Extending a House Lease
This right has been little exercised recently because the right to buy the freehold has been expanded to include most houses and is usually the preferred option for the tenant.
A qualifying tenant of a long lease of a house also has the right to the grant of a new lease for the remainder of the existing term plus a further 50 years.
No premium is payable, but the lease can contain a modern ground rent, reviewable after 25 years.
The determination of the modern ground rent cannot be made until 12 months before that rent is to become payable (12 months before the date that would have been the expiry date of the original lease). The modern ground rent is calculated as the letting value of the site, without the house.
The new lease will be a substitute for the remainder of the original lease, which will be surrendered by operation of law.
The terms of the new lease other than the rent and the term are generally the same as the terms of the existing lease, although these can be changed either by agreement or if something has happened since the date of the existing lease which affects the suitability of a provision of the original lease.
The provisions of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 (LTA 1927) that allow the landlord and tenant to agree conditions for consent to an assignment and the circumstances in which consent may be withheld, do not apply to residential leases.
A tenant who has been granted a lease extension is entitled to exercise its right to buy the freehold both before and after the end of the term of the original lease.
Where the notice of tenant’s claim is served after the end of term date of the original lease, the valuation basis is the special valuation basis and section 9(1C) but with modified assumptions even if the lease qualifies for the original valuation basis.
If the tenant takes a lease extension but does not choose to enfranchise, the tenant cannot simply extend the lease again when it ends. The tenant does, however, have the right to an assured tenancy.
