Deed of variation for a lease

What is a lease variation deed?

A Deed of Variation is a formal legal document used to modify the terms of an existing lease agreement between a landlord and a tenant whereby both parties formally agree to make changes to the original lease. In many cases the Deed of Variation will be registered at the Land Registry.

The most common time when a flat owner finds that they need to get formally vary their lease is before selling or on remortgage.

Reasons you may need to vary a lease

The most common reasons for needing to vary a lease are :-

• To extend the lease - where the lease is approaching 80 years left and needs to be extended to comply with the likely buyer’s mortgage lenders requirements –  for more on this please see our lease extension page.

• Mortgage lender requirements - some clauses in a lease granted many years ago may no longer comply with current mortgage lenders requirements for a buyer or on remortgage. The most common areas creating problems with old leases are building Insurance clauses not being comprehensive enough or not noting a mortgage lenders interest and/or the lack of a  mutual enforceability clause

• Defect in the lease wording or the lease plan – in this situation, after sorting out the issue with a deed of variation, you may want to look at whether your solicitor, when you bought, was negligent in not spotting the error.

• The layout of the flat has been altered - which means the lease plan needs to be varied.

• Change of use - more common with commercial property, but can apply to a mixed use property such as flat above a shop.

What’s involved and how much does it cost?

Commonly, as leaseholder, you will not only need to pay your own legal fees and other costs such as Land Registry fees, but also the freeholders legal fees and probably also your mortgage lenders legal fees. The deed of variation itself is fairly straightforward. You should budget for several thousand pounds of legal fees and costs.

With 2 or 3 parties involved and where the matter may not be their top priority, it can take several months to get a deed of variation agreed, signed off and registered at the Land Registry.

Solicitors for lease variations

With 1 of the UK’s largest and best rated property law teams, we provide a highly experienced, efficient and cost effective service for clients who need a deed of variation. Contact us for a chat or to get a fee quote.