Extending Leases: The Tenant's Notice - By: Tim Bishop

When thinking about the process involved in extending leases, there is much written about the procedures in general terms, about how long you need to have resided in the flat, what advantages an application to extend your lease will create, which in lots of ways are really useful.

However the very basics of extending a lease involve you being knowledgeable about the initial stages i.e. drawing up a complete Tenants Notice. The majority of tenants will seek legal assistance at this time to help them draw this document up.

Certain information should be included in the Tenants Notice. Even though you might take things as they come and don't get bogged down with detail, it is crucial to be this way when composing this document. There is no way around this, if you wish to extend your lease, they you will need to refer to legal terms.

You will need to include lots of information as the document is a legal one. This includes the full names of the leaseholder and freeholder and the address of the property. It is important that the leasehold property in question is easily identifiable by an independent 3rd party from the Notice.

As well as the above, you need to include an offer to the freeholder for premium. This is an amount which is offered to the landlord in order to compensate them for losing the right to access the freehold interest. Although you might think that it is a good idea to start low and offer a small figure, this is not always the best plan. It you offer your landlord a fair price then he/she is more likely to begin negotiations with you. To get a fair valuation you should use a specialist surveyor. The freeholder will have less grounds to delay their Notice if the offer is fair.

The Notice will also include information about both yours and the freeholder's solicitors. It will then keep everybody informed about who is acting for whom.

Within your Tenant's Notice you should make an effort to highlight exactly when the Landlord should be returning their Counter Notice. This should usually be done 2 months from the date of the Tenant's Notice. This is both helpful and formal and applies in most cases involving extending leases.

As you can see from the above, drawing up a complete and valid Tenant's Notice is not always so straightforward. Therefore it is always sensible to get a solicitor to do this on your behalf. This will make sure that your lease extension starts off right.

About the Author

If you're looking for solicitors to help you extend your lease contact Bonallack and Bishop, solicitors with expertise in advising on extending leases. Tim Bishop is senior partner at the firm, responsible for all decisions. He has grown the firm by 1000% in 13 years.

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Tim-Bishop/62652

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