How do you find out how long a lease is left on a leasehold property?
Knowing the length of the lease on the property you want to purchase is absolutely essential, as you may have to pay out more money later if it turns out to be short.
Some buyers can be confused about how to find this information out, but it’s actually very easy to find out how long a lease is left on a property…
Option 1:
If you are buying a property from an estate agent, they should be able to provide you with this information.
A good rule of thumb is to ask your estate agent to see the Leasehold Title and then they can point out where to find the information in the paperwork.
Your conveyancing solicitor will also check this information, but unless you have a no sale, no fee solicitor, you may want to get this information before going to the expense of proceeding with the sale via your solicitor.
Option 2:
Another option is to download the Office Copy Entry of the Leasehold Title from the Land Registry at this link: http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/
It will cost £4.00 but it will spell out in black and white how old the lease is.
Where you will find the lease information on the Leasehold Title
When you read the document you are looking for wording that will appear something like this:
(29.10.2010) Short particulars of the lease(s) (or under-lease(s))
under which the land is held:
Date : 9 July 2010
Term : 99 years from 9 July 2010
So you need to do a bit of math to figure out exactly how long is left on the lease from the date you accessed the leasehold title.
The Leasehold title will also tell you how much the ground rent will be.
What is considered a short lease?
Generally speaking, a lease of 60-70 years or less is considered short and it will affect the price of your property. You may be able to negotiate with the seller for a cheaper price if the lease is shorter than 100 years, or even ask them to go through the process of extending the lease before you officially buy.
While it may seem like 60-100 years is a lot, and will last you more than your lifetime, you will find that the closer the lease gets to zero, the more it costs to extend, and you will struggle to sell the house the smaller the lease. By spending a little bit more now, or negotiating a little bit more, you could save yourself thousands of pounds and a big headache in the future.