What is a lease?
A residential lease is the legal document you are provided with on purchasing your property. Essentially, it is the contract between the leaseholder and the freeholder agreeing on all matters pertaining to the flat and the building. It provides the do’s and don’ts of owning your flat, along with what you and the freeholder are individually responsible for. This is the first port of call when you have any questions about your property and the commonway areas within the building.
Unfortunately they are not the easiest of reads (cough, cough..) and it is sometimes necessary to seek clarification from your managing agent or solicitor to ensure you understand your obligations.
It is important to note that your lease may not be the same as your neighbours lease in the same building. Therefore if you have mislaid it, it would be wise not to rely on their copy to clarify anything specific for your property. You can easily obtain a duplicate from land registry at a minimal cost if your managing agent doesn’t hold one for you. If you have a mortgage, your lender can also provide you with a copy.
When purchasing your property, it would be very useful to become familiar with the terms of your lease. Knowing what you are responsible for and what your freeholder is liable for is a great head start. If you have a managing agent that takes care of the building on behalf of the freeholder/RTM company/residents committee, then this document is their framework for how to manage the building in terms of service of notices, raising and distribution of service charges, collection of reserve funds, building works and so on.
It is worth knowing that even if you own a share of the freehold to your building, you are also still a leaseholder to the flat you purchased. You therefore have duties to both roles - aren’t you lucky! You will still need to adhere to the leasehold duties as laid out in the lease for your flat along with the freeholder duties you will share with other freeholders.
You will normally find the dates of the lease, due dates for service charges/ground rent, your individual apportionment percentage for the flat (which is based on the square footage and is what your service charge figure is based on when a budget is prepared) at the start of the document, there are schedules that lay out your obligations as a leaseholder and those for the freeholder relating to matters such as floor coverings, pets, noise, decoration etc and what is demised to the flat and the building. As an example and from experience, issues relating to decoration of window frames can come up and in most leases, you will find that the moveable parts of the windows are the leaseholders responsibility and the fixed parts of the external areas are the freeholders to maintain.
Consider the lease as the ‘holy grail’ and you will get along just fine..!