Extending your lease
All leaseholders are entitled to apply to have their lease extended. However, in most cases this is a legal process we have to follow, with limitations regarding the eligibility. The process can be time consuming and costly for homeowners. What’s more, the right to extend a lease is not open to shared owners.
Therefore, to help all of our leaseholders and shared owners, we have set up our own, alternative scheme, to try to make the process more straightforward and less expensive.
The differences between the Octavia lease extension scheme and the statutory process are set out in the table below:
|
|
Statutory Process |
Octavia’s Voluntary process |
|
Eligibility |
Must have owned property for at least two years Must own 100% equity – shared owners cannot use this process |
No restriction on ownership |
|
Legal notices |
The claim can be rejected if there is a simple error on the paperwork. |
No notices to serve |
|
Valuation |
You need to pay for two valuations to calculate the premium – one for you to serve a notice and the second for your landlord |
You only pay for one valuation which is binding and has no appeals process |
|
Premium |
if the premium cannot be agreed between the two valuers then you need to apply to the First Tier Tribunal for a determination at further costs |
Premium already agreed |
|
Terms |
Will be for 90 years No further ground rent
|
Can be either 30 or 50 years Ground rent continues |
You will still need to pay for the legal fees both for yourself and us, but you will not need to pay a solicitor to serve the initial notice (S42), for two valuations and it is open to many more owners to apply as the eligibility is not defined. To find out more about Octavia’s voluntary process for extending your lease, contact us at info@octavia.org.uk.
If you are interested in knowing more about the statutory process, there is more information available at https://www.lease-advice.org/advice-guide/lease-extension-getting-started/ which is a government funded, independent service for all leaseholders.