Your lease
Your lease is a contract between you, your landlord and the freeholder. The terms of leases vary so it’s important you know where yours is in case you need to check anything.
Leasehold is a long tenancy giving you the right to occupy and use the property for a period of time. The period of time, or ‘term’ of the lease, is fixed at its start and will usually be for 99 or 125 years, during which time the lease can be bought and sold.
When the lease expires the property will revert back to the landlord or freeholder. Shared-owners and fixed-equity homeowners hold a lease for the property as well as traditional leaseholders.
In general, the lease usually relates to everything inside the building, including floorboards and the plasterwork to walls and ceilings. It does not usually include the external or structural walls. The structure of the building and the land it stands on is owned by the landlord, often referred to as the freeholder, who is usually responsible for the structural maintenance and repair of the building.
Leaseholders are not necessarily free to do whatever they want in the property as the lease often includes conditions, to protect the rights of everyone within the building and the surrounding area.
Your lease includes information about the following:-
The premises and property – the property that we have sold to you.
The building – the building that the flat is part of.
The shared parts – the drives, entrances, forecourts, roads, pavements, shared passages, landings, lifts, open spaces and areas providing a way into the building.
Your rights and responsibilities – what you are entitled to and your responsibilities.
Our rights and responsibilities – what we are entitled to and our responsibilities.
Service charges – how we work out charges for the services we provide for leaseholders.