Becoming a leaseholder

There are two ways in which you can buy the lease of a council flat:

• by buying the lease from the present leaseholder (if the flat has already been bought under the Right to Buy and is being sold again)
• you are currently a council tenant and living in a flat/maisonette subject to certain criteria.

More information about your Right to Buy can be obtained from our Right to Buy team.  The Government's Thinking of buying a council flat leaflet (pdf) also contains useful information. 

In both cases you should get a solicitor to act for you who can protect your interests in buying the lease. It is important that you know what service charges are outstanding on the property so that you can make sure that they are dealt with before you complete the purchase. You may have to pay some charges owed by the previous leaseholder (unless of course you are the first leaseholder) if they are not cleared before the purchase.

If you buy the lease from the previous leaseholder you must tell us immediately. As agents for the landlord we have the right to know who is responsible for the flat.

You have the right to mortgage the property to a mortgage lender.

Selling your home

As a leaseholder you are free to sell the interest in your home at any time. This is known as assigning the lease. However, if you bought your home under the Right to Buy Scheme, you may need to repay all or part of the discount you received should you sell in the early years after your original purchase.

Visit Right to Buy for more information about discount rules.

As with any property sale you may sell your interest in the property (this is known as assigning the lease) yourself, or you may appoint an Estate Agent to do this on your behalf.  Whichever method you use you must ensure that you make any prospective purchaser aware of the leasehold nature of the property and of any rules or conditions which apply.

To assign the lease you do not need permission from Your Homes Newcastle or Newcastle City Council, however you must assign the whole lease. When you assign the lease, the conditions of the lease for the period that is left will pass to the new leaseholder.

Buying the lease of a Newcastle City Council property

Once you have established that Newcastle City Council is the freeholder of the property you wish to purchase, you should ask your solicitor to request a ‘Leasehold Enquiry Pack’ from the vendor’s solicitor.   The information in this pack includes:

• landlord/managing agent details
• lease details
• service charges and ground rent details
• buildings insurance details
• major and other works details
• external and communal painting details
• repairs and maintenance details
• landlords permission for alterations details
• sub-letting of the property details
• breaches of covenant details
• details of notice of transfer and charge
• summary of buildings insurance cover
• memorandum of association
• articles of association
• YHN leasehold service standards.

Please note that when you become the leasee you will be liable for any outstanding service charges and future liabilities. You should ensure that you check this information and obtain your own legal advice before purchasing the property.

Under the terms of Newcastle City Council’s leases new purchases must be registered within one calendar month. Your solicitor should be aware of this and should send us the required documents on your behalf.

The documents required are:

• A certified copy of the Transfer Deed
• The legal charge (if applicable)
• £40.00 administration fee for each registration

All notices should be served to:

Head of Legal Services
Newcastle City Council
Barras Bridge
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 8PR

The Council’s charges are currently £40.00 per document. Cheques should be made payable to ‘Newcastle City Council’.

A Deed of Covenant is not required under the terms of the Lease.

Selling the lease of a Newcastle City Council property

If you are selling your home your purchaser’s solicitor will request a ‘Leasehold Enquiry Pack’. Our fee for this package of information is £75.00. This pack includes all of the information we hold on your property, if there are any outstanding charges and how your lease works.

We will issue the pack within 10 days of receipt of the fee.

Your solicitor must register the change of ownership of the lease (this is known as the notice of assignment) with Newcastle City Council Legal Services within 21 days of the change. There will be a fee for this. You should also ask your solicitor to contact Your Homes Newcastle to obtain full details of the lease and of the Service Charges payable. 

Please note that all outstanding Service Charges must be paid prior to the completion of the sale. You should also be aware that a notice of assignment is required to enable us to update our records. Failure to do this will result in you still being liable for any charges against the property.

Subletting/renting your home

You have the right to rent out your home to someone else, but you will remain the responsible leaseholder unless you transfer the lease to your tenant. You must inform the Leasehold team of the arrangements and provide us with an alternative correspondence address for you as well as details and contact numbers for your tenants in cases of emergencies.

The insurance department needs to be informed of any changes in your circumstances, otherwise any claim that you make could be invalid. If you have a mortgage it may be a condition of your mortgage to get the permission of your bank or building society to let your home.  If your details have changed please download the form below and post it or email it back to us.  You can find our postal and email addresses on the Contact us page.

• Change of details form (word doc)

If you do let or transfer your property to someone else you become their landlord and you could be creating a tenancy. You could then have problems should you wish to sell the lease if you have a ‘sitting tenant’. Before you agree to rent out your flat you must seek legal advice from either a solicitor or the Citizens Advice Bureau.

If you do decide to rent out your home you must give the Leasehold team the name of your tenant and your contact details, in case of emergencies or problems caused by faults in the flat, or the behaviour of residents. The conditions of your lease will still apply to you while you are not living in your property. Therefore you must ensure that your tenants agree to the contract you have with us, namely the terms of the lease, and you must tell your tenant to abide by the conditions of your lease. If they do not, you will be breaking your lease agreement and any action we may take will be against you.

You must also get advice from your home contents insurers. If you do not, you may find that any claim you make is not valid.

Under the terms of the Lease the property may be sub-let to a single person, couple or a family. It must not be sub-let to separate, unrelated individuals e.g. students. See Section 17 of the Seventh Schedule of the Lease:

‘Not to use the demised premises other than as a single private dwellinghouse for the occupation of one family only (as defined by Section 113 of the 1985 Act). Not to subdivide the demised premises subject nevertheless to the number of persons occupying the demised premises not exceeding the permitted number as specified in Part X of the 1985 Act or as may be specified in any re-enactment of the same.’

By renting out your home you will become the landlord of your tenant. You will then be responsible for the landlord’s duties arising under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. 

This means, that by law you are responsible for making sure that your gas appliances, pipework and flues are safe and well-maintained. You should arrange for a yearly gas safety check to be carried out by a Gas Safe registered gas engineer and make sure that you give your tenant a copy of the yearly gas safety record (CP12).

Landlords who breach the gas safety laws and put lives at risk face tough sentencing in the courts. You can get more information about this from Gas Safe on 0800 408 5500 
or by visiting www.gassaferegister.co.uk.

Buying the Freehold of your property

In certain circumstances you might have the right to buy the freehold of your property. To be able to do this all the properties in your block must be purchased from Newcastle City Council on a leasehold basis and all leaseholders would have to agree to the purchase. For more information, please contact Newcastle City Council’s Property Service Department on 0191 232 8520.