Considerable additional savings have been made, in addition to those negotiated on the premium payable, in respect of the landlords’ reasonable statutory s33 | s60 statutory costs.
A saving of over 30.5% was negotiated off Grosvenor’s statutory costs in respect of a collective claim for the freehold on a block in Mayfair at the turn of the year.
Earlier this month, a reduction in excess of 18% was negotiated off Cadogan’s statutory costs in respect of a lease extension on a small basement one bedroom flat in Chelsea.
It is worth solicitors informing the client seeking an extended lease | freehold not to agree a mortgage offer too soon in the process in order to allow time for these final negotiations to be made. After all, a tenant has a period of 4 months within which to complete once all terms have been agreed including the landlords costs.
Frustratingly one client fell unwittingly into this trap and suddenly found himself under a rushed deadline to agree the premium on his lease extension in order to not loose his mortgage offer which had to be drawn down by a certain date. As a result he accepted the landlords quoting statutory costs rather than run the risk of delaying settlement for possibly quite a few months in order to secure ‘a quick deal’ to argue the point along with a further reduction in premium.
Happily the ‘quick deal’ premium agreed was already under target.