Lease extension - new Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024

As a homeowner, (leaseholder or shared owner), you will hold a lease with us.

When your remaining lease term is approaching 80 years, you will need to consider extending your lease. If you want to buy more shares, re-mortgage, or sell your home with a lease term approaching 80 years, then you may find this difficult.

We offer the opportunity for homeowners to extend via a statutory or voluntary route.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 has recently become law (it has not yet come into effect), which will strengthen existing consumer rights and introduce new rights for leaseholders, including making it cheaper for some to extend their lease.

The original purpose of the legislation was to ensure that leaseholders paid less, but this may not be the case for everyone. For those who hold a short lease (less than 80 years) lease extensions should be cheaper once the relevant part of the Act is in force and marriage value (the difference between the property's value before and after an 80-year lease is extended) is abolished. The new government will decide when to implement the rest of the Act which will likely be done in stages over the coming months and years. Until then, current laws on leasehold remain.

Therefore, if your lease term is approaching 80 years and you are not imminently wishing to buy more shares, re-mortgage or sell your property, then it may be worth waiting until the Act becomes law before any decision to proceed is made.

If you wish to confirm the remaining term on your lease or proceed with a lease extension, then please do not hesitate to contact the Home Ownership team by calling 0333 400 8222 or emailing the team: 

Home Ownership Dorset HomeOwnershipDorset@aster.co.uk

Home Ownership Wiltshire HomeOwnership.Wiltshire@aster.co.uk

Home Ownership Somerset HomeOwnershipSomerset@aster.co.uk

Home Ownership Hampshire HomeOwnershipHants@aster.co.uk

You can find more information here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/leasehold-reforms-become-law  

https://hoa.org.uk/advice/guides-for-homeowners/for-owners/leasehold-reform/

Leasehold Extension - Getting Started - The Leasehold Advisory Service (lease-advice.org)