Leaseholder information
If you have a leaseholder agreement with us, you can find all you need on this page, and if you can’t please contact us using the dedicated leaseholder form. If you’re a freeholder, don’t worry, you can use the same form for any question you have.
Your responsibilities as a leaseholder and ours as a landlord will all be covered in your lease agreement, but below you can find a general overview of both of our responsibilities.
As every lease is different, you may have further questions. If you do, please complete the contact form and we’ll respond in reference to your specific lease.
Our responsibility to you
- Keeping in repair the structure, exterior and common parts of the building, including drains and external pipes
- Insuring the building to the full cost of reinstatement
- Managing your block and neighbourhood in a proper and reasonable manner
- Providing service charge accounts in April and September of each year
- Providing an itemised invoice of service charges by the end of September each year showing actual costs for services to your block over the previous year and how much you need to pay.
- Consulting with leaseholders before carrying out expensive works to the building.
Your responsibility to us
- Observing all the terms and regulations set out in the lease
- Keeping the property in good repair
- Ensuring that no items are stored in the communal areas
- Not making any structural alterations or additions, including new windows, without asking us first
- Not doing anything which may cause a nuisance to residents or damage to any part of the building
- Paying ground rent, service charges and contributing to major works costs
- Advising us of any transfer of lease, mortgage, or sublet
- Sending a copy of any notice affecting the property to us
- Arranging an annual gas service, undertaken by a GasSafe registered engineer who will issue a valid registered certificate upon completion
You don't need to live with damp and mould
It’s not uncommon for any home to have small areas of damp, especially in the colder months. Most of the time, this is down to an increase in condensation – moisture can build up in the air around your windows as the weather gets chilly.
Keeping on top of damp and mould will make your home a happier and healthier place to be. There are a few simple changes you can make to your everyday routine, but if it starts to get out of control, we can help.
General information
Here you'll find lots of useful information if you're a leaseholder with us. This is a general overview but your lease agreement will include full details as well as any specific agreements. If you'd like to chat through anything, please complete the contact form and let us know your query.
Service charges
We have a legal duty to collect your share of the costs of maintaining and managing the block within which your property is situated.
The way in which the service charge works is set out in your lease agreement. The charge generally covers the cost of maintenance and repairs, insurance of the building and any other services provided. The charge may also include a management fee and charges from third parties relating to your property that we may incur e.g., management company fees.
Alterations and permissions
If you'd like to alter your home at all, please make sure you get in touch with us before you start work. These could include:
- New windows and doors
- Changing the layout of your home
- Installing a new heating systems
Use the Contact Us form to let us know if you're thinking about making any changes, and we'll let you have our permission in writing. When it comes to subletting or welcoming pets into your home, please check your lease and then get in touch with us if you'd like to move ahead.
Repairs and maintenance
It's up to you to to take care of repairs and maintenance inside your home. However, we may carry out any repairs which relate to communal areas, structural problems and anything on the external walls of the building. We'll also arrange repairs inside your home in emergencies, but please be aware that you may be charged for this.
If you need to book a repair, this can be carried out online 24 hours a day. For emergency assistance please contact 0808 169 9297, and select Option 3 for repairs when prompted.
Lease extension
Private owners
To be eligible for a lease extension you will need to have owned your property for 2 years. We may, at our discretion permit an extension earlier if this is required for a remortgage/sale.
Shared owners
All lease extensions are at our discretion as there is no statutory right. The government intends to extend this right to shared owners but in the meantime we follow HE’s recommendation and grant extensions when requested.
Insurance
Home contents insurance
As furniture and personal belongings are not covered by the building’s insurance arranged us, we highly recommend that all leaseholders take out adequate home contents insurance. If you do not have any contents insurance in place, you’re at risk of financial loss from unforeseen circumstances, such as theft or damage caused by fire and burst pipes.
Buildings insurance
Flagship Group arrange the buildings insurance for leasehold properties, but if you need to make a claim on the buildings insurance, you can contact Zurich directly. Please download the Summary of Cover and Guide for more details.
Gas Servicing
As a leaseholder it’s your responsibility to ensure that your gas appliances are safe and regularly serviced. It is advised that you have your gas appliances serviced every 12 months, which must be undertaken by Gas Safe Registered Installer.
Selling your property
First, you’ll need to instruct a solicitor to deal with the sale of your property. You will usually require an LPE1 which is used to obtain information about the property and becomes part of the Leasehold Management Pack supplied to your buyers.
Our fee is £250 (Inc VAT) payable by BACS. After we receive your payment, we aim to provide your solicitor with the documentation within two weeks. If your request is an urgent, and you require the documentation in less than two weeks the fee is £375.
Please ask your solicitor to email LeaseholdEnquiries@flagship-group.co.uk and we’ll supply our BACS details and payment reference. Please also ask them to provide us with the seller’s register, plan and transfer/lease referred to in any restriction.
If you have any questions regarding selling your property please get in contact with us using the button below.
