Possibility of continuity of title for lease extensions at Land Registry

A lease extension acts as a surrender and re-grant of a new lease and therefore registration of a lease extension at the Land Registry will be with a new title number.  

We have received notification from the Land Registry quoted below, that the Land Registry is trialling a new process for applications for lease extensions which will involve the completed registration of the lease extension receiving the same title number as the original lease.  Effectively the existing leasehold title number will be re-used.

Often the lease extension incorporates the terms of the previous lease whilst varying them and so in addition to the benefits of speed of registration indicated by the Land Registry, it should be useful to have a title for the lease extension which links to the previous lease.

This is a trial at this stage and so we will await to see whether this practice will be adopted by the Land Registry.