Buying your home

All our properties are sold on a leasehold basis, which means that you own a lease (a contract) giving you the right to occupy a property exclusively for a defined period of time (the term). The length of lease varies from property to property so it is important that you check for the particular property you may want to buy.

The length of lease for properties being resold will have diminished by the length of time the previous owner/s has/have owned it. You do have the right to extend the lease; increasing the term by 90 years, and the statutory process, as outlined by www.lease-advice.org/ is followed. There is a premium to the lease extension which is determined by a surveyor which would determine the cost of extending the lease. It is worth noting that the premium increases if the lease has fewer than 80 years remaining.

The lease is a contract, which means there are a number of terms and conditions with which you must comply. This may be very different to properties you have owned before as many of the facilities on our courts are shared with other residents and the lease sets out how this arrangement is managed. It is really important that you understand the implications of sharing the building, the services and the costs.

For example, the lease may specify the type of floor covering you are allowed to have so that you do not cause a nuisance with noise to the property below and, where there are communal areas, it is likely that smoking will be prohibited in parts of the building.

When living in one of our properties there are a number of charges you will have to pay.

Service charge

A service charge is payable for all Housing 21 properties. This is usually reviewed annually and paid monthly in advance. The lease will tell you what services are included in the service charge and how frequently it must be paid.

A service charge budget is calculated at the start of each financial year, which sets out the sum payable by leaseholders during that year.

At the end of each financial year a service charge account is prepared based on the actual spend incurred at the court.

We hold an annual meeting with leaseholders to discuss the service charge accounts and answer any questions. We also discuss what services you would like to see during the coming year so that we can use this information to set the budget at the start of the next financial year.

The service charge budget is calculated with reference to the costs in the previous financial year and the likely costs, where these are known, for the coming year.

The service charge required for future years is wholly dependent upon the level of expenditure in those coming years. It is also dependent upon the balance of monies within the sinking fund (see section on sinking funds).

We give leaseholders at least 28 days’ advance notice of the service charge for the following financial year.

Any surplus or deficit in one year will be reflected in the charge set for the following year.

If there is a significant failure in the provision of any service covered by the charge, we will make alternative arrangements to deliver the service and/or adjust the service charge for the current or following year as appropriate.

Registered housing providers are not required to hold service charge funds in trust, but they are held and accounted for separately from other accounts.

A breakdown of the service charge is readily available for any property you may be thinking of buying.

Support Charge

This charge is made to cover the Housing Manager’s and hardware costs for the emergency call system that are not Housing Benefit eligible

Core Support Charge (Extra Care only)

This enables the care provider to have a member of staff on site 24 hours a day to respond to the emergency call system and provide assistance in the case of an emergency.

Utility Charge

Some older shared ownership properties also have an element of utilities, (I.e. gas and water that is collected for their flat monthly). Newer leases and the old Retirement Living leases do not have this provision.

Ground Rent

The ground rent on our properties varies depending on the lease. All our new build developments do not have any annual ground rent however, some of our older leases do have a ground rent payable please contact the Home Ownership team to confirm the ground rent on a specific property.