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Residential real estate

Extending your lease & buying your freehold

Claims for lease extensions and freehold purchases are highly technical, but our team can provide constructive and practical advice on all aspects of what can be a complex legal maze.

Our work involves assisting clients in the sale and purchase of leasehold property where a claim to extend the lease or buy the freehold will be made, and arranging the assignment of the claim to the buyer. This includes advice to investors buying short lease flats with a view to extending the lease.

We advise in cases where tenants are making a collective claim to buy the freehold from the landlord, and also where they want the right to manage their building, rather than to buy the freehold. We handle claims for freehold purchases and lease extensions under the leasehold reform legislation, as well as voluntary lease extensions.

Recent work 

  • Acting in the collective freehold acquisition of a block with 88 flats for a premium of £4 million.
  • Arranging an individual lease extension on one of the traditional central London estates. This involved unique issues including an application to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal and an appeal to the Lands Tribunal.
  • Advising an investor on the acquisition of flats in a building on a central London estate, with a view to a collective freehold claim and eventual conversion into a single family home.

© Withers 2007 - 2008