Under your lease, you have certain responsibilities as a home owner.
You must:
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Keep your home in good repair and condition inside
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Do your own home repairs, unless we’re responsible as part of your lease. Don’t forget we now provide a competitive home repairs service, if you’re looking for a reliable contractor
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Pay rent, insurance, ground rent, service charges and any other costs under your lease on time
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Get our permission before improving or altering your home
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Let us know when you want to sell your home.
You must not:
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Do anything which causes a nuisance, offence or alarm to other neighbours or their families, lodgers or visitors
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Put up a TV aerial or satellite dish outside your home without our permission
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Use your home to run a business without our permission.
Defects period: If you’ve bought a new home, any defects should be covered by the builder’s warranty.
If a repair needs to be done and your warranty is still in date, let us know. When the warranty period’s run out, you become responsible for repairs.
Repairs and maintenance - shared owners (house): Although you’ve not bought your home outright, you’ll have the same rights and responsibilities as someone who does own their home outright.
If you live in a house, you’re responsible for all the repairs and redecoration inside and outside.
Repairs and maintenance – leaseholders and shared owners (flats): You’re responsible for all repairs and redecoration inside your home.
Shared areas: We’re responsible for keeping the building in good repair and keeping shared areas, such as staircases and corridors, decorated, clean and lit. Your service charges will pay for these services.
If a shared area needs repairs and maintenance, we’re responsible. We’ll do repairs within a certain time, depending on the problem.
Emergency repairs: We’ll respond as soon as possible but always within 24 hours.
Urgent repairs: We’ll finish the repair within seven calendar days by appointment.
Routine repairs: We'll finish the repair within 28 calendar days.
Improvements and changes to your home: As a home owner, you have the right to improve your home. You may need our permission in writing before you start any work.
Write to us, explaining what you need to do and include a drawing or plan. You may need to get planning permission and building regulations approval from your local council.
If you make changes to your home without permission, we have the right to put things back as they were and charge you for the costs. We don’t need to know about minor work, such as decorations, but we do need to know about any changes to the structure of the building, or plumbing or electrical services.
If you’re a shared owner and want to buy a larger chunk of your home, any improvements you’ve made to your home won’t be included in the value of your home. But, if you make improvements and later sell your home, those improvements will be included in the value of your home to make sure you get the maximum sale price.
The amount you get back depends on how big a share of your home you own. For example, if you own 75%, you’ll get back 75% of the sale price.
