Lewisham Lease Extension Solicitors & Surveyors

Nothing has changed about who owns your building. Lewisham Homes managed the council’s housing but never owned it, and its work moved back into the council on 1 October 2023. For a former council flat, the London Borough of Lewisham remains the freeholder.

Your Section 42 notice is therefore served on the council. We confirm the freehold title at HM Land Registry first, because a notice served on the wrong party is invalid.

On Lewisham Council. About 1,800 homes in Brockley and Ladywell are managed under a PFI contract that began in 2007, but the council remains the freeholder and you remain a council leaseholder. The contract ends on 3 June 2027, when the council takes over management directly.

The handover will affect how major works are charged, as the PFI cap on major works bills ends after June 2027. It does not change your right to extend or how the premium is valued.

Very probably. In 2007 Lewisham transferred its housing in the Downham, Bellingham and Whitefoot area to Phoenix Community Housing, a resident-led housing association, and the freehold of the blocks went with it.

Your lease terms did not change on the transfer, and you have exactly the same rights under the 1993 Act as a council leaseholder. The notice is served on Phoenix, which will appoint its own valuer and solicitors.

Two reasons. First, the premium tracks value. With identical leases, a flat worth £475,000 in Brockley will produce a bigger premium than one worth £325,000 in Bellingham.

Second, conversion leases are often 99 year leases granted in the 1970s or 1980s, so many are already below 80 years and carry marriage value, while council leases usually started at 125 years. We value each flat on evidence from its own street or estate.

Not before you know the timetable. Where an estate is rebuilt, leaseholders are normally bought out, either by agreement or through compulsory purchase, and the compensation is based on the market value of the flat, which depends partly on lease length.

Extending can therefore change what you are paid. We will look at where your block sits in the programme and show you the figures with and without an extension.

The 1993 Act has a route for this. If the freeholder cannot be found, you can apply to the county court for an order allowing the new lease to be granted without them. The premium is set by the First-tier Tribunal and paid into court.

It takes some extra steps, including showing that reasonable efforts were made to trace the landlord, but it is a well established process. Arcadia Law can handle the application and Blakes can prepare the valuation.

Yes. Once the Section 42 notice has been served, the benefit of it can be assigned to your buyer on completion. The buyer takes over the claim and keeps the valuation date already fixed by your notice.

This is a common way to sell a short lease flat, because many lenders will not lend where fewer than 80 or 85 years remain. Arcadia Law can provide the notice, counter-notice and assignment to your buyer’s solicitor.

No. A statutory extension reduces the ground rent to a peppercorn and adds 90 years to the term, but your service charges carry on as before. The council will still charge for repairs, insurance and major works in the usual way.

If you are in the Brockley PFI area, the way major works are charged is due to change after June 2027, but that is separate from your lease extension.