We have our flat on the market and are trying to get a figure for how much it will cost to extend the lease.
We phoned the Lease Advice people (free governmental advice) today and just want to check with anyone who knows whether we've understood this correctly.
We believe we have to instruct a surveyor who will calculate the cost of buying the lease based on a certain formula. Once we have this figure we advise our solicitor, who passes it back to the freeholder and serves the section 42. Apparently the freeholder can contest it at tribunal but would only win the argument in very rare circumstances?
We would then agree with a potential buyer to knock this figure of the asking price of our flat and hopefully they will make us an offer based on this?
Can anyone confirm whether this is correct? Any other advice would be much appreciated.

It could take quite a while to determine the cost of a lease extension especially if you end up going to the LVT. I would have thought you would have got the lease extension out of the way before putting your property on the market as I can't see that you will be able to proceed quickly in the event that somebody wants to buy your property. Are you prepared to wait for the time/cost it takes to determine the cost of a lease extension. The estate agents should be able to do a valuation based on current lease in which case your sale is not dependent on any lease extension.

How long is the lease? Why are you having to get involved in a lease extension if you are selling?

Thanks for your reply apc.
The lease is currently 76 years, which I thought was OK. However the couple who like our flat are also interested in a flat with another estate agent, and that agent has suggested to the buyers that 76 years isn't good - I suppose with the hope of putting them off our flat and selling the one he's representing.
The freeholders have suggested it will cost 15k to renew the lease, and again the buyers are now aware of this. Our solicitor has advised us that this figure is grossly estimated and that we should get a surveyor to calculate his estimated cost and then advise the freeholder.
With hindsight we wish we had got this sorted out last year, but we didn't. I would rather not bother extending the lease and letting the buyers put a lower offer in. But I'm not sure if anyone would want to now!
Just to complicate things I'm pregnant and we're desperate to sell.

The agent is right - 76 years isn't good. We were shown a flat last year that needed the lease extending. The EA didn't tell us this fact until we went to view the place, which meant we wasted our time. The flat was a good price but not so much cheaper than similar ones that we smelled a rat before we went to view.

The EA said it would cost about £25K to extend the lease. Unfortunately we didn't have the extra £25K so it was a non-starter. Plus, I think most buyers wouldn't want the hassle of having to sort all that out when they have just moved. Chances are the lease could be extended no problem, but personally I wouldn't want to take that chance.

Tina,

I believe that any leaseholder has to have owned the lease for a period of two years before they have any right to a lease extension which would further complicate your position. Have you considered a freehold purchase with your other leaseholders?

Yes we all looked into buying the freehold a few years ago but there are about 40 flats in the block and not everyone wnated to do it so it was a non-starter.
The impression my husband got from the solicitor was that we could start proceedings and the new owners could complete the extension?

We're now thinking that we should get the surveyor to calculate their figure and then just keep the paperwork so that if a buyer does ask about extending the lease, we've got something that hopefully shows a lower estimate than what the freeholder would give?
We're willing to be flexible on the price our flat's going for so we're hoping the buyer will want to negotiate based on this?