Extending lease on a flat

[Rob625]

I have a leasehold flat which was our family home from 1995 until 2008 and it now rented out via an agent. The lease was originally 125 years and has about 70 years left. Perhaps rather belatedly, we are investigating the possibility of extending the list. I have found an information site https://www.lease-advice.org/faq/why-sh ... -my-lease/ which is quite helpful, but I would also like to ask people here who may have experience and tips to offer. We have lived in Italy, where my wife is from, since 2008, and therefore I am rather out of touch with the UK property world.

We have found a surveyor who does this sort of work, and I have emailed the firm of solicitors that I have used in the past. The next step would be to appoint the surveyor. They would then do a survey and propose a price for the lease extension. The fee for the survey would be £1500, and for negotiating the transaction with the freeholder 10% of the 'saving' freeholder's initial ask price - price agreed) with a minimum of £2500. All plus VAT.

https://www.lease-advice.org/calculator/ puts the price of the extension around £50k plus costs (based on property value 600k and 72 years).

I have other assets that I could liquidate to pay £60k or more without difficulty.

My questions:

1. Does the surveyor's fee seem reasonable?

2. Is the price estimate in the right ball-park?

3. It seems likely to me that (assuming we want to keep the property for at least another 10 years), paying whatever the market conditions and the professionals ask will be a good bargain, better than doing nothing and letting the remaining lease dwindle away. Do you have any helpful comment on that?

[NomoneyNohoney]

I did a 90 year lease extension on a cheaper property a few years ago, and as a negotiating tool, presented varying prices indicated by various websites. This showed the freeholder's solicitors to be rapacious with their quotation of £14000 approx., and we subsequently agreed a figure a few thousand pounds less. A very satisfying day's work! I think the sooner you get it done the better, as the charge increases steeply as time decreases. Each of the following sites includes a calculator, so you can see the effects of delays. I paid for a surveyor to indicate a fair lease premium, but the freeholder's solicitor ignored that - it was only by sending the following list to the freeholder and talking directly to them, that I was able to get them to step away from their solicitor's ideas,and instead reach a more reasonable compromise.

My suggestion therefore, spend some time experimenting with these sites, and then use that as the basis of an offer. Initially I anticipated lease-advice.org as probably being definitive, but in my case, that was not the case.
HTH.

http://www.lease-advice.org.uk/	                         £9,500.00 	
http://www.myleasehold.co.uk/	                         £13,500.00 	
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/	                 £10,500.00 	
http://www.lease-extension.co.uk/	                 £8,700.00 	
http://www.leaseholdextensionvaluation.com/	         £8,199.00 	
http://www.brethertons.co.uk/	                         £8,500.00 	
http://www.canonburymanagement.co.uk	                 £6,215.00 	
http://www.lease-clinic.co.uk/	                         £9,138.00 	
http://www.freeholdcalculator.com/	                 £9,524.00 	
http://www.jpclaw.co.uk/	                         £6,750.00 	
http://www.fridaysmove.com/	                         £5,675.00 	
http://www.tenancy-agreements.co.uk/	                 £6,247.00

Average premium £8,537.33