Leasehold Enfranchisement

Leasehold enfranchisement is the legal process that allows leaseholders to either extend their lease or purchase the freehold of their property. While the benefits can be significant, the statutory framework is notoriously complex and missteps for the unwary can be costly. That’s where we come in.

If you wish to extend your lease or acquire the freehold interest of your building, our dedicated leasehold reform team brings decades of experience to the table. We advise on all aspects of leasehold enfranchisement, including:

• Lease extensions for flats and houses
• Collective enfranchisement
• Freehold purchases of houses
• Right to manage claims

We also work closely with clients and their advisers to assess how enfranchisement issues may impact development or investment plans, ensuring you’re equipped to make informed, strategic decisions.

Our recent experience reflects the team’s ability to handle technically demanding leasehold reform work, often under tight timeframes and involving cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Recent experience

• Acting on multiple statutory lease extensions, including one involving a rooftop flat with unclear lease maintenance obligations. This required drafting and serving a section 42 notice under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, and coordinating with a landlord’s solicitor under time pressure. The matter also involved a licence to alter and a seller acting under a power of attorney, adding further complexity
• In a high-value sub-sale transaction, the team stepped into the shoes of receivers to continue a lease extension process already underway. This required swift action and technical precision to ensure the lease extension was completed in tandem with the property transaction
• The team advised on the sale of a high-value leasehold property in Mayfair, including a review of potential right of first refusal issues. The transaction also involved a subsequent purchase of two leasehold apartments, one in a Grade II listed building, requiring careful navigation of planning and leasehold considerations
• Advising a client acquiring four leasehold flats in a lessee-owned freehold building. The team provided guidance on lease terms, planning implications for amalgamation into a single dwelling and future title restructuring. Tax and planning teams were engaged to support the client’s redevelopment ambitions
• The team handled the sale of a leasehold property subject to a court order following a co-ownership dispute. The matter required coordination with litigation counsel and resolution of a judgment debt against one of the co-owners, showcasing the team’s ability to manage contentious leasehold issues
• Acting for a tenant in respect of its statutory lease extension claim, which eventually settled with an agreed premium of £5.87m.
• Acting for a tenant in respect of his lease extension claim of a flat with a complex title structure in a situation where we were instructed to act less than two weeks before the term of the lease fell below 80 years. We served the tenant’s notice within a matter of days to ensure that the client avoided having to pay a share of the marriage value that would have been payable if there had been less than 80 years of the lease still to run at the time the notice was served.
• Successfully acting for a landlord to defeat a collective enfranchisement claim made by the tenants on the basis that the tenants’ notice was invalid because it did not take into account the development value in the freehold title.