As the purchaser, or owner, of a leasehold flat, it is in your own interest to understand the legal nature of the ownership. What exactly do you own and what are the associated rights and liabilities? Within this area you will find information to help you:
Leasehold ownership of a flat is simply a long tenancy, the right to occupation and use of the flat for a long period – the ‘term’ of the lease. This will usually be for 99 or 125 years and the flat can be bought and sold during that term. The term is fixed at the beginning and so decreases in length year by year. Thus, if it were not for inflation, the value of the flat would diminish over time until the eventual expiry of the lease, when the flat returns to the landlord.
The leasehold ownership of a flat usually relates to everything within the four walls of the flat, 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 freeholder is responsible for the maintenance and repair of the building. The costs of maintenance and repair are recoverable through the service charges and billed to the leaseholders. The leaseholder pays for all costs relating to the property either directly to a contractor of their choice for the leaseholders responsibilities or by being billed by the landlord for the landlords responsibilities.
A lease is a right of ownership for a period of time (often 125 years) and is the method of ownership used for flats.
It is a right that leaseholders can sell or pass to their heirs. Leaseholders own the flat for a period of years specified in the lease, but do not own the common part, although leaseholders will have rights over them and obligations in respect of them.
A lease is a contract between the leaseholder and the landlord giving conditional ownership for a fixed period of time. It is an important document and leaseholders should ensure that they have a copy and that they understand it. The wording of leases is usually in legal language and can vary from property to property. Leaseholders who find it difficult to understand their lease should get advice from a solicitor and insist that they provide a report on its terms when they are instructed to deal with the purchase.
The lease sets out the contractual obligations of the two parties: what the leaseholder has contracted to do, and what the landlord is bound to do. The leaseholder’s obligations will include payment of the ground rent (if any) and contribution to the costs of maintaining and managing the building. The lease will probably also place certain conditions on the use and occupation of the flat. The landlord will usually be required to manage and maintain the structure, exterior and common areas of the property, to collect service charges from all the leaseholders and keep the accounts.
Leaseholders are not necessarily entirely free to do whatever they want in or with the flat – the lease comes with conditions, to protect the rights of everyone with an interest in the building. For example, retirement schemes will usually have restrictions on the age of those who can live there.
When a flat changes hands, the seller passes on all the rights and responsibilities of the lease to the purchaser, including any future payments of service charges that have not yet been identified.
Principally, these are:
SSHA has an obligation to ensure that the leaseholder complies with such responsibilities for the good of all the other leaseholders.
These rights and responsibilities will be set out in the lease.
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