How to Extend Share of Freehold Lease

Co-owning your property's freehold is a major financial milestone, but it does not make your flat's lease disappear. A short leasehold title remains legally distinct from the freehold title and loses marketability and value when the remaining term drops below 80 to 85 years. Fortunately, extending a lease with a share of freehold is significantly faster, cheaper, and more flexible than dealing with an external commercial landlord. In most instances, co-owners can agree to an informal 999-year extension for a £0 premium, protecting their property's value while avoiding expensive valuation fees.

This comprehensive guide breaks down the exact legal mechanics, costs, timelines, and step-by-step procedures to help you complete your lease extension seamlessly.

Understanding the legal paradox: why your lease still matters

Many flat owners assume that purchasing a share of freehold automatically eliminates lease length issues. However, this is a dangerous misconception. When you own a flat with a share of freehold, HM Land Registry maintains two separate legal titles:

When you own a flat with a share of freehold, HM Land Registry maintains two separate legal titles:

1. The leasehold title: Regulates your individual right ot occupy the flat, defines service charge contributions, specifies maintenance duties, and sets the remaining lease term.
2. The freehold title: Governs the land and structural building, co-owned either in personal names (up to four individuals) or through a private limited management company.

Why you should extend your lease now

While it can be tempting to wait until selling or remortgaging, it is always a good idea to get ahead. Extending your lease early safeguards your financial equity, ensures uninterrupted mortgage eligibility, and resolves outdated legal terms.

• Preserving property value: A short leasehold title loses value independently of who owns the underlying freehold. Extending the lease protects your financial equity and adds an estimated 5% to 7% to your flat's market value.
• Mortgage lender requirements: Banks and building societies strictly enforce lease length limits, typically of around 80 to 85 years remaining. Lenders evaluate the leasehold title on its own, meaning a short lease will block remortaging or buyer finance regardless of share ownership.
• Modernising enforceable covenants: Over time, older leases become outdated or contain clerical errors. Extending your lease gives you a chance to modernise clauses, correct boundaries, or insert clear landlord enforcement covenants to ensure smooth building management.

Surrender, Re-Grant, and mortgage protection

Extending a lease term requires specific legal conveyancing procedures to satisfy HM Land Registry standards.

Deed of Surrender and Re-grant vs Deed of Variation

A common legal pitfall is attempting to extend a lease's length using a standard Deed of Variation. However, any legal instrument that extends the term of a lease or expands its physical boundaries automatically operates as a Deed of Surrender and Re-grant.

The old leasehold title is surrendered back to the freeholder and extinguished. Simultaneously, a new lease is granted for the extended term at a nominal peppercorn rent (£0) while preserving the original lease terms.

A Deed of Variation is strictly reserved for altering operational lease terms, such as varying ground rent schedules or correcting typos, without altering the term length.

Mortgage lender protection: Deed of Substituted Security

Because a surrender and re-grant extinguishes the original leasehold title, any registered mortgage attached to the old title would legally disappear without proper conveyancing. To protect the lender, your conveyancer executes a Deed of Substituted Security (or charge re-registration). This seamlessly transfers your existing mortgage charge from the old surrendered lease title directly onto the newly registered 999-year lease title.

Most lenders charge an administrative fee (typically £50 to £150) to review and approve these documents.

Comparing legal pathways: informal v statutory extensions

When extending a lease with a share of freehold, flat owners can choose between an informal agreement or the statutory legal route. Usually, a share of freeholders choose the informal route because they are essentially their own landlords, allowing them to extend their tenancies without the time, expense, and bureaucracy of strict statutory notices. However, in some cases, the statutory route is there to fall back on.

The informal route

As co-freeholders effectively grant lease extensions to themselves, the vast majority proceed informally. There is no need to serve formal statutory notices or pay valuation fees. If all co-owners agree, documents can be executed quickly by a single solicitor, often within 4 to 8 weeks.

The statutory route

In rare circumstances, where a co-freeholder refuses to cooperate or demands an unreasonable payment, you can trigger your statutory rights under leasehold reform legislation.

How is a freehold extension authorised?

How your lease extension is authorised depends directly on how the freehold legal title is held at HM Land Registry. Depending on whether your building's freehold is registered in individual personal names or under a private limited management company, the legal rules for getting sign-off vary significantly.

Structure A: Small conversions (individual names)

For small conversions, up to four individual flat owners are named directly on the legal freehold title register at HM Land Registry. Written consent is 100% mandatory, and every freeholder must sign the lease extension deeds.

If even one co-freeholder is missing, untraceable, or uncooperative, the fast-track informal extension process cannot proceed. In these cases, you must fall back on statutory legal remedies. No corporate layer exists, so all named parties must act in unison. Early communication with your fellow co-freeholders is vital to avoid delays.

Structure B: Larger blocks (Limited Management Company)

Where a private limited company owns the freehold, the company holds the legal title while the individual flat owners hold shares in the company. The rules for approving decisions, including the voting thresholds, are set out in the company’s Articles of Association and other constitutional documents. Depending on the decision, approval may require a formal board resolution or a shareholder vote.

Once the necessary approval has been given, the company’s directors or other authorised officers can sign the relevant legal documents on behalf of the freehold company. You do not necessarily need every shareholder to sign the final lease deed individually. Where the company’s rules allow it, the required resolution can authorise one or more directors to sign the deed on the company’s behalf.

The share of freehold leasehold extension process

Extending a lease on a share of freehold property can be more straightforward than a standard lease extension because the flat owners collectively control the freehold. However, the process still needs to be handled correctly.

In most cases, the aim is to replace the existing lease with a 999-year lease at a peppercorn ground rent for no premium. The process will usually follow these steps.

Obtain agreement from the other freeholders or the freehold management company to extend the lease. It is also important to establish who has the authority to approve the extension. Depending on how the freehold is held, this may require agreement from the other individual freeholders, a resolution of the management company, or approval from the company's directors or shareholders.

If the freehold is owned by a limited company, its Articles of Association should be reviewed to establish how decisions affecting the freehold must be authorised. The solicitor should also check the freehold title and the individual leasehold titles to confirm that the correct parties are involved and that there are no restrictions or other matters that could prevent the lease extension from proceeding.

Once the terms have been agreed, the parties should instruct solicitors experienced in a share of freehold lease extensions. The solicitor will prepare the necessary documentation, which may include a Deed of Surrender and Re-grant or, depending on the circumstances, a new lease.

Where all parties are in agreement, it may be possible for one firm to act for the freeholder company and the participating leaseholders, provided there is no conflict of interest and the solicitors are satisfied that they can act for everyone involved. This can sometimes reduce the overall legal costs.

If you have a mortgage secured against your flat, your lender will usually need to approve the proposed lease extension before completion. The lender may require its existing charge to be transferred to, or re-registered against, the new leasehold title.

Depending on the lender and the way the lease extension is structured, additional documentation may be required. This can include a Deed of Substituted Security, but this is not automatically required in every lease extension.

Obtaining lender consent early is important because failing to satisfy the lender's requirements can delay completion or prevent the new lease from being registered.

Once all parties and any mortgage lenders have approved the documentation, the relevant documents can be signed. Following completion, the solicitor will make the necessary application to HM Land Registry. Depending on the structure of the transaction, this may involve closing or surrendering the existing leasehold title and registering the new 999-year lease, together with any mortgage charge against the new title.

Critical pitfalls and how to avoid them

While a share of freehold can make extending your lease considerably easier, it does not remove the potential for legal or practical complications. Most problems arise because the freehold ownership structure is not up to date, one of the freeholders is difficult to contact, or the lease extension is left until a sale or remortgage is already underway.

Identifying these issues early can save significant time and legal costs.

• Missing freeholder or last share in the Management Company:

One of the most common problems occurs when a flat has changed hands, but the freehold company's records have not been updated correctly. The solicitor may need to rectify the company's records and deal with missing documentation before the lease extension can proceed.

You can avoid it by checking the freehold company's share register, Companies House records, and relevant property titles before starting the lease extension. If there is a missing share or a historic ownership issue, resolve it at the outset instead of allowing it to hold up the lease extension later.

• Tax and legal structure issues:

Extensions granted for £0 premium generally do not trigger Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT). However, where freeholds are held by limited companies without an explicit Trust Deed, professional legal drafting is essential to avoid inadvertent corporate Capital Gains Tax (CGT) exposure.

• Tax and legal structure issues:
• Delaying until sale or remortgage:

Procrastination is a major risk. If you wait until you are under pressure to sell or remortgage, an uncontactable neighbor or a missing freehold signature can delay your completion by months.

How long does a share of freehold lease extension take?

An agreed share of freehold lease extension can often be completed more quickly than a statutory lease extension because there is no need to negotiate with an independent freeholder or follow the formal statutory notice procedure.

Where everyone is in agreement, and the title is straightforward, the legal work can potentially be completed within a few weeks. More complicated cases, particularly those involving multiple leaseholders, company approvals, or lender requirements, can take considerably longer.

As an estimate, a typical timeframe may look like:

Process stage	Key legal requirement	Estimated timeline	Typical costs
1. Agreement in principle	Written approval for 999-year / £0 premium terms	1–2 weeks	£0
2. Title & articles review	Verification of shareholders & title register	1–2 weeks	Included in legal fees
3. Drafting surrender & re-grant	Preparation of new 999-year deed	2–3 weeks	£700 – £1,200
4. Mortgage lender consent	Execution of Deed of Substituted Security	2–4 weeks	£50 – £150 (Lender fee)
5. Land Registry filing	Extinguishing old title & updating registers	1–3 months	£40 – £100 (Registry fee)

Cost breakdown of extending your leasehold

While you avoid paying a landlord premium, essential legal and administrative costs still apply.

At SAM Conveyancing, our legal fees for handling a Share of Freehold lease extension are structured straightforwardly:

• Informal lease extension: We charge £720 including VAT for surrendering the existing lease and the grant of a new lease for one property.
• Formal lease extensions: Charged at £720 including VAT.
• Additional lease extension: For any extra lease extension simultaneously during the same process, we charge {INFORMAL-LEASE-EXTENSION-FOR-SHARE-OF-FREEHOLDER-EXTRA-INC-VAT} including VAT>

If the share of freeholders agree not to vary any clauses or dispute any terms, one solicitor can represent both the freeholders and the leaseholder, meaning no third-party solicitor or additional legal fee is necessary.

If the co-freeholders require separate representation to act strictly on behalf of the freehold entity, this fee applies.

Expert Tip: Get your conveyancing fees cheaper

If all flat owners in a building extend their leases simultaneously, legal fees can be shared, securing substantial group conveyancing discounts.

Sarah Haller

Partner & Conveyancing Solicitor

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Key Takeaways
• The lease extension process, when you own a share of freehold, should mean that you can save time and money because:
  • You can agree to extend to a maximum of 999 years with a Peppercorn Ground Rent.
  • You can save costs on legal fees if the terms are undisputed.
  • All freeholder owners can update their leases at the same time.
  • You can agree to waive the premium payable to the freeholders for the extension.
  • A share of freehold lease extension costs £720 - £720 but it will be more expensive if you have to take the formal route.
• Issues arise where the share of freeholders do not consent to the extension or if they are absent i.e. not around to give authority to the extension.

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The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 was passed on the 24th May 2024, but is not fully enforced yet and the date for this is not yet clear. We will update our content as and when the finalised legislation is published.

Share of the freehold lease extension process

• Agree with the share of freeholders to the extension.
• Instruct a solicitor to draft a new lease. This is an informal lease extension with no prescribed timeframes.
• (If mortgage) Draft Deed of Substituted Security.
• Submit the lease to the share of freeholders and the leaseholder to sign.
• Surrender the old lease and submit the new lease to the Land Registry.

The process is complicated if the share of freeholders isn't in agreement or if one of the co-owners is absent and a vesting order is required.



In this article
1. Why should you extend your share of freehold lease?
2. How you can you best prepare to extend your share of freehold property lease?
3. Do you need to get a RICS freehold valuation to extend?
4. The share of freehold lease extension process.
5. How long does the freehold lease extension take?
6. How much is a share of freehold lease extension likely to cost?
7. Other share of freeholders refusal or cannot locate.
8. Appendix.
9. FAQs



Why should you extend your share of freehold lease?

You should extend your share of the freehold property lease, particularly if it is short, because:

• Your individual lease becomes more valuable;
• You'll be able to remortgage (you can't on a 'short' lease);
• You make it easier to sell your leasehold if you wish to.

If you have the opportunity to extend your lease now (with other shares of freeholder's consent) you should grab it.

Further down the line, should you be required to extend it (say to remortgage), you might be unable to find all the shares of freeholders to get an agreement or unable to get consent. Either of these will result in an informal extension or a more costly and drawn-out process.

Got a mortgage? Then you'll need your lender's consent for your lease extension.

As a general rule of thumb, if you're using or have used a mortgage to buy a home, you'll always need to refer to the lender involved for consent if you want to do anything that affects the property's title, such as extend its lease length or remortgage against it.

You should have no difficulty getting consent for a lease extension in the vast majority of cases, however, because you're planning to carry out something which will add value to the asset.




How can you best prepare to extend your share of freehold property lease?

• You must get the agreement of the other share of freeholders to proceed with the lease extension first otherwise, as stated, you might ultimately have to go through a drawn-out statutory procedure with court proceedings, which is likely to cost far more. This is discussed below.
• You should also get confirmation from your other freeholder lease sharer(s) that you're appointing a solicitor to act on behalf of both the freeholder and you as leaseholder (this will save money on legal costs) and that you will be liable for associated costs.
• Finally, you should confirm whether 999 Years is to be the term of the lease extension and whether you will be charged a peppercorn rent.




Do you need to get a RICS freehold valuation to extend?

You don't need to get a RICS freehold valuation for your lease extension but you are advised to get one in the rare event that you are required to pay a premium, such that this premium can be worked out as fairly as possible.




You should not have to pay any premium when extending your lease as a share of the freehold.

There is no obvious reason why you would get a freehold valuation for a lease extension as a share of the freehold because all you want to do - and most often, the other freeholder/s with you - is extend your share of the freehold lease to 999 years and make or keep the ground rent 'peppercorn'.

It's true that if you weren't a share of the freeholder and wanted to extend your lease, your freeholder would want to get value (the premium) for selling you an enriched asset and thus an expert calculation would be critical. But as a share of freeholder, effectively you'd be paying yourself in part.

Additionally, whatever procedure is agreed for carrying out your share of freeholder lease extension will have to be carried out if anyone else wants to extend their lease in turn: if you're expected to pay a premium then any other share of freeholder will have to in future. Once again, this would be self-defeating, although not technically impossible.




The share of freehold lease extension process

Assuming you have agreement from your other share of freeholders to proceed, you should get an undertaking from your other share of freeholder/s that your solicitor is going to act for you and for the freeholder, thus waiving your right to independence - this saves costs. Your solicitor then proceeds with the sale process and the required conveyancing.

You would only get a RICS lease extension valuation of your freehold before instructing your solicitor if you're expected to pay a premium, but, for reasons explained above, it's highly unlikely that you'd be expected to pay a premium.

You then normally have 2 options regarding the format of the new lease:

Option 1: An entirely new lease is drawn up

This option involves all the terms of all the leases in the entire building being rewritten into an entirely new lease. You only normally need to do this if:

• The current leases are substantially defective in many respects; or
• The format of the lease differs throughout the building - they should ideally be uniform in all key aspects.




Option 2: A deed of surrender and re-grant is created

Effectively this is a ‘short form' of a new lease which refers back to the majority of the terms of the existing lease and only amends the length of the term (normally to 999 years) and reduces the rent (normally to a 'peppercorn', i.e. there is no rent payable).

Additionally, you can choose to incorporate minor amendments to the leases. For example, you might remove any covenanted restriction againstkeeping pets in a leasehold or you might want to add a covenant which enables the freeholder to act against breaches of the underlying leasehold contract.

The majority of leases are extended in this way. Your solicitor draws up the new lease (which is then registered) and completes the required conveyancing.

Our experienced solicitors can guide you through this process highly efficiently.

Lenders and mortgage deeds

If your leasehold has a mortgage and your mortgage lender has consented to a plan to extend your share of the freehold lease, to comply with the Land Registry's requirements as part of your conveyancing you'll have to sign either:

• a deed of substituted security – this substitutes the new lease as security for the mortgage, in place of the original lease; or
• a new mortgage deed – in this case, the lender will have to notify the registry on completion that the original mortgage is discharged.



Do you have to pay stamp duty on a lease extension?

Lease extensions are usually exempt from stamp duty because where the surrender of a lease is given in consideration of a new lease being granted between the same parties, neither the surrender of the old lease nor the grant of the new lease is regarded as chargeable consideration for the purposes of stamp duty.

You don't have to tell HMRC or pay stamp duty when you buy a new or assigned lease of 7 years or more, as long as the purchase price or the premium is less than £40,000 and the annual rent is less than £1,000.

You also don't have to inform HMRC or pay stamp duty when you assign or surrender a residential or non-residential lease (granted for 7 years or more) and the chargeable consideration is less than £40,000.

That said, if you are extending a lease on a property which is not your only property and the agreed premium is £40,000 or over, then the 3% stamp duty surcharge will apply: please call our experts for more information on this topic - 0333 344 3234 (local call charges apply).





How long does the freehold lease extension take?

Assuming you have lender consent (if any lender consent is required to extend leases here) and consent from the other share of freeholders, you should be able to extend your lease in a matter of weeks (perhaps 4 - 6 weeks), although this will depend on individual circumstances.




How much is a share of freehold lease extension likely to cost?

SAM Conveyancing charges £720 Inc VAT for the conveyancing for extending a single leasehold title, as part of a share of freehold itself.

This falls to £720 Inc VAT per extending leasehold title if there is more than one as long as they are all part of the same share of freehold block.

In the rare event that you require a RICS leasehold valuation as well, SAM Conveyancing charges £600 Inc VAT for this service.



Free Initial Leasehold Advice
Arrange a free consultation with one of our experienced conveyancing executives on:

• Lease extension.
• Purchasing the leasehold, freehold or share of freehold.
• Selling a leasehold property with a short lease.
• Extending the lease at the same time as you sell.
Arrange a Free Lease Consultation


We specialise in lease extensions and have RICS valuers for the premium/negotiation and solicitors for the section 42 notice and formal or informal extension. Request a tailored quote for:
• RICS Lease Extension Valuation or L2 Homebuyers Survey.
• Serving of the section 42 notice or section 13 notice on the freeholder.
• Negotiation with the freeholder (with the support of your RICS valuer).
• Completion of the legal work, including deed of variation.
• Application to Tribunal to determine the premium.
• Vesting order for absent landlords.



What happens if your other share of freeholders refuse to allow your lease extension?

You then have to take the 'formal' statutory route to lease extension. You can effectively force the other shareholders to agree to the full premium payment required to grant you a 90-year lease extension with a peppercorn rent.

This is a more expensive process and protracted process for which you are strongly advised to get a RICS freehold valuation and instruct experienced lease extension solicitors. The quicker you can find agreement as a rule in all these matters, the cheaper the outcome will be.

The formal process at its most extreme can involve court proceedings and an application to a tribunal, at which point the freeholder must pay their own legal costs, a further encouragement to settle the matter.





What happens if you can't locate your other share of freeholder/s for your lease extension?

You have to apply to the court for a Vesting Order. You will need to make demonstrable efforts to find the absent share of freeholder and there are legal fees and costs involved as well as time limits to adhere to.

This situation can occur in unexpected ways. There have been many cases where a previous share of freeholder has sold their leasehold interest to someone else but, perhaps inadvertently, has not sold on their share of the freehold.

It remains then that legally they must be consulted if someone wants to extend their lease, but they might not be easily found.

The situation can also occur if one of the share of freeholders gets repossessed: the lender has no right to transfer the share of freehold away from them. People in this position have sometimes been known to be found or appear years later, seeking huge remuneration for the sale of their share of freehold interest.




Tip: Establish a Limited Company to Run Your Share of Freehold if Feasible

Holding your share of freehold interest collectively in a limited company enables the co-owners and you to place special provisions in the memorandum and articles of association linking the ownership of the freehold automatically to the ownership of the flats.

This can greatly assist you in the future as it enables a Director (which can be any one of the share of freeholders) to transfer a share even if it was not dealt with by an outgoing share of freehold leasehold tenant and so avoid the troublesome situation on resale or repossession referred to above.

If you haven't set this up in your company articles it may well be worth doing so.

The flip side is that, if you form a limited company, you'll have legal requirements to file formal returns and accounts, even if they are dormant, at least once a year, and the penalties for non-compliance are relatively high. If your limited company is struck off the Company Register and dissolved, it is costly and can be time-consuming to restore it to the register. It also may not make sense in terms of time, costs and returns, to formalise matters in this way if there are just two or three of you sharing a freehold or property ownership.

It should be clear from this and from other matters above, however, that it's well worth moving the value of property ownership from the freehold to the underlying leasehold, regardless of whether you run your share of freehold as a company or on an individual basis.




Appendix 1: Diagram of the formal lease extension process (other share of freeholders don't agree to lease extension)



Lease Extension Process Infographic: Free Download



Appendix 2: Cost of the formal lease extension process (other share of freeholders don't agree to lease extension)




Formal Lease Extension	Estimated Costs
RICS Lease Valuation	£600 Inc VAT
Section 42 notice legal fees	£600 Inc VAT
Lease extension legal fees	£720
Stamp Duty You don't have to tell HMRC or pay SDLT when you buy an entirely new lease or assigned a longer lease of 7 years or more, as long as the premium is less than £40,000 and the annual rent is less than £1,000.	TBC
Land Registration Based on the property market value. Read about the land registration charge	TBC
Online Identification (per Person) Read what ID does your solicitor need	£8
Official Copy of Register & Title Plan (per title)	£6
Official Copy of Lease	£3
Bankruptcy and OS1 priority Land Registry fee	£10
Registration of the Section 42 notice at the Land Registry (formal route only)	£20
Additional solicitor’s legal fee for deed of substituted security (only if mortgage)	£120 INC VAT




Are you a share of freeholder and need a lease extension because of a short lease?

It may be that you're looking to remortgage or want to sell up and your lender or prospective buyer expects this and may be pressuring you to move quickly.

NB - You will need the permission of fellow freeholders or the other share of freeholder/s to extend your lease. If you cannot get this for any reason, call us or request a call back for free initial advice on your options.

Our experienced share of freehold lease extension solicitors can help you complete your lease extension efficiently and at a reasonable price.

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