- If you own a long lease of residential property and are a qualifying owner, then you will be entitled to purchase a new lease with an extended term of years.
- The new lease is for a term of 90 years added to the existing, unexpired term
- Ground rent payable under the existing lease will be reduced to a “peppercorn”: that’s legal speak for “nil”.
- Unsurprisingly, you have to pay for the new lease and the amount payable increases significantly where the unexpired term of the existing lease falls below 80 years at the valuation date
- This law is governed by the snappily titled “Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, and the relevant part of it for extending leases came in to force on 1st November 1993.
