Collective Enfranchisement and Individual Lease Extensions
We act for both landlords and tenants in relation to collective enfranchisement of buildings and applications for individual lease extensions, although by far the majority of the work is for tenants’ companies for whom we continue to act after the enfranchisement has been completed. We have engaged in this work from the very inception of the relevant legislation, the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, and indeed were active in acquiring the freehold of buildings for tenants prior to that legislation, by other routes.
We have successfully completed in the last 19 years very many collective enfranchisements and lease extensions from very large multiple blocks involving hundreds of tenants, to small converted buildings. The relevant legislation in relation to this work is notoriously difficult to use and cases can therefore become complex and highly technical.
This department is headed up by Alan Edwards, supported by associate solicitor Natalie Turner. The charging rates therefore vary widely and we are therefore able to offer a fee earner whose charging rates are appropriate to the particular case.
In addition to advising on and conducting collective enfranchisement we also advise on and grant 999 year leases to the participating tenants.
Our expertise in this area dovetails neatly with our conveyancing department as it is sometimes the case that flats are being sold in a block which is subject to an application for collective enfranchisement or the flat itself could be the subject of a notice of claim for a lease extension. We are ideally placed therefore to advise on all these issues in the flat marketplace.
In addition to collective enfranchisement Alan Edwards deals with the enfranchisement of houses under the Leasehold Reform Act 1967.