Your lease is a legal contract between us and you (the leaseholder).
Your original shared ownership lease will be for either 99 or 125 years. As your lease gets shorter the value of your share can be affected. This can also cause issues when you re-mortgage as lenders are reluctant to lend on a lease with shorter leases. When a lease has less than 80 years remaining, the cost to extend can increase quite substantially.
We have a voluntary lease extension process available to all of our Shared Owners. You will need to complete our lease extension application form, alternatively we can send or email this out to you. You will need to pay an administration fee and we will arrange for a specialist valuer to visit your home. You can register the lease extension as a home improvement and the added value will be taken into consideration should you staircase at a later date. Where applicable, your lease will be extended up to a maximum of 990 years and ground rent will become peppercorn (£0.00 ground rent).
If you want to remove someone from the lease, we will need you to provide us with a copy of certified identification for that person. We will also need your mortgage lender to provide written consent and a copy of the new mortgage offer (if applicable), plus a redemption statement.
Download the application form for assigning your lease from joint to sole ownership here.
If you wish to add someone to the lease, we will need copy of certified identification for that person, a copy of the new mortgage offer in joint names and a redemption statement from your current lender. We have no objections to you borrowing extra money on your mortgage to buy out your partner’s share, but we will need written confirmation from your solicitor that the additional borrowing is solely for this purpose.
Download the application form for adding a person to your charge or lease here.
If your mortgage rate is coming to an end, or you’re considering purchasing more shares in your home, you’ll need to contact your mortgage advisor or lender to arrange a new deal.
We suggest that you allow at least three months for this process. If you’re changing lender or borrowing more money, the mortgage lender will require Moat to issue them with the mortgagee protection clause (MPC). This is our guarantee to the lender that should anything happen, the mortgage lender will receive monies as a first priority.
Additional borrowing on your mortgage can also be used for essential repairs that aren’t covered by buildings insurance or to allow one leaseholder to buy another leaseholder’s interest in the same property. Borrowing more money for other reasons is possible, but this would not benefit from the mortgagee protection clause and would therefore be at the discretion of your lender.
Take a look at our Homeowner's Handbook or contact postsalesapprovals@moat.co.uk.
