What is a lease?
The lease is a contract between you and Norwich City Council. When you buy a flat or a maisonette from the council you purchase a leasehold interest and the council keeps the freehold interest. As the freeholder the council owns the land on which the property is built and charges a ground rent.
Your lease will specify which parts of the property have been sold to you including any garden area and shed. This will be identified in the lease by your address and by a plan or plans attached to it. It will also show the Block in which your property is situated and the Estate.
The lease will also specify your rights to use common areas in the block and estate.
Most leases are for a term of 125 years but this term starts on the date that the first property in the block was sold.
What are my obligations as a lessee?
Your exact responsibilities depend on your lease but you are generally required:
- To pay a proportion of the council's reasonable costs of managing and maintaining the block and estate, and of the council fulfilling the lease requirements.
- To pay the ground rent and all other charges for which you are liable at the times stated.
- To keep your home in good repair and condition.
- To advise the home ownership team within one month if you purchase, re-mortgage, transfer or sell your home, and meet our costs of registering the notice.
- To use the flat or maisonette as a single private flat for residential use.
- To repay any Right to Buy discount that is repayable if you sell your property.
- To allow council officers or our contractors access to your property to enable us to fulfill our obligations as freeholder. The council will give you prior notice of our requirements.
- To advise the home ownership team if the property will be empty or unoccupied for more than 30 consecutive days.
As a leaseholder what am I not allowed to do?
- Carry out alterations or improvements to your home without our prior written consent.
- Use the building for business purposes.
- Sub-let the property without notifying us first and completing our questionnaire form.
- Cause a nuisance or annoyance to neighbours or let other members of your household do so
- Cause damage to the building or fix any sign or otherwise disfigure any of the communal buildings, fences or walls.
What are the council's obligations as the freeholder?
These depend on your lease but the council is generally required:
- To keep the structure of the buildings in good repair and condition.
- To insure the block, including your flat excluding the contents, and the estate against loss or damage by fire and any other risks, which it may consider appropriate.
- To provide you with an annual statement of service charges.
What are service charges?
As a lessee, your lease requires you to pay your share of the costs of managing the block and estate (which includes insuring, maintaining and repairing the exterior and communal parts of the building and for providing any other service specified in the lease). 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 council is legally obliged to charge leaseholders for their share of its costs and to make sure that the charges it sets are 'reasonable'.
How are service charges calculated?
By sharing the cost of each service among the number of properties who benefit from that service. This can be to the block or estate or to just your individual property. For example, if all the flats in a building were sold, we would recover from lessees 100 per cent of the costs of managing and maintaining the common parts of the building. If, on the other hand, you are the only purchaser in your building you pay your share of the costs and we pay the remaining charges on behalf of tenants. This is then reflected in tenants' rents. You have the right to challenge the reasonableness of any service charge or the standard of works and services.
What is included in my service charges?
Your day-to-day service charges cover all aspects of regularly managing and maintaining all communal aspects of your home. Building insurance is included in the service charge but not contents insurance (which you have to take out yourself). The service charges will depend upon which services your block of flats receives. There is a separate charge for each individual service, which can change from year to year. The following services will be charged where they apply to the block:
This list is not exhaustive.
Your service charges will also include day-to-day repairs. If your property has benefitted from major works during the service charges year, these costs will also be shown on the service charge statement. You will already be aware of these works as you will have been consulted and given an estimate of the cost to you.
How do I pay my service charges?
Under the terms of the lease, the service charges should be paid in full on demand. Most leaseholders will receive an invoice for their service charges once a year and payments can be made in the following ways:
- By cash/cheque at City Hall, a PayPoint or by post.
- By phone: 0344 980 3333 and selecting option 1.
- Online - link to payments online
Some leaseholders will pay monthly or quarterly instalments based on estimated costs for the year. These must be paid on the first day of the month due. You will then receive a reconciliation statement at the end of the financial year showing the difference between the estimated amount and the actual costs of services. If the amount collected is less than the actual costs, an invoice will be issued that should be paid in full on demand by one of the methods shown above. If we have collected too much, a credit note will be issued.
Frequently asked questions
Click here for answers to some frequently asked questions.
Contacting us
Getting involved
Norwich Leaseholders' Association (NLA)
See the NLA webpage for details about the committee meetings and who to contact for further information.
Resident involvement
Find out more about the involvement and ways you can participate.
The Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE)
LEASE is an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body (ENDPB) funded by central government to provide free legal advice on all aspects of residential leasehold and common hold law.
Visit the LEASE website at www.lease-advice.org
Useful links