Homeowner FAQs
Here are some of your frequently asked
questions.
Who is responsible for the maintenance and management of my
home?
Leaseholders are responsible for the repair and maintenance of
everything inside their home, unless specifically indicated
otherwise. The Trust is responsible for the structure, exterior and
common parts (if any) of the building. Your lease requires you to
pay your share of the costs of managing and maintaining the common
parts of the building. We are also responsible for providing
routine services such as cleaning and lighting of communal
areas.
If your property is in a block on a estate, you must also
contribute towards the management and maintenance of the communal
estate areas. Your lease also requires you to pay your share of the
cost of any major repairs to your building and/or your estate.
Your responsibility as a leaseholder means that you have a legal
duty to pay towards all management costs.
Your lease contains your rights and responsibilities as well as
ours. However, there are particular details that apply to all
our leases and these are summarised below. Please consult your
lease for further details, as the summary below is not exhaustive.
A copy of your lease can be obtained from your conveyancing
solicitor or from us. There may be a charge for this service.
- The rights and responsibilities of both the landlord and the
leaseholder.
- The collection and payment of service charges.
- Assignment of the leasehold interest.
- Consultation.
- The landlord’s right to forfeit the lease and recover
possession of the property, in the event of breach of the lease by
the leaseholder.
- Repair and maintenance of the building and/or estate which
includes the leaseholder’s property.
What is a lease?
The lease is a legal agreement between the leaseholder and the
landlord (Somer Community Housing Trust). When you buy a flat or a
maisonette from the Trust, you purchase a leasehold interest and
the Trust keeps the freehold interest.
As the freeholder, the Trust owns the land on which the property
is built and charges a ground rent. The ground rents on properties
sold under the Preserved Right to Buy and Right to Acquire
rules are normally £10 per year.
Common terms used in a lease
- The leaseholder or lessee is you (as the owner of the
lease).
- The landlord or lessor is Somer Community Housing Trust (as the
owner of the freehold).
- The lease percentage is the means by which your service charge
contribution is assessed. The percentage for the block charge and,
if appropriate, for any estate charge, represents the proportion of
costs you will have to pay.
- The demise premises is the part of the block or house included
in the lease which you have purchased, in other words the interior
of your flat or maisonette. It is your responsibility to maintain
this area, which includes: the floor surface (including
floorboards floor screed and balcony floors), the ceiling
plaster or plasterboard, the wall plaster or plasterboard, the
walls (excluding the exterior wall and walls dividing the property
from other properties or common parts), window glass (glazing), and
all internal doors and door frames.
- The reserved property or common parts means the parts of the
block or house and the estate that are not included within the
property you have purchased and which are not separately let to
other owners or occupiers. It is our responsibility to repair and
maintain these parts and you will have to contribute towards the
cost of repairs, maintenance and cleaning. Common parts
include communal staircases, corridors and balconies, door
entry systems, lifts, roofs, gutters and fascias, foundations,
external walls or walls dividing your property from another (but
not the internal faces of walls within your home), external window
frames, and forecourts, drying areas or shared gardens within the
estate areas.
Can I extend my lease?
Most leaseholders have the right to purchase a lease extension
to the term of their lease. The usual extension term is 90 years.
Please contact your solicitor or visit the Leaseholder Advisory Service
website for more information.
Can I sublet my property?
On the whole, the Trust has no objection to the subletting of
your home, but most leases state that the property must be let as a
single private residence and not used for business purposes. Please
consult your lease for details.
What administration charges are there?
This table shows the charges we make for administrative
services.
| Service |
Price (inc. VAT) |
| Landlord's retrospective consent |
£117.50 |
| Release of restrictive covenant |
£293.75 |
| Licence |
£100.00 |
| Photocopying lease
(disbursement) |
£35.00 (no VAT) |
| Deed of postponements |
£58.75 |
| Land disposals and easements |
£117.50 |
| Notice of assignment |
£41.13 |
| Notice of mortgage |
£41.13 |
| Leasehold information pack |
£182.13 |
Insurance
Under the terms of your lease, the Trust is required to insure
your property. You pay the Trust via your service charges for the
policy, which covers your main home, outbuildings, yards,
forecourts, fixtures and fittings, garages, walls, gates, piping,
ducting, cables, wires and any public mains for which you are
responsible.
Remember this isn’t a contents policy, so you are still
responsible for arranging your own cover for items such as kitchen
appliances, carpets and personal belongings. If you are a member of
homeplus, you can join our low-cost insurance scheme; contact us
for details.
Your policy schedule tells you what you are covered for and what
excess you will need to pay. The policy doesn’t cover wear and
tear, general maintenance, poor workmanship, or storm damage to
fences and gates, so you should take reasonable precautions to
prevent or minimise any damage or liability which might result in a
claim. This includes maintaining your property and locking your
windows and doors when your property is empty.
To make a claim, you should contact Leasehold Services for a
form as soon as possible. However, if your service charges are not
up to date, it may delay or prevent you from making a claim.
If the property is uninhabitable following a serious loss such
as a fire, the insurer will usually pay the cost of reasonable
alternative accommodation. The policy is also extended by an
endorsement to include the interest of the lessees and
mortgages.
Your policy covers you for a range of events and perils:
- Fire, lightning, explosion, (including subterranean fire and
full terrorism cover which includes damage caused by bombs and
incendiary devices): excess £50
- Aircraft and other aerial devices : excess £50
- Earthquake (including shock damage): excess £50
- Storm and flood: excess £50
- Escape of water from any tank, apparatus or pipe: excess
£50
- Impact damage (by any road vehicle or animal): excess £50
- Malicious damage (including riot, civil commotion, strikers,
locked-out workers): excess £50
- Theft or attempted theft damage (following violent or forcible
entry, excluding void properties and contents): excess
£50
- Accidental damage: excess £50
- Breakage or collapse of television or road signal receiving
apparatus: excess £50
- Accidental damage of fixed glass and of sanitary ware: excess
£50
- Accidental damage to supply pipes and cables: excess
£50
- Falling trees or branches: excess £50
- Leakage of oil from any fixed, oil-fired heating installation:
excess £50
- Landslip, subsidence and heave: excess £1,000
Rights and responsibilities
A guide to your rights and responsibilities is published by
Communities and Local Government, which you can download here:
Residential long leaseholders : a guide to your rights and
responsibilities
Repairs
Leaseholders are responsible for repairs to their homes, but any
repairs required to the common parts are the responsibility of the
landlord. You will pay a contribution towards these costs.
» Report a
repair
Service charge
Your lease requires you to pay your share of the costs of
managing the block and estate complex (which includes insuring,
maintaining and repairing the exterior and communal parts of the
building and for providing any other service specified in the
lease). If your block of flats is on an estate, you also contribute
towards the management and maintenance of the communal estate
areas.
Your lease also requires you to pay your share of the costs of
any major repairs to your building or estate, and any improvements
that benefit you or your flat.
The Trust is legally obliged to charge leaseholders for their
share of its costs and to make sure that the charges it sets are
reasonable. These costs can include, repairs, tv aerial, insurance,
communal cleaning and lighting, fire equipment servicing, door
entry and grounds maintenance.
Sinking fund
The terms of your lease require you to repay the Trust for all
repairs and maintenance to the external and communal areas of your
property. Unfortunately the amounts involved can be substantial. In
order to spread the cost of these works, the Trust offers a
‘sinking fund’.
The fund allows leaseholders to set aside money on a monthly
basis towards the cost of any future maintenance and repairs.
Providing that you make contributions regularly, the Trust will
spread the cost of such works over a five-year period, so you won’t
be faced with large bills.
The Trust acts as trustee of the fund and the money is held
exclusively for work on your property. The Trust pays interest
annually on credit balances. The monthly contributions are
calculated from estimates of the total anticipated cost of the
current five year programme for your property.
In the event of you selling your property, you should be aware
that the sinking fund is an asset of the property and you should
negotiate with the purchaser whether this has any effect on the
purchase price. No refunds can be given, as the fund is held in
trust.
Consents
You will require landlord's consent for any changes to the
structure or external appearance of the property or surrounding
areas. This may include installing gas central heating, knocking
down walls, changing internal layouts or building an extention,
including conservatories.
These are examples only an dthe list is not exhaustive. If
you require consent please write to us with details of what you
plan to do (including drawings etc. if applicable) and your contact
details.
If you have already carried out changes without landlords
consent, then you will need retrospective consent which again has
to be applied for in writing, but incurs a fee of £117.50.
Television aerials and satellite dishes
Wherever possible, you should use an indoor aerial or one inside
the loft or roof space. If you need an outside aerial, talk to
Leasehold Services about how and where it can be fixed.
Most blocks of flats will have a shared aerial fitted.
You must not put up your own satellite dish without permission
from us or the local authority.
Gas servicing
Leaseholders are required to have the gas serviced annually. We
offer this service for a fee, which is reviewed annually. The
current prices are:
- Full service, inc. fire and boiler - £70.50.
- Extra for each further appliance (including cookers) -
£10.00.
- Fire only - £50.50.
Buying and selling
What happens when you buy or sell an existing
leased property?
The first step is for the seller’s solicitor to request
information from us. We charge a fee for this information, which is
currently £155 plus VAT for a ten-day turnaround or £200 plus VAT
for a five-day turnaround. Once the fee is received, we will
respond with the information relevant to the property.
The Trust has advised all the solicitors that have contacted us
in the last two years for pre-assignment information, what the
process is and the timescales involved. They have also been
supplied with our template documents, to minimise any delay.
Remember that the Trust does not get involved in the negotiation
process. It is entirely the responsibility of the buyer and seller
of the lease.
When the sale is complete, the buyer’s solicitors send us a
notice of transfer or mortgage, usually within one month or 30 days
(depending on the lease) of the purchase date. All charges raised
after this notification will be invoiced to the new lessee.
The seller will be expected to agree to pay for service charges
up until the date of sale as part of the sale process. On
completion, all service charges will need to be paid up to the end
of the current billing period. We then send a welcome letter to the
buyer, advising them of the current service charges and sinking
fund (where applicable), along with other useful information and
contact details.
Purchasers should always satisfy themselves that they wish to
proceed on the basis of their own independent legal advice. Somer
Community Housing Trust will not advise whether a person should
purchase a property. The information supplied to the
representatives of prospective leaseholders is based upon the facts
available at the time the enquiry is made.
Shared owners
Buying more shares
If you wish to purchase further shares in your property this is
called staircasing. you can find out more by downloading the
staircasing procedure below.
Staircasing procedure
Selling your property
If you want to sell your property, you will need to contact us.
You can find out more by downloading the leaflet below.
Selling a shared ownership property
procedure