James Wyatt
FRICS
Parthenia
45 Pont Street
London SW1X 0BD
DDI: 0203 397 5500
Email: jwyatt@parthenia.co.uk
Website: www.parthenia.co.uk
James Wyatt, of Parthenia, is mounting a legal challenge to the valuation methodology of lease extensions, which he asserts is unfair to leaseholders.
The issue, which has considerable cost implications for perhaps 2 million leaseholders with short leases, is the most important legal challenge to the existing order in leasehold.
The case has been heard by the property tribunal and is to be addressed by the Court of Appeal in the summer of 2017.
The issues have been reported by the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, by the Financial Times, by Private Eye and were raised in the House of Commons on December 20 2016 and at the All Party Parliamentary Group meeting on December 14 2016.
James Wyatt has 20 years of experience in prime central London first as an agent at two leading agents and then latterly as Head of Valuation at John D Wood & Co. He has instigated two cases which created case law at the House of Lords. He has written working papers on deferment rates and relativity and previously authored the residential property chapter for Tolleys. He has appeared as an expert at both the High Court and at Tribunal (member of the Expert Witness Institute and Society of Expert Witnesses). He developed the John D Wood & Co. indices with Professor Muellbauer (Oxford), Professor Gibbons (LSE) and Dr Bracke (LSE).
He has degrees in economics and his Master’s thesis examined property, equities, bonds and bills in the UK since 1900. He is a member of the Economic Research Council, Institute of Economic Affairs and the Adam Smith Institute.
Parthenia offers services in lease extension, enfranchisement, valuation and professional witness provision.
The following is from its website:
Lease extension
We are recognized by our peers as leading experts in the field of lease extension and enfranchisement and have opened the annual conference at the Law Society for the last three years. We have written working papers on deferment rates and relativity and have been at the forefront at challenging the status quo. Many of our clients prefer a more pragmatic approach and only about 3%-5% of our cases ever go before a Tribunal.
If you have owned the Property for two years and the lease was originally granted for a term of over 21 years you should qualify for a lease extension (if you are a purchaser the owner may be able to serve Notice and assign the right to you upon completion).
The Steps
Step 1
Appoint us to advise on the cost of a lease extension. Our report will contain our opinion on the likely cost of extending the lease by 90 years and the amount we would recommend is entered into the formal notice of claim.
Step 2
If you decide to proceed appoint a specialist solicitor to serve the Notice of Claim. Once the Notice of Claim is served you must pay a deposit and you also become liable for the ‘reasonable’ valuation and legal fees of the Freeholder. The date the Claim is admitted is the valuation date and effectively ‘stops the clock’.
Step 3
The Freeholder will serve a counter Notice and there will be a period of negotiation. If agreement cannot be reached after six months a protective application is made to the Tribunal for determination.
Step 4
The premium is agreed and solicitors agree to the terms of the lease and a completion date is set.
The premium for the 90 year lease extension is calculated by capitalizing out the ground rent to a lump sum, discounting the reversionary interest and if the lease is under 80 years calculating the marriage value.
The Government sponsors Lease and this has an enormous amount of useful information, seehttp://www.lease-advice.org/
Enfranchisement
We are recognized by our peers as leading experts in the field of enfranchisement and have opened the annual conference at the Law Society for the last three years. We have written working papers on deferment rates and relativity and have been at the forefront at challenging the status quo. Many of our clients prefer a more pragmatic approach and only about 3%-5% of our cases ever go before a Tribunal.
If you have owned the Property for two years and the lease was originally granted for a term of over 21 years you should qualify to buy the freehold (if you are a purchaser the owner may be able to serve Notice and assign the right to you upon completion).
The Steps
Step 1
Appoint us to give advice on the cost of buying the freehold. Our report will contain our opinion on the likely price of the freehold and the amount we would start negotiations.
Step 2
If you decide to proceed appoint a specialist solicitor to serve the Notice of Claim. Once the Notice of Claim is served you must pay a deposit and you also become liable for the ‘reasonable’ valuation and legal fees of the Freeholder. The date the Claim is admitted is the valuation date and effectively ‘stops the clock’.
Step 3
The Freeholder will serve a counter Notice and there will be a period of negotiation. If agreement cannot be reached a protective application can be made to the Tribunal for determination.
Step 4
The price is agreed and solicitors agree to the terms of the transfer and a completion date is set.
The price of the freehold is calculated by capitalizing out the ground rent to a lump sum, discounting the reversionary interest and if the lease is under 80 years calculating the marriage value.
The Government sponsors Lease and this has an enormous amount of useful information, seehttp://www.lease-advice.org/
