Marriage value

Marriage value represents the increase in your flat’s market value that results from extending the lease. By law, the leaseholder and landlord share this increase equally, with each receiving 50%.

Please note, we do not provide any telephone or written advice on marriage value, however the below provides a summary.

You only pay marriage value if your lease has 80 years or fewer remaining at the date you serve your Section 42 notice. A Section 42 notice is the formal legal notice a leaseholder serves on their landlord to start the statutory lease extension process.

If your lease has more than 80 years left, you will not have to pay any marriage value. This is known as the 80-year threshold.

Many leaseholders choose to extend before their lease length falls to 80 years to avoid this extra cost.

When you extend your lease, the total value of the different ownership interests changes.

Before the extension

• You own a leasehold interest with a limited number of years left.
• Your landlord owns the right to regain the property when your lease ends (known as the reversion).

After the extension

• You own a much longer lease, which increases your flat’s market value.
• The landlord’s reversion is delayed by another 90 years and becomes less valuable.

The marriage value is the difference between the combined value of both you and your landlord’s interests:

1. before the lease is extended
2. after the lease is extended

That total increase is shared equally between you and your landlord.

A professional valuer will calculate marriage value as:

• the value of leaseholder’s new interest plus the landlord’s new interest minus the value of leaseholder’s current interest plus the landlord’s current interest

Half of this difference (50%) is paid to the landlord.

If there are intermediate landlords, the tribunal may divide the landlord’s 50% share between them. The tribunal is an independent legal body that decides leasehold disputes when the parties cannot agree.

Small changes in assumptions, such as deferment rate (which is the discount rate used to calculate the present value of the landlord’s future interest in the property), ground rent pattern or local sales evidence, can change the marriage value by thousands of pounds.

Because of this, both leaseholder and landlord usually instruct specialist valuers. If they cannot agree, a tribunal (the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) in England or Leasehold Valuation Tribunal in Wales decides the correct amount using expert evidence.

Find a surveyor on the RICS website.

• No marriage value is payable if your lease has more than 80 years remaining when notice is served.
• Below 80 years, marriage value is split 50/50 between you and your landlord.
• The valuation date is the date you serve your Section 42 notice.
• Always use a qualified surveyor experienced in leasehold enfranchisement to calculate it.
• The marriage value is only one component of the total premium.