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Your lease

Your lease is a legal agreement between you as the leaseholder, and us as the landlord.

It sets out:

  • what you're expected to do (and not do)
  • what we're required to do for you
  • who's responsible for certain repairs and services
  • what costs you are expected to contribute towards

Additional copies

We can provide additional copies of your lease for £10.

Adding or removing someone from a lease

If you own 100% of your home, you'll need to ask your solicitor to arrange a notice of transfer which will confirm someone has been added to, or removed from the lease. We'll need your solicitor to send us this so we can amend our records. There is a fee of £92.40 to do this.

If you're a shared owner and still have a mortgage, you'll need to arrange a new mortgage showing the name(s) of leaseholder(s) following the removal of the other person. We'll need to see a copy of the mortgage offer to check it meets our affordability criteria.

A new mortgage offer may not be required when adding a partner to the lease, but you should check with your lender to make sure.

We'll need a notice of transfer and/or notice of charge confirming the changes. There is a fee of £92.40 to administer this. Usually your solicitor will pay this on your behalf and include the cost in their fees to you.

Your rights and responsibilities

Your lease will give you full details, but as a guide you are responsible for:

  • The repairs and maintenance to your home
  • The inside of your home
  • The outside of the building if you live in a house
  • The home's heating system
  • Buying home contents insurance to protect things in your home. We arrange buildings insurance for you
  • Arranging a gas safety check for your boiler each year

If you live in a flat, we'll maintain the outside of the block and any shared areas.

As a leaseholder you have right to know our name and address so you can contact us. 

You must

  • Keep the parts of the property that you're responsible for in good condition
  • Decorate the property and clean the windows
  • Follow any rules that we set for managing the block
  • Pay your rent, service charges and/or ground rent (where applicable)
  • Pay your council tax, utility bills and any other charges on time
  • Allow us into your home so we can meet our responsibilities under the lease. We will give you notice if we need to visit your home
  • Tell us when you plan to sell or sublet your home.

You must not

  • Run any business from your home. One family must use it as a private home only
  • Make alterations or additions to the property without our written permission. You'll still have to pay service charges if you make alterations
  • Do anything in your home which might become a nuisance to us or your neighbours
  • Do anything which might affect insurance cover
  • Park a car or anything else on our land without permission unless you have a right to do so under your lease

Our services to homeowners

Below is a list of all the services we provide. Please note that not all services are provided around all homes. You'll need to check your service charges to see which services you should be receive.

Caretaking
Cleaning and upkeep of communal areas such as corridors, lifts, walkways and bin/shed enclosures, litter picking from paths, grass and drying areas, removing fly tipping, twice yearly bin cleaning and reporting communal repairs.

Communal aerials
The cost of maintenance to the communal television aerial system in your block.

Communal general repairs
We sometimes have to repair the structure as well as external and communal parts of a building. This charge will also include maintenance to any water tanks provided in the block and pest control measures taken in the block.

Communal cleaning
This includes monthly cleaning of glass in the communal areas of the block. This service is provided by an external contractor and the details can be found on the notice boards in your block.

Lighting maintenance
Maintenance of lamp columns and replacement of light bulbs on your block and communal areas, including inspection and maintenance of emergency lighting systems.

Door entry system
Where provided, the door entry-phone charge covers the cost of its repair, maintenance and replacement as well as the cost of the telephone line.

Grounds maintenance
Maintaining communal land including flowerbeds and grassed areas. It includes a charge for the maintenance of shrubs, and tree inspections every three years.

Lift maintenance
If there are lifts in your block we'll make sure they are in good repair. We use a contracted company to maintain the lifts and pay them a fixed amount each year. Lift costs are made up of annual planned and preventative maintenance measures, reactive repairs, lift monitoring (telephones line/alarms) and lift inspection costs.

Security maintenance
This includes the costs of electric gates, car park barriers and CCTV, if your building has got these.

Water charges (communal)
Costs of water supply and disposal for any communal (landlord's) water supply

Gas (communal)
Costs of gas supply to any communal boiler supplying district heating

Electricity (communal)
This covers the cost of electricity for communal lighting, including entrance halls, balconies and stairwells and on the estate grounds. It also includes the cost of electricity supplied to any equipment in the communal areas such as door entry systems, water pumps and smoke alarms. Lighting timers will be changed twice a year in spring and autumn to ensure hallway lighting is sufficient.

Maintenance of equipment
This includes the costs of inspecting and maintaining all fire safety equipment, pumping equipment and any other mechanical and/or electrical equipment in the communal areas serving the block

Management company charge
This is the charge made to us by external management companies. These are mostly on our newer schemes where a management company appointed by the developer manages the estate. The charge usually includes estate management charges, insurances and ground rent where applicable.

Cyclical maintenance fund, Roof replacement fund, Life replacement fund, General reserve (Sinking Funds)
For major works to roofs, lifts, windows and planned external redecorations and repairs we use money from the sinking funds we've collected for your block towards the cost. For some properties we also collect a general reserve fund to put towards replacement or maintenance of other substantial items, such as door entry systems.

Building insurance
Under the terms of your lease, we have to insure the building against a range of risks. You are responsible for taking out home contents insurance cover for your contents and personal belongings.

Annual audit fee
Each year the final accounts are reviewed and certified by independent auditors to ensure the service charge statement represents a fair summary of the income and expenditure and is sufficiently supported by accounts, receipts and other documents and has been prepared in accordance with Section 21(4) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.

Management fee
These are the administration and accounting costs involved in providing services and repairs. The administrative cost of providing heating, lighting and buildings insurance are not included in the calculation of management fees. This fee covers costs including:

  • The staff and office costs in dealing with the calculation, billing and dealing with queries in relation to service charges
  • Providing information about your service charge account and general information on all aspects of home ownership
  • The administrative and IT cost of calculating and sending you invoices, statements and accounting for payments made.

Running a business from your home

You shouldn't run a business from your home. It's a condition of your lease that you must only use the property as a private home. 

Taking in a lodger

You can have a lodger in your home. But you'll be responsible for them, and you must make sure they keep to the conditions in your lease.

You should check the gov.uk website for information on lodgers because you may be able to claim some tax benefits on the rent you get paid by your lodger.

Subletting a leasehold flat

If you own 100% of your leasehold flat then you can sublet it, but you must tell us first.

To sublet you'll need to:

  • Pay us a subletting fee to sub-let your property
  • Provide us with your full contact details (including your new address)
  • Send us a copy of the tenancy agreement
  • Provide us with contact details for your tenant, or the details of any managing/letting agent
  • Make sure your tenant does not break the conditions of your lease
  • Contact your lender if you have a mortgage. You'll need their permission

Please fill in our shared owner and leaseholder contact form to confirm the details of tenancy. You'll need to:

  • Attach a copy of the tenancy agreement
  • Pay a fee to us of £79.20 each time you take in a new tenant
  • Explain to your tenant they need to abide by the terms in the lease

Subletting a shared ownership home

If you're a shared owner you can't usually sublet. This is because shared ownership is designed to help people get onto the housing ladder. These homes should not be used to generate an income.

There are some rare exceptions where we'll consider this. One example is where we are not yet able to issue an EWS1 form to confirm the building has met the latest fire safety regulations.

Please get in touch with us if you feel this applies to you.

Current guidance indicates that the rent cannot be for more than the local housing allowance (ie. What housing benefit would be paid for the property).

However, we realise that in some instances this wouldn't cover your monthly outgoings. This is a complex area so please contact us to talk about this.

In the meantime, your mortgage provider will need to give permission for any subletting. You should therefore contact them in the first instance for their guidance and approval.

If they require further information from us please get in touch with us using the shared ownership and leaseholder contact form.

Anti social behaviour

When ASB occurs it can have a lasting and significant impact on our customers and the wider community.

We take it seriously and aim to balance enforcement action and intervention, with prevention.

We will adopt a supportive approach when dealing with victims, witnesses and suspected offenders, and will be flexible in our approach to managing incidents.

We recognise and accept our role as a responsible landlord to tackle and prevent ASB. We make sure that we work together with residents and other agencies to share this responsibility and tackle the problem.

Please visit our anti social behaviour pages for more information and to report anti social behaviour.