If you’re a leaseholder you own your home for a set number of years, but not the building it’s in, or the land it’s on. Your lease will set out what you own and for how long.
You’ll usually pay us, the freeholder or managing agent, ground rent and a service charge. Leaseholders are usually in flats or apartments.
If you’re a leaseholder then you’ll find answers to the most common questions on this page. If there’s something missing, you can send us your question in our contact form.
- Paying your service charges in full and on time
- Complying with the terms of your lease, including when:
- Making alterations to your home - here's our alterations guide
- Sub-letting your home
- Some services have an admin charge, you can see the full list on our admin document
- Cleaning and maintaining shared areas
- Carrying out repairs and maintenance around the building
- Insuring the building – here’s a copy of our insurance policy
- Complying with the terms of our landlord covenants in your lease or deed
If Yorkshire Housing isn’t the freeholder and doesn’t manage the building or scheme then the services mentioned above might be managed by another agency. But, don’t worry – we’ll let you know if that’s the case!
FAQs
Your service charge depends on what services we provide where you live.
At the beginning of each financial year (1st April), we’ll give you an estimate of the service charge. It’ll show you what your service charge covers, what it’s likely to cost and how much your share will be. We’ll always try and stick to budget but at the end of the year we’ll let you know how much we spent. If we’ve spent less than we estimated, we’ll put your share of the difference into your account. If we’ve spent more, we might need to ask you to cover your share of the costs.
Service charges mean that we can make sure your home is looked after. The charge covers things like:
- A lift in a block of flats
- Grass cutting and looking after shared grounds
- Cleaning of corridors of shared areas
- Door entry servicing and repairs
- Electricity in corridors or outside areas
Some of these services are carried out by us and some are provided by other agencies that we work with.
Please take a look at your service charge schedule if you'd like a breakdown of the costs of your property.
Your annual service charge is calculated based on what it costs to provide the services to your scheme or block. This includes the contract price to deliver services like cleaning, window cleaning and ground maintenance etc.
Please let us know if there’s something you’re not happy with so we can fix things. We’re always looking at what we can do better, so it’s important that you let us know.
We’d also love to hear your positive feedback. If you’re happy with one of our services, tell us! This helps us when we’re deciding which suppliers to work with.
If you need an extra copy of your latest service charge statement, then fill out the form at the bottom of the page. Just so you know, we do charge a small admin fee of £35 for extra copies.
If you’ve already bought your home and want to rent it out, then you’ll need to send us a formal request to sub-let. You’ll need to do this in writing, so the best way to do this is to use the form below. You can use the form to ask us any questions about sub-letting too, before putting in a formal request.
Once we’ve got your request, we’ll take a look at all the details, write you a consent letter and we’ll also ask you to pay a £75 administration charge at this point. The consent letter is for you to give to your mortgage lender or insurer.
Meow! Generally, your lease will say whether domestic pets like cats and dogs are allowed. You’ll need to ask us if you can have a pet before you bring one home. Don’t worry though, we’re pet lovers here at Yorkshire Housing, so normally we’re happy to relax a ‘no pets’ rule as long as we don’t get complaints from your neighbours.
If you’ve got any damage to your home, then your leasehold building insurance might cover it.
For example, the insurance covers flood and water damage. You can have a look at the building insurance policy summary to see what’s covered.
If you're looking to remortgage you might need permission to change your deal as part of your lease. Get in touch with us and we'll be able to check this for you. If you do need permission, there'll be an admin charge you'll need to pay us.
If you'd like to extend the lease on your home or just discuss this with us, let our friendly team know and we'll be able to give you the details and support you through the process.
If you'd like to make an addition or alteration to your home - maybe a conservatory or a new front door - you might need consent from us.
You'll just need to get in touch with our team and fill out the alterations form and we'll be able to help.
If you want to make alterations to the outside areas of your home, like installing a shed or adding more paving for example, you might need consent from us. Just get in touch and complete an alterations form and we'll be able to help.
If you're the leaseholder and you're looking to sell, we can help you with that journey. You might need a Leasehold Property Enquiry (LPE) management pack for the sale. We can give you this, and any official documents you might need. Get in touch and we can guide you through the process.
For some documentation or work done by our friendly team, we charge an admin fee as it's an additional service not covered by our management fee.
Our administration charges document will explain what admin fees are charged for, and how much they are.
Who’s responsible for repairs?
We’ve popped a handy checklist below so you can check who’s responsible for repairs. It’s slightly different depending on if you’re in a house or a flat, so just click the tab that applies to you.
If you’re a leaseholder of a house, then you’ll need to look after the inside and outside of your home. This includes:
- Heating system repairs and maintenance, including annual boiler and gas appliance checks
- Repairs and decorating (although these will need to be agreed by us. You can find out more in our alterations permissions guide.)
- Electrical wiring
- Roof guttering and other rainwater parts
- Garden, fences and hedges
- Driveway or garage
- The fabric of your building, which means materials like bricks and roof tiles.
If you do have a repair or a problem, then it’s worth checking your leasehold building insurance to see if it’s covered.
If you’re a leaseholder of a flat, then you’ll need to look after the inside of your home. This includes:
- Heating system repairs and maintenance, including annual boiler and gas appliance checks
- Repairs and decorating (although these will need to be agreed by us. You can find out more in our alterations permissions guide.)
- Electrical wiring that’s inside your home
- Fixtures, fittings and appliances.
We’re responsible for looking after and repairing communal areas. If you spot anything in these areas that needs fixing, then please let us know by reporting a repair.