As they promised at the end of 2024 the Government has now brought in Regulations that abolish the need to wait two years after purchase in order to qualify for a lease extension under the relevant Legislation.
Until this point anyone purchasing a flat and wanting to extend their lease immediately would have required the person selling the flat to serve a Section 42 notice on the freeholder and to transfer the right to extend the lease over to the purchaser on completion of the sale.
However, even with the changes to this provision many purchasers are still requiring vendors to serve the relevant notice as before. This is because it could take considerable time for the new purchase to be registered at the Land Registry and purchasers want ot be sure that they can extedn theor leases.
Further changes to the right to maange are set to come in in March 2025