How to Extend the Lease on a Flat: Process, Costs and Your Rights
You can add 90 years to your lease and cut the ground rent to zero by serving a section 42 notice under the 1993 Act and paying a premium set by valuation. You no longer need to have owned the flat for two years.
Key points
- A qualifying leaseholder can claim 90 extra years at a peppercorn ground rent by serving a section 42 notice; the landlord cannot refuse, only argue about the price.
- The two-year ownership requirement was abolished on 31 January 2025, so you can start a claim as soon as you are the registered owner.
- The landlord has at least two months to serve a counter-notice; unresolved terms go to the First-tier Tribunal between two and six months after that.
- Where the lease has 80 years or fewer left, the premium includes marriage value; the 2024 Act abolishes it, but that part is not yet in force.
- Budget for the premium, your own solicitor and valuer, and the landlord's reasonable valuation and legal costs, which you must pay under the current law.
- An informal deal with the freeholder can be quicker but has no statutory protection; check the ground rent and the other terms before agreeing.
To extend the lease on a flat in England and Wales you serve a formal notice on your landlord under section 42 of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, pay a premium fixed by valuation (or, failing agreement, by the First-tier Tribunal), and receive a new lease with 90 years added to the unexpired term and the ground rent reduced to a peppercorn. Since 31 January 2025 there is no minimum period of ownership, so you can begin as soon as you are the registered owner. The alternative is an informal deal with the freeholder on whatever terms you both accept. This guide covers the statutory process step by step, how the premium is valued today, what it costs, how long it takes, the risks of the informal route, and what to do if you are selling a short-lease flat or cannot find your landlord.
Who qualifies and what you get
You are a qualifying tenant if your lease was originally granted for more than 21 years and you are the registered owner of the flat. Owning several flats is fine; a business tenancy is not, and a few landlords, such as charitable housing trusts, are outside the Act. Until 31 January 2025 you also had to have owned the flat for two years; section 27 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 removed that rule, so a buyer can serve notice the day after completion.
A statutory extension gives you a new lease for the unexpired term plus 90 years, at a peppercorn (nil) ground rent throughout, on the same terms as the existing lease apart from minor modernisation. A flat with 72 years left ends up with 162 years and no ground rent. The landlord cannot refuse; the only exception is a landlord who intends to redevelop and whose lease has fewer than five years to run, who can apply to court under section 47, which is rare. Leasehold vs freehold explains why the length of the lease matters so much to the flat's value and mortgageability.
The statutory route step by step
1. Get a valuation and instruct a solicitor
A surveyor who specialises in leasehold valuation calculates a realistic premium and advises on the figure to put in the notice. Your solicitor checks the lease, identifies the competent landlord (there may be an intermediate landlord as well as the freeholder) and obtains the titles from HM Land Registry.
2. Serve the section 42 notice
The notice identifies the flat and the lease, states the premium you propose and the terms of the new lease, and gives the landlord a date to respond at least two months ahead. The proposed premium must be a genuine figure: a nominal or deliberately low offer can invalidate the notice. Your solicitor normally registers the claim at HM Land Registry so it binds any buyer of the freehold.
Once served, the landlord has 21 days to ask you to prove your title, which you must do within 21 days of the request, and can demand a deposit of 10% of the premium you proposed or £250, whichever is more, payable to its solicitor as stakeholder within 14 days. From service you also become liable for the landlord's reasonable non-litigation costs, explained below.
3. The landlord's counter-notice
By the date in your notice the landlord must serve a counter-notice under section 45. It either admits your right and states the landlord's own premium and terms (usually far above yours, as an opening position), disputes your right, or declares an intention to apply to court on redevelopment grounds. If no counter-notice arrives at all, you can apply to the county court within six months for an order granting the lease on the terms in your own notice.
4. Negotiate, then the tribunal if needed
The two valuers negotiate and most claims settle here. If they cannot agree, either side applies to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to determine the premium and any disputed terms, no earlier than two months after the counter-notice and no later than six months after it. Miss the six-month deadline and the claim is deemed withdrawn, you pay the landlord's costs to date, and you cannot serve another notice for 12 months. Each side bears its own tribunal costs.
5. Complete the new lease
Once terms are agreed or determined, the solicitors prepare the new lease, your mortgage lender consents because the new lease replaces the old one as its security, you pay the premium and costs, and the new lease is registered at HM Land Registry. The Act sets further time limits for completion, so the file must keep moving even after the price is settled.
How the premium is worked out
The premium under Schedule 13 to the 1993 Act compensates the landlord for what it gives up. It has up to three parts.
- The ground rent the landlord will no longer receive for the rest of the existing term, capitalised at a rate drawn from market evidence.
- The reduction in value of the landlord's reversion, because the flat now comes back 90 years later. This is the value of the flat deferred for the length of the lease, at a deferment rate that case law has fixed at 5% for flats.
- Marriage value, only where the unexpired term is 80 years or less. Extending makes the flat worth more than the leasehold and freehold interests were worth separately, and the landlord takes half of that uplift. It commonly adds thousands of pounds, and the sum grows each year the lease shortens.
Part 2 of the 2024 Act would change the calculation: 990-year extensions, no marriage value, any ground rent above 0.1% of the flat's value ignored, prescribed deferment and capitalisation rates, and an end to leaseholders paying the landlord's costs. None of it is in force on 30 October 2026. The government consulted on the prescribed rates between 15 July and 21 October 2026 and has said the valuation reforms will follow as soon as possible from 2027. Whether to wait is a judgement: a lease that slips below 80 years in the meantime costs more under the current rules, so ask your valuer to model both outcomes.
What it costs and how people pay
Budget for four items.
- The premium. Indicative figures from 2026 practitioner guides run from around £4,000 to £5,000 for a long lease with a low ground rent on a modest flat, to £30,000 to £80,000 or more for a short lease on a high-value flat. Only a valuation of your own flat gives a reliable number.
- Your own professionals. A specialist valuation typically costs £400 to £800, and solicitors' fees for the notice, negotiation and new lease are commonly £1,500 to £3,000 plus VAT, usually fixed, with tribunal work charged separately.
- The landlord's costs. Under section 60 of the 1993 Act you pay the landlord's reasonable costs of checking your claim, valuing the flat and granting the lease, but not its tribunal costs. Expect £1,000 to £2,500, and challenge anything excessive.
- Registration and tax. HM Land Registry charges a fee to register the new lease, and on a flat that is your home Stamp Duty Land Tax arises only if the premium exceeds the residential nil-rate band, which is unusual; a landlord extending the lease of a let flat should ask whether the additional-property rates apply. See stamp duty land tax explained.
Most leaseholders pay from savings or a further advance on the mortgage, since the longer lease increases the lender's security. Legal aid is not available. Where several flats extend at once, fees per flat usually fall, and the group may find that buying the freehold together is better value.
How long it takes
A typical statutory extension takes six to twelve months from valuation to completion. The landlord has at least two months to respond, negotiation takes two to four months, and a tribunal determination can add six months or more. A cooperative landlord and a realistic opening offer shorten the process; an obstructive or missing landlord lengthens it. Registration at HM Land Registry can take months afterwards but holds nothing up, because the lease takes effect on completion.
The informal route and its risks
Nothing stops you simply asking the freeholder for a longer lease. Informal deals can be quicker and cheaper and can include terms the Act does not offer, such as a 999-year term. The drawbacks are that the landlord can refuse, delay or withdraw at any point; there is no tribunal to control the price or the landlord's costs; and some landlords offer a low premium in exchange for a new or increased ground rent for the remainder of the original term. Under the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 the rent for the added years must be a peppercorn, but the existing term is not protected in the same way, and a rising ground rent can make a flat harder to mortgage than the short lease did. If you go informal, have a solicitor compare the offer with a statutory valuation, confirm your lender accepts the new lease, and check the new document for other changes.
Selling with a short lease and missing landlords
Selling a flat with a short lease
A lease below about 80 years puts off buyers and their lenders, and the discount they demand usually exceeds the cost of extending. A seller can serve the section 42 notice before exchange and assign the benefit of it to the buyer under section 43, so the buyer completes the claim after purchase with the valuation date fixed by the notice. Alternatively, now that the two-year rule has gone, the buyer can serve notice straight after completion. A notice already served gives certainty on timing and often satisfies the buyer's lender. Either way the cost of extending is reflected in the price, alongside the usual legal fees for selling a house or flat.
When the freeholder cannot be found
If the landlord has vanished, has died with nobody administering the estate, or is a company that has been dissolved, you can apply to the county court under section 50 of the Act for a vesting order. The court dispenses with the section 42 notice, the First-tier Tribunal fixes the premium, and the money is paid into court for the landlord to claim if they ever reappear. You must show reasonable efforts to trace the landlord, such as Land Registry and Companies House searches, tracing agents and an advertisement. Where a dissolved company's freehold has passed to the Crown, the government's Bona Vacantia Division deals with it instead.
Do you need a solicitor, and what to do next
Serving a valid notice is technical work. Getting the landlord's identity, the dates or the proposed premium wrong can invalidate it and cost you a year, and the timetable after the counter-notice is unforgiving. The valuation is specialist work too. Use a solicitor who handles lease extensions regularly, ask for a fixed fee covering the notice and the conveyancing, ask how costs change if the matter reaches the tribunal, and ask the valuer whether negotiation is included in their fee.
To find a firm, look at property solicitors in Birmingham, the solicitors in Leeds landing page, or the property solicitors sector guide. What property law covers places lease extensions alongside the rest of residential property work, and LEASE, the government-funded Leasehold Advisory Service, gives free initial advice if you want to understand your position before paying anyone.
Frequently asked questions
Should I extend my lease now or wait for the 2024 Act reforms?
It depends on how many years are left. If your lease is comfortably above 80 years and the ground rent is low, waiting costs little because marriage value does not apply and the premium is already modest. If the lease is close to 80 years, falling below it before the reforms commence will add marriage value under the current rules, and nobody can say when the valuation changes will take effect beyond the government's "from 2027" aim. A valuer can estimate the premium under both regimes.
Can my landlord refuse to extend the lease?
Not if you qualify under the 1993 Act and serve a valid section 42 notice. The landlord can dispute the premium and the terms, which the First-tier Tribunal will settle, and in rare cases can resist on redevelopment grounds if the lease has under five years to run. A landlord can refuse an informal request, which is one reason the statutory route exists.
How much does a 90-year lease extension cost?
There is no fixed price. The premium depends on the flat's value, the years remaining and the ground rent, and 2026 practitioner guides put typical premiums anywhere from a few thousand pounds for a long lease to tens of thousands for a short one. On top of that come your own valuer and solicitor, commonly £2,000 to £4,000 together, and the landlord's reasonable costs, often £1,000 to £2,500. A valuation of your own flat is the only way to get a dependable figure.
Do I have to pay the landlord's legal costs?
Under the current law, yes. Section 60 of the 1993 Act makes you liable for the landlord's reasonable costs of investigating your claim, valuing the flat and granting the new lease, though not for its costs of any tribunal proceedings. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 would end this liability, but that provision has not been brought into force as at October 2026.
Can I extend the lease if I have just bought the flat?
Yes. The requirement to have owned the flat for two years was removed on 31 January 2025, so you can serve a section 42 notice as soon as you are registered as the owner at HM Land Registry. Many buyers of short-lease flats now do exactly that, or ask the seller to serve the notice before exchange and assign the benefit of it to them.
Is a lease extension the same as buying the freehold?
No. A lease extension gives you a longer lease of your own flat and leaves the freeholder in place. Buying the freehold, known as collective enfranchisement, means at least half the qualifying leaseholders in the building join together to purchase the landlord's interest, after which they control the building and can grant themselves very long leases. Enfranchisement costs more up front and needs cooperation, but removes the landlord for good.
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This guide describes the law in England and Wales as at 30 October 2026. It is general information, not legal advice about your situation; the law and the figures it quotes change, so check the position with a solicitor before acting. LawFirms.co.uk is a directory and does not provide legal services.