Protecting Your Interests

What are your rights and obligations as a leaseholder and how LH Property Management can assist.

Owning a leasehold flat is totally different from owning your own house because of the rules, regulations and laws that come into play.

The key document is your lease. It is essential that you understand it and if you are struggling with its legal jargon, we are here to assist you, not as solicitors but as a company that deals with lease-related problems daily. Such is our expertise, within our company we hold multiple appointments where the First-Tier Tribunal (FTT) has appointed us to take over where prior management has failed.

The following is based on the guidance provided on the Leaseholder Association Website. Another invaluable source of information is the website Lease-Advice, which is the Government-funded site providing advice to leaseholders.

Leaseholder Rights & Obligations

Your rights:

Peaceful enjoyment of the property
Reasonable access to the common parts of the building and/or grounds
Support, shelter and protection from the other parts of the building
Access to all utilities and service media in respect of their own property
To have the common parts kept in a good state of repair and redecoration and to benefit from services that are specified in the lease.

Yours obligations:

To pay ground rent
To pay a proportion of the service charge, usually in advance of the accounting year. This proportion is defined in your lease
To contribute towards any reserve fund, either regularly, or at the time of re-sale or both
To keep their own flat in a good state of repair and decoration
To meet the cost of any damage they have caused to the common parts or grounds
To allow the landlord or manager access to the flat in respect of repairs or in emergencies
Not to use the flat for either commercial purposes or for unsuitable activities
Not to make excessive noise or cause nuisance to neighbours or visitors
Not to make structural alterations to the flat without the prior consent of the landlord and
Not to sublet the flat without the prior consent of the landlord and unless specifically permitted in the lease, to use it for short term holiday lets

Landlords' Rights & Obligations

Landlords’ rights

To receive payment of ground rent
To recover reasonable expenditure through service charges at the time specified in the lease
To appoint a manager to carry out the obligations in the lease
To make reasonable regulations in relation to the common parts and/or the grounds
To inspect the leaseholders’ properties, with reasonable notice
To make alterations to the common parts, as long as these do not adversely affect leaseholders’ legal or contractual rights
To receive the property back at the end of the lease term in a reasonable condition.

Landlords’ obligations

To enforce leaseholders’ covenants in the lease
To ensure all of the leases are substantially the same
To ensure leaseholders have quiet enjoyment of their property
To keep the common parts in a good state of repair and redecoration
To provide services that are specified in the lease, such as cleaning and gardening
To provide buildings, public liability and staff insurance and
To ensure all service charges are properly demanded and paid
To account for all expenditure and to provide timely accounts

What Legal Rights Does The Leaseholder Have?

This is a summary of the legal rights leaseholders have which will be additional to the contractual rights set out in the lease.

The right to information about the landlord
The right to seek recognition for a tenants’ association
The right to information about service charges and the right to challenge at a First-Tier Tribunal (FTT) the reasonableness of those charges, whether they have already been paid or not
The right to apply to the FTT to seek a determination of the liability to pay and the reasonableness of administration charges imposed on top of normal service charges
The right to information about insurance
The right to be consulted about major works and long-term agreements
The right to seek the variation of a lease and the right to make an application to the FTT if not agreed by all interested parties
The right to extend a lease, adding 90 years to the existing term, with or without a landlord’s consent
Where it is alleged the landlord has failed to manage the property properly, the right to ask the FTT for the appointment of a manager
The right to a management audit and the right of recognised tenant’s associations to appoint a surveyor
The collective right to take over the management of the block without having to prove fault or compensating the landlord, known as right to manage (RTM)
The collective right to buy the freehold of the building, even if the landlord does not wish to sell, known as enfranchisement
The collective right to first refusal where the landlord proposes to sell a controlling interest in the property.