Your flat or apartment can look exactly the same while one important number silently gets worse.

That number is the time left on the lease.

If you own a leasehold flat in Peterborough, you are not buying the flat forever in the same way you would own a freehold house.

You own the right to live there for the number of years left on the lease.

And every year, that number gets smaller.

That is why people start getting twitchy when a lease gets close to 80 years.

Why does 80 years matter?

Because under the rules that apply now, extending a lease can become more expensive once it has 80 years or less left.

There is a technical term for part of that extra cost “marriage value” but the plain-English version is this:

Once the lease drops below 80 years, the freeholder may be entitled to a share of the increase in the flat’s value created by extending the lease.

That can push the price up and the value down.

So if your lease has, say, 82 years left, you have a very different decision from somebody with 72 years left.

Does a shorter lease make the flat harder to sell?

It can.

Buyers often get nervous about shorter leases because they know they may have to pay to extend it later.

Mortgage lenders can also have their own rules about how many years they want left on a lease.

There is no single “Peterborough mortgage rule” saying every lender stops at the same number.

One lender may be happy. Another may not be.

So if you are thinking about selling or remortgaging, do not assume your lease is fine just because somebody else in the block got a mortgage.

Check your own lender or buyer situation.

What does “extending the lease” actually mean?

At the moment, many qualifying flat owners can use the formal legal process to add 90 years to the lease.

So a lease with 75 years left could, in simple terms, become one with 165 years left.

The process also reduces the ground rent to what lawyers call a “peppercorn”.

That sounds ridiculous, but it simply means effectively no ground rent.

And what is a Section 42 notice?

Another bit of legal language that needs translating.

A Section 42 notice is basically the formal letter that starts the legal lease-extension process.

It is not something most people should casually download and fire off themselves.

Once that process starts, dates and legal rules matter, so this is usually where a solicitor who deals with lease extensions and a specialist valuer earn their money.

The valuer helps work out what the extension is likely to cost.

The solicitor handles the legal process.

But aren’t the rules changing?

Yes.

This is the frustrating bit.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 was designed to make lease extensions much better for leaseholders, including moving towards much longer extensions and getting rid of marriage value.

But not all of those changes are actually in force yet.

So you have two things happening at once:

the current lease keeps getting shorter

while

the government is still bringing the new rules into effect

That is why “I’ll just wait for the new rules” is not automatically the best answer.

So should you extend now or wait?

Here is the coffee-table version.

If you have plenty of time left on the lease

Say 90 years, 100 years or more.

You may decide there is no rush, especially if you are not planning to sell or remortgage.

If you are getting close to 80 years

This is where I would stop guessing.

Get the actual number of years left and get proper advice.

Waiting a few years could make the current legal cost worse.

If you are already below 80 years

The decision is trickier.

Future reforms may make things cheaper.

But meanwhile your lease is still getting shorter, and that can affect selling and mortgages now.

The four things I would find out first

Before paying anybody, get these four answers:

1. Exactly how many years are left on your lease?
2. How much ground rent are you paying now?
3. Roughly what would a lease extension cost under today’s rules?
4. Are you likely to sell or remortgage in the next few years?
5.  

Once you know those four things, the decision becomes much clearer.

Without them, you are basically guessing.

The bit worth remembering 

A lease does not suddenly become bad at 80 years.

But 80 years is an important financial line under the current rules.

So if your Peterborough flat is anywhere near that point, this is one of those jobs that deserves half an hour of attention now rather than a nasty surprise when you come to sell.