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Extending your lease

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What is a lease extension?

You may know that many long leases can become more difficult to sell or raise a mortgage for once the lease is under 70 years in length. Many high street lenders are concerned with their interest in the property not being equitable.

You should check the original date of your lease and the length of its original term. You should have been provided this by your solicitor when you purchased the property within your legal report. The original term can vary between 99 to 125 years.

If your term has reduced to nearly 70 years, it is worth considering applying for a lease extension. This will lengthen your original lease and secure the property’s value. 

How can I apply for a lease extension and what's the process?

  1. Have a look at the Leasehold Advisory Service’s lease extension calculator for an estimate of the premium.

  2. Consider the costs involved in a lease extension before you apply. We have provided an overview of these in our FAQs below.

  3. Contact Sanctuary to provide you with the procedure and valuation form, for you to complete and return, with the valuation fee and our bank details for you to make payment of the valuation fee.  Please note lease extension valuations range from £500.00 to £600.00.  Please note all fees are approximate.

  4. Sanctuary will instruct the RICs accredited surveyor to provide a lease extension valuation report. The report is sent directly to Sanctuary Housing Association. 

  5. We will then provide you with confirmation of the Premium to extend your lease.

  6. You will need to decide if you wish to proceed with the lease extension and provide your solicitors details.

  7. We will then contact your solicitor or our legal advisers to progress the legal transaction, the legal transaction can take three to four months to conclude (for informal lease extension).

  8. Once the lease extension is completed, your solicitor will register your new lease against your leasehold title and the land registry will update the term of years on your leasehold title.

  9. Complete our online Lease Extension form at the bottom of this page.

Contact us to extend your lease

Extending your lease FAQs