Marriage Value

I am currently investigating extending my lease. I have 80 years and 10 months left on my existing lease. I employed a surveyor to value the property for me and to provide advice on what should be offered to the freeholder as the offer for the lease extension. He has valued the property at £55,000 and suggested an offer of £5500 to £6000 including marriage value. My understanding is that marriage values are not payable until the lease drops below 80 years is this correct?

Hi Shelly,

You are correct that Marriage Value is not payable whilst the lease has 80 years or more remaining. With 10 months remaining, you would be wise to start negotiations with your freeholder now, particularly as you may find it difficult to get a formal offer in writing for some time to come. 10 months should give you ample to time to negotiate (assuming you get a response from the freeholder).

If you get to about 1 month remaining before your lease drops below 80 years, you need to serve a formal notice on your freeholder (I can prepare this for you). I say 1 month, as it will take a week or two to get your lease, title documents and prepare a notice for you to sign before it can be served.

Serving of the notice fixes the date for valuation purposes and avoids any marriage value being payable.

Many thanks

Tom