Your lease
Extending your lease
Lewisham Council does not negotiate lease extensions by private agreement. You will need to extend your lease using the statutory process under the Leasehold Reform, Housing & Urban Development Act 1993. This entitles you to a 90-year extension of your lease. The freeholder is the London Borough of Lewisham, and notice to extend your lease should be served by post on The Director of Law, Corporate Governance & Elections, London Borough of Lewisham, Laurence House, Catford SE6 4RU. Service by email is not accepted by the Council.
We are unable to provide advice on lease extensions, but you can find a guide to the process on the Leasehold Advisory Service website, showing the steps you need to take to extend your lease. There’s also a lease extension calculator that will provide a rough estimate of the cost.
To go ahead and extend your lease, you'll need to instruct a solicitor who will serve the London Borough of Lewisham with a ‘Section 42 Notice’ to extend your lease. Once a valid Section 42 Notice has been received, negotiation around the terms and the lease extension price can begin. Please note that your notice will need to state the price that you are proposing to pay for the extension, which must be a genuine opening offer, so you will need to take your own valuation advice on this.
Currently the costs for extending a lease are £650 for Legal fees and £550 for Valuation fees. No VAT is payable on these fees.
If you need a copy of your lease, log on to the housing services portal, or purchase a copy of of your lease from our online shop.
Write to our Legal Services at:
Legal Services
Lewisham Council
5th Floor
Laurence House
Catford Road
SE6 4RU
Lease extensions – potential changes to legislation
When considering extending your lease you need to be aware of potential changes in legislation that is likely to be beneficial to leaseholders.
On 7 January 2021, the Housing Secretary announced the following proposals:
- the right for current leasehold homeowners to extend their existing lease by 990 years and reduce their ground rent to zero
- a proposed online calculator to provide a standardised valuation for a leaseholder to extend their lease
- at first glance, this appears to be a positive move for leaseholders allowing them to extend a lease by up to 990 years and the introduction of a standardised valuation
For now, these are only proposals. We recommend you seek legal advice if you are considering extending your lease in advance of any new legislation coming into force.
If you are thinking of selling your leasehold property
Check your lease and boundaries. Make sure what you are selling is included in your lease and lease plan. Ensure the information the estate agent uses for marketing your property reflects this accurately. This will avoid delays and costs during the sales process.
Any errors that need to be rectified or other changes you may want to request should be raised as early as possible, to allow us sufficient time to consider and deal with them.
When you accept an offer on your property your solicitors will require lots of information including a pre-assignment pack. See below for how to order a pre-assignment pack.
You will also need to provide your solicitors with documents such as gas safety certificates, electrical safety certificates and information about any alterations you may have made to your home. Please ensure you have all the certificates up to date and all the documents to hand, to avoid delays.