A guide to your lease
Your lease gives you the right to use and live in your home and explains your rights of ownership. Hastoe owns the freehold of the building and, in most cases, the land that the property is built on.
If you have bought your home from Hastoe as the first sale, the lease will probably be for a period of 125 years and will have your name on it. If you bought your home from another person, the lease will have been ‘assigned’ to you for the remainder of the original term. You will have a Notice of Assignment confirming that you have purchased the lease, giving details of the remaining term. Please note the original owner’s name will remain on the original lease.
Shared ownership charges
If you need legal advice regarding your lease, you should seek this from an independent solicitor. As a general guide your lease sets out the following:
- The length of your lease, including the date it started
- Your responsibilities as the owner/leaseholder
- Hastoe’ s responsibilities as the landlord
The lease will also describe the property that you have bought and will contain plans showing details of any garden, shed or garage and your rights, if any, over communal areas. Leases differ depending on the year they were issued, but each will be split into sections, known as schedules.
Each of the schedules refers to particular rights, responsibilities and/or obligations. These are:
- The Premises
This schedule details the parts of the property you own, and are responsible for. For example walls, floors etc. - Mutual Covenants
These are the obligations for you to adhere to. This ensures there is no improper use of the property, such as antisocial behaviour or illegal activity. - Easement Rights & Privileges
Gives details of access rights, such as utilities and walkways. It explains our rights for access if required and also your rights to use communal areas etc. - Exceptions & Reservations
This allows your landlord to access your property to ensure the appropriate use of the home, as detailed in the mutual covenant section. - Rent Review
Each year, your rent will increase. This section will detail how the increase is calculated. - Staircasing
If you have the right to buy further shares in your home, this section will contain the legal guidelines for doing this. - Defined Terms
This is a list of legal terms, along with their meanings. - Assignment of whole to nomination purchaser
This gives your landlord rights to nominate a purchaser if/when you choose to sell. There may also be a defined period of time for Hastoe to do this.
Please note not all the above will be in every lease as they are reviewed and changed. If you have any questions, please contact the Home Ownership team.
How do I know what parts or areas are mine?
A plan will be attached to your lease which shows the boundaries for your home. These areas are usually highlighted using red lines. There may also be another plan showing any communal areas which you may contribute to the maintenance of.
You may find ‘T’ marks on the plans, these highlight which boundaries you are responsible for.
Questions about your lease
As a shared owner, you are purchasing a self repairing lease. This means after the first year of the property being built, you are responsible for maintaining all parts of the property e.g. boiler, heating, windows etc. Please check your Home User Guide (provided when you bought the property) as some parts may be covered by extended manufacturer warranties.
The lease will state this in detail, but you are responsible for repairing or replacing:
- Floors and ceilings inside your home
- Internal walls
- Doors and door frames
- The glass in the windows
- Fixtures and fittings such as kitchen units, baths etc.
- Piping, drains, wiring that serves only your home
- Redecoration (including plastering etc.)
- Your garden, shed and fence panels
- Gas and other safety checks
You pay your service charges for:
- Structural parts in any joint/communal areas
- Lights, lifts and electrical fittings in any joint/communal areas
- Communal drains, tanks, pipes, wiring etc.
- External decorations if in an apartment
- Estate management (e.g. gardening of any communal areas)
Yes. Once your lease has 80 years or less remaining, this can become problematic when remortgaging or selling. Therefore we recommend extending your lease before it gets below 80 years. Please note there are costs involved in this process.
If you would like to discuss extending your lease, please contact the Sales team and they can guide you through the process.
If you require a copy of your lease, please contact us and we will arrange for a copy to be sent to you. Please note there will be an administration charge of £20 for this. You can also obtain a copy from the Land Registry Office.
Questions about your home
Your home is yours to decorate as you wish. If you wish to make any structural alterations to the house (e.g. moving walls, building extensions) you must first check the details in your lease, as it may not be possible for you to undertake these types of works. If your lease does allow this, then you must first seek written permission from Hastoe before going ahead with any of the works. You will need to keep all receipts for the works.
If you have permission to carry out the work and you wish to staircase, we will deduct any increase in your property price generated by these improvements.
If you do not obtain permission to carry out these works and wish to staircase at a later date, any added value to the property will impact on the cost of the extra shares.
You are not allowed to move out of the property and rent it to someone else. You are allowed to rent out a spare room to someone as long as you are living in the property as well.
Hastoe is happy for you to have pets on the basis they are not a nuisance to others. In flats, no dogs or cats are allowed unless the property has a private garden and own entrance. You will need Hastoe's permission to own a pet in a flat.
There are no restrictions on installing a satellite dish, Sky or cable. However, if you want to install a satellite dish (including any Sky dish) you will need to check by calling the planning office at your local council to see if they have any restrictions on this. In most of our flats, a communal satellite dish will have been fitted as part of the initial build. Details of this can be found in the Home User Guide you were provided with when you moved in.
Insurance
There are two types of home insurance policies:
- Buildings insurance protects against damage to the structure of the home, together with fixtures and fittings. This is provided by Hastoe.
- Home contents insurance protects you against damage or loss of your possessions. You will need to organise this.
When you buy your home, we automatically provide buildings insurance cover which you pay for through your service charge.
We do not insure the contents of your home. For your own peace of mind, we strongly recommend that you take out our own home contents insurance. We cannot deal with claims for compensation for damage to your belongings if your are not insured.
Meanings of common words used in your lease:
Assignment: Where a property changes ownership and is placed in to a new name.
Breach: When one of the rules within the lease is broken.
Communal area/s: Places/areas available for use by all residents/neighbours on an estate.
Conveyance Plan: A document detailing what you are purchasing.
Covenants: Rules and responsibilities.
Deed of variation: Where a clause in the original lease is updated.
Defects: Any defective issues found in a new build house within the first 12 months following its completion.
Easement: The legal right of way over your land or someone else’s.
Forfeiture: Where we (Hastoe) repossess your lease following a breach of the lease terms, e.g. non-payment of rent/service charges.
Freeholder: The person/company who owns the land your home is built on.
Header lease: Where the property is built on land that we (Hastoe) have leased ourselves.
Land registry: The government agency that holds records of land ownership.
Lease: A document outlining all agreements between a buyer and a seller.
Lease extension: Where you make the length of your lease longer.
Lessee/Leaseholder: The person who has purchased the lease (you).
Lessor/Landlord: The owner of the freehold (usually Hastoe).
Mortgagee/Lender: The person/bank lending the money to buy a home.
Mortgage Protection Clause: An agreement that the mortgage will be paid in full before anyone else received funds following a repossession or sale of the property.
Mortgagor: The person who has taken out the mortgage to buy a home (you).
New build: A brand new property that has just been built.
Nominations agreement: An agreement with us (Hastoe) and the Local Authority showing who gets priority for the homes and also outlining any local connection requirement.
Notice of charge: A document that notifies Land Registry of your ownership of a home and details any mortgage on the property.
Notice of transfer: A document that transfers the ownership of a home to someone else.
Perpetuity Clause: A requirement for the owner of a home (once they own 100%) to inform us (Hastoe) of their plans to sell their home if they have owned their home for less than 21 years.
Repossession: Where your mortgage lender takes your home from you due to arrears.
Resale: The sale of a shared ownership property by its current owner to someone else.
Restricted staircasing: A limit on the amount of the property you can buy.
S106: A contract between us (Hastoe) and the Local Authority stating what we can build and what it can be used for.
Service charge: A charge paid by the homeowner for services provided to the estate.
Staircasing: The procedure of buying further shares of your home.
Term of years: The length of the lease.
Terms of a lease: Individual rights and obligations.
Title deeds: A document which shows the owner of a piece of land. This is recorded by Land Registry.
Undertaking: Commitment by any party to do something relating to the property.
Contact us
If you have any questions that are not covered in the guide, please get in touch.
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