Every year, a proportion of the large number of converted flat leases runs down to around 80 years and this results in the need to actively consider a lease extension. There are 3 main reasons why it is generally important to act at around the 70-80 year left time period :-

1. lenders for buyers when you sell may well be difficult if the lease has 70 years or less

2. your buyer themselves may require you to extend the lease before they buy

3. critically, once a lease has less than 70 years left unexpired, the cost of extending it will be significantly higher because under the statutory process to extend a lease, the formula would then include a technical calculation somewhat strangely called “marriage value”. in short, it will be cheaper to extend the lease before it gets to 80 years.

The other thing about lease extensions is that most are concluded without the value having to be determined by the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal. It is not possible for a freeholders to simply seek an exorbitant amount. Solicitors and surveyors who undertake this kind of work know the rough value to extend, which if the lease has more than 80 years left, for a typical flat worth perhaps £250,000.00 in London, would be around £10,0000.00. On top of this if you need to extend you will have to pay legal and possibly surveyors costs for both yourself and the freeholder, and that can easily ass another £3,000.00 plus VAT to the overall bill.

Personal injury claims is an unusual area of law in a number of respects. Firstly, such claims are the only genuine form of 100% no win no fee for clients, where the lawyers even pay out for all the expenses of the case as it progresses. Secondly, many clients don’t care where the lawyers are based, with only a small number for example googling personal injury solicitors London, whereas for other legal services such as perhaps making a will or conveyancing, a local solicitor is often an important consideration for clients. Personal injury solicitors are also generally somewhat different, many are more like businesspeople than lawyers, they understand marketing, client perceptions and the different marketing channels. It’s almost like a different profession, whether you they are based in London, Manchester or anywhere else.

What’s your view on the personal injury market, why so many injury lawyers are in Manchester or anything else related ?

Very clever idea – whilst many of the personal injury practices have become some of the most profitable and successful law firms around, personal injury law comes with some risks which are twofold :-

1.  big changes are coming which will seriously erode the high profit margins being enjoyed by personal injury specialists, which will include significant reduction in costs recoverable on success

2. more established personal injury firms have decent reserves of cash built on the back of a successful market presence for many years. As other law firms saw that personal injury was increasingly lucrative, they tried to enter the market, borrowing large sums to fund cases and cashflow. With personal injury and accident compensation claims, the lawyers not only have to wait a very long time to get paid but also have to pay out significant amounts along the way, such as court fees, barrister’s fees, medical examination fees and so on. many of the firms that didn’t have reserves have found that the money they borrowed had to be paid back and have hot the financial buffers.

This is where webuyanyfiles.com comes in, they are picking up the assets (files of the firms which are otherwise going bust). A very clever idea, but maybe they have 2 possible problems :-

1. could it be that the lenders who funded some of the firm’s in financial difficulties may have a claim on the files ? Perhaps webuyanyfiles.com do a deal with them ? Possibly, we don’t know.

2. could the firm behind the website face problems of an IP claim from webuyanycars.com ?

In any event we applaud the innovative nature of the idea, not a common occurrence in the legal world !