One shock some homeowners suffer when putting their bricks and mortar on the market is the discovery that their leasehold is under the minimum required by lenders to qualify for a mortgage - making the property more difficult to sell as it will require a leasehold extension.
The Halifax, for example, requires 30 years after the end of the mortgage before it will lend you money. So as soon as a property's remaining leasehold hits 55 years, it will need to be extended (assuming the buyer wants to take out a 25-year mortgage).
This can mean stumping up thousands of pounds to pay for an extension.
One way around this (used by savvy property developers) is to get a legally binding offer in writing from the freeholder promising to extend the leasehold.
You can then take this piece of paper to the table when you are about to exchange contracts, so that all the parties can agree that the leasehold extension will be performed after the sale.
The buyer of the property pays the agreed price (and not the price minus the cost of buying a leasehold extension) and, once the vendor has the cash from the sale, they pay the cost of the extension to the freeholder and the lease is extended. That way, the extension is paid for after the buyer acquires the property.
More importantly, this stops the buyer having to pay up front for a leasehold extension - something that may put a lot of potential purchasers off - and keeps the building society happy.