must be corrected in the new lease. Each is quoted before you instruct, never afterwards.

How long does a lease extension take?

Six to twelve months on the statutory route, most of it spent negotiating the premium after the counter-notice. An informal extension can complete in two to four months where the freeholder engages, but the freeholder can walk away at any point. A vesting order for an absent freeholder takes a year or more. HM Land Registry then processes the application.

What changes the timescale

  • How quickly the freeholder serves its counter-notice and engages in negotiation
  • Whether the premium is agreed between the valuers or determined by the Tribunal
  • Whether there is an intermediate landlord who must also be served
  • Whether your lender's consent to the new lease is straightforward
The stagesExample
  1. Lease checked and valuation obtained
  2. Section 42 notice served
  3. Freeholder's counter-noticeIn progress
  4. Negotiation, or the Tribunal
  5. New lease completed and registered
An illustration of how a matter moves through these stages. We tell you when each one is done.

What goes wrong with lease extensions?

  • Waiting until the lease falls below 80 years

    Until the valuation provisions of the 2024 Act are in force, marriage value is payable once the term is below 80 years, and the premium can rise sharply on crossing the line (not yet in force as at 19 September 2026; no commencement date announced). If you are close to the line, the notice is served first and everything else follows.

  • Accepting an informal offer that keeps a ground rent

    Freeholders offer informal extensions that add fewer years and keep or increase the ground rent. A rising rent makes the flat hard to mortgage and hard to sell. It does not turn a long lease into an assured tenancy, which paragraph 3D of Schedule 1 to the Housing Act 1988 has ruled out for a term of more than 21 years since 27 December 2025. What does bite is the other way round: a voluntary extension granted on or after 30 June 2022 is a regulated lease under the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022, so only a peppercorn is permitted for the added years, though section 6 lets the old rent run on for the balance of the original term. We compare every offer with the statutory outcome before you sign. Checked 20 September 2026.

  • An invalid notice

    A section 42 notice that names the wrong landlord, misdescribes the flat, proposes an unrealistic premium or is served on the wrong person can be invalid, and a withdrawn or deemed withdrawn notice bars a fresh one in respect of that flat for twelve months from the date of the withdrawal (section 42(7) of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993). Section 28 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 will remove this bar by omitting section 42(7), but it is not in force as at 26 September 2026 (no commencement regulations for it, checked on legislation.gov.uk 26 September 2026). It can also leave you liable for the freeholder's costs, though not for everything and not in every case: section 60 confines the liability to the reasonable costs of investigating your right, of the valuation and of granting the new lease, and on a withdrawal only to what was incurred up to the point you withdrew. You are not liable at all where the claim fails because the landlord succeeds on a redevelopment application, and you are never liable for the freeholder's costs of tribunal proceedings (checked 20 September 2026). The notice is the whole job, and we prepare it accordingly.

  • Missing the Tribunal deadline

    If the premium is not agreed and no application reaches the Tribunal within six months of the counter-notice, the notice is deemed withdrawn under section 53(1) of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, checked 19 September 2026. Nobody writes to warn you. You lose the valuation date, which bites hardest on a lease near eighty years. Under section 60 you become liable for the freeholder's reasonable costs of investigating the claim, valuing the flat and granting the lease, incurred down to that point, though not for his costs of the tribunal itself. And you cannot serve a fresh notice on the flat for twelve months, until section 28 of the 2024 Act removes that bar. Every date is diarised the day the counter-notice arrives.

Statutory or informal lease extension: which is better?

The statutory route, under section 42 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, gives you a right the freeholder cannot refuse: a new lease on the same terms, for a term extended by 990 years under the 2024 Act (not yet in force as at 19 September 2026; no commencement date announced), at a peppercorn ground rent, for a premium set by a statutory formula with the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) as the backstop. The informal route is whatever the freeholder is willing to offer, on whatever terms, at whatever price, and it can be withdrawn at any point before completion.

Informal deals are sometimes quicker and occasionally cheaper, particularly where the freeholder is a residents' company and the flat owners are effectively extending their own leases. They are also where leaseholders get caught: fewer years, a ground rent that survives or escalates, and new terms slipped into the deed. Where a voluntary extension is granted, the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 does reach it, because an extension by deed of variation operates as a surrender and regrant and sections 1(4) and 1(5) treat that as the grant of a lease. What the Act then does is split the term: under section 6, the part matching what was left of the old lease is an excepted period on which the old rent can continue, and the additional years are a regulated period on which the rent is limited to a peppercorn (checked 20 September 2026). So the old rent is not swept away, and only the new years are at a peppercorn. We compare every offer with the statutory figure before you respond.

Statutory (section 42)Informal agreement
Years added990 years under the 2024 Act (not yet in force as at 19 September 2026; no commencement date announced); 90 years before itWhatever is offered, often less
Ground rentReduced to a peppercorn for the whole termMay be kept, or increased, on the existing term
PremiumStatutory formula, Tribunal as backstopWhatever is negotiated, no backstop
Freeholder can refuseNo, if you qualifyYes, and can withdraw at any point
Freeholder's costsPayable by you: section 60 of the 1993 Act still stands. Section 39 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 would remove it, but it was not in force at Royal Assent and no commencement order has been made (checked 20 September 2026)Whatever is agreed
TimeSix to twelve monthsTwo to four months, if the freeholder engages
Other termsSame as the existing lease, with limited modernisationOpen to renegotiation, and new terms can be added

What has the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 changed?

The Act rewrites the lease extension rules in the leaseholder's favour, but its provisions commence in stages by regulations, so what applies on the day you serve notice depends on which sections are in force. Already in force: the two-year ownership requirement has been abolished for flats and houses, so a new owner can serve notice at once (section 27 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, in force 31 January 2025, checked 19 September 2026). Awaiting or recently commenced (not yet in force as at 19 September 2026; no commencement date announced): the extended term becomes 990 years for flats and houses; marriage value and hope value are removed from the premium; the capitalisation and deferment rates are prescribed rather than argued over; ground rent above a set level is capped in the valuation; and leaseholders stop paying the freeholder's non-litigation costs in most cases.

The practical effect, once fully in force, is a lower premium for most short leases, a much longer term, and a cheaper process. The practical question for anyone with a lease near 80 years is whether to serve now under the current valuation rules or wait for the reforms. That depends on your lease, your ground rent and how soon you need to sell or remortgage, and we set the two figures out in writing rather than guessing. The Act's commencement regulations, published on legislation.gov.uk, are the record of what is in force on any given date.

Frequently asked questions

Can I extend my lease myself?

You can serve a section 42 notice yourself, but a defective notice can be invalid, bars a fresh one for a year and leaves you paying the freeholder's costs. The valuation, the negotiation and the new lease all need specialist input: the notice and the new lease are conveyancing work, and the premium is a valuer's.

What documents do I need to extend my lease?

A copy of your lease, the register for the flat and for the freehold, details of your mortgage lender, any correspondence with the freeholder, the last ground rent demand and, if there is one, the managing agent's details. We obtain the registers and a copy of the lease from HM Land Registry if you do not have them.

How much does it cost to extend a lease?

The premium is the main cost and depends on the years remaining, the flat's value, the ground rent and the valuation rates in force at the date of your notice. On top are your valuer, our fixed fee, HM Land Registry and the freeholder's reasonable costs under section 60 of the 1993 Act, which section 39 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 would remove but which is not yet in force (checked 20 September 2026). We name every element before you instruct.

What is marriage value?

The increase in the combined value of the flat and the freehold that a lease extension creates, half of which has traditionally gone to the freeholder once the lease is below 80 years. The 2024 Act removes it from the premium, but only once the valuation provisions are commenced (not yet in force as at 19 September 2026; no commencement date announced). Until then the 80-year line still matters.

Can the freeholder refuse to extend my lease?

Not on the statutory route, provided you qualify and the notice is valid. The freeholder can dispute the premium, which the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) then determines, and in narrow cases can resist on redevelopment grounds, but it cannot simply say no. On the informal route it can refuse or withdraw at any time.

Do I still need to have owned the flat for two years?

No. The two-year ownership requirement for a statutory extension was abolished by the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (section 27 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, in force 31 January 2025, checked 19 September 2026). You must be the registered owner when notice is served, so a buyer serves after registration rather than taking over a seller's notice, though that older route still exists.

What if my freeholder cannot be found?

Where the landlord cannot be found or identified, you can apply to the county court for a vesting order. The First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber), in Wales the leasehold valuation tribunal, sets the premium and any other sums due and approves the terms of the new lease; once that amount is paid into court, the new lease is signed by a person the court appoints (Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 ss50 and 51, checked 26 September 2026). When section 43 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 comes into force these applications will go to the tribunal instead; it was not in force on 26 September 2026. We prepare the tracing evidence and pass the court application to a solicitor, or to a barrister authorised to conduct litigation; we then stay on the file to prepare the draft lease for the tribunal's approval and to register the new lease at HM Land Registry once the court's appointee has signed it. It takes longer than a normal claim, but a missing landlord does not prevent the extension.

Can I extend and remortgage at the same time?

Yes. A lender can lend on the basis of the extended lease, the premium is funded from the new advance, and the new lease and the new mortgage complete on the same day. We run the two together so neither waits for the other.

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