Lease enquiry FAQs

A lease is a contract that states what the leaseholder is legally bound to do and what the landlord – the freeholder – has to do. It also states how long the leaseholder owns the property.

The leaseholder’s legal responsibilities include payment of estate and building maintenance costs, and any ground rent.

The landlord will usually be legally bound to maintain the buildings and common areas. They'll also be responsible for the collecting of service charges, sinking funds, and for recording all the financial details.

If you find it hard to fully understand the wording of your lease, seek legal advice from a solicitor. Understanding the legal terminology is vital to understanding the lease itself. Make sure that you comprehend all the conditions on the lease before you buy. It can be complicated and costly to change them after the purchase.

This will usually be shown on the first or second page of your lease. It's very important that you know how many years remain on the lease. If you're thinking of buying a property, it's important to know this from the start.

The value of your property reduces as the term (number of years remaining) of the lease gets shorter.

If the lease runs out, the home becomes the property of the landlord. This is particularly important if your lease has just over 80 years remaining. For more information on extending your lease you can visit our home ownership page.

If you don’t pay your service charge or ground rent to the freeholder on time your lease could be forfeited by the freeholder and the flat resold without the freeholder being liable for your mortgage.

In order to forfeit a lease, the freeholder would have to obtain a County Court Judgment (CCJ) against you, then serve a Section 146 Notice.

Sometimes the landlord or management company carries out the management of the property themselves.

Alternatively a managing agent is appointed to manage and maintain the building on their behalf, in accordance with the terms of the lease. The agent takes instruction from the landlord, not the tenants. However, they should constantly be aware of the tenants’ wishes and requirements.

The agent will receive a fee for day-to-day management, which will usually be paid by tenants as part of the service charges. This may be based on a specified percentage of the day-to-day service charges; it is good and common practice is for it to be a fixed fee per annum.

Where major works are involved, the agent may charge an additional fee, which will normally be a percentage of the total cost of such works.

Leasehold ownership usually includes everything within the four walls of the property, including floorboards and plaster to walls and ceiling, but does not usually include the external or structural walls.

The structure and common parts of the building and the land it stands on are usually owned by the freeholder, who is also the landlord. The landlord is usually responsible for the maintenance and repair of the building.

The costs of maintenance and repair are normally recoverable through the service charges and billed to the tenants.

The lease will normally require the landlord to take out adequate insurance for the building and the common parts. The lease will give them the right to recover the cost of the premium through the service charges.

This policy will not normally cover the personal possessions of individual tenants for which contents insurance should be taken out.

Building insurance

There will usually be a legal requirement in the lease for the freeholder to pay building insurance and recover via service charge accordingly.

Contents insurance

As the leaseholder, you must take out sufficient contents insurance to cover your possessions in the property.

Effectively you're buying a leasehold house or flat, and this will be either a new-build or resale home. However, as you presently can't afford to buy a home outright, you're paying rent on the portion that you don't yet own.

You have the option to buy further shares – up to and including 100% ownership in most instances – if and when you choose to do so. The price of buying further shares (referred to as staircasing) will be based on an independent valuation at the time that you purchase the further share. You can find out more about the process of buying additional shares on our staircasing pages and in our guide.

Even though, as a shared owner, you're buying a percentage of a property you hold a full repairing lease and will be responsible for all repairs. You must check your lease for full details.

The lease may state that you need the landlord’s permission before making any alterations. Please ensure you check your lease and do not make any alterations before speaking to us.

Your landlord can charge a reasonable fee for giving you permission to cover their legal and valuation expenses.

For further information please visit our Home improvements and alteration page.

You must look at your lease to see what the conveyancing plan shows as your legal responsibility.

It's usually identified as an inwards T-mark, sometimes in red, indicating that the fence or boundary wall is your responsibility.

In the example below, two T marks are shown in the top-left corner. The owner of the highlighted property is responsible for maintenance and repair.

Your lease agreement will specify if you own your parking space or you may have a licence to use a particular space. Upon purchasing your home the sales team and your solicitor will make this clear to you.

As a shared owner the terms of your lease generally mean you don't have the right to sublet part of your home.

You may be able to take in a lodger with our written permission. Lease agreements will need to be checked and complied with. We'll explore if this is possible with you, particularly if circumstances are unavoidable and where evidence can be provided.

If you own 100% and you are a leaseholder you'll still need to seek consent to sublet. We'll provide consent in line with the terms of your lease. If you have a mortgage, you might need your mortgage lender's approval too.

You're responsible for paying any service charge and making sure your tenant is a good neighbour. If your tenants breach the terms of your lease; for example, by causing anti-social behaviour; it's you as the leaseholder who we'll take action against.

Your landlord can charge a reasonable administration fee for assessing your request. For more information visit our home ownership page here. and scroll to 'Subletting options'.

Your landlord will usually have the right to access your flat for certain purposes. Example text you might see in your lease: ‘the lessor and the lessor’s duly authorised Surveyors or Agents may with or without workmen upon giving forty-eight hours previous notice in writing enter the demised premises for the purpose of (x)’. Your landlord will usually have the right to access your flat to check the state of repair of the flat and to carry out repairs to other parts of the building.

It's the tenant’s obligation to pay the service charges and ground rent promptly under the terms of the lease. If they're not paid and the landlord is able to satisfy a court that the charges are properly due and reasonable, then they can begin forfeiture proceedings by applying for a court order. The court has wide discretion where forfeiture is concerned, but if forfeiture is approved by a court, this can lead to the landlord repossessing the property. The landlord may also seek a county court judgement for payment which can affect a tenant’s ability to obtain credit.

Forfeiture is the landlord's remedy against a tenant who is in breach of covenants within the lease. Such a clause is found in the vast majority of residential property leases. It's the Landlord's ultimate sanction to enable the defaulting tenant to be removed from the property. It's effect is to bring  the lease to an end. It's a powerful and potentially dangerous remedy.

Shared owners will find more information to help understand service charges on our myclarionhousing.com pages. If you’re having trouble paying your rent you'll find support on these pages of myclarionhousing.com as well.