Becoming a leaseholder

There are two ways 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.

For more information about your Right to Buy visit Right to Buy. 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 in buying the lease. If you are buying from the present leaseholder it is important that you know what service charges are outstanding on the property so that you can make sure that they are cleared before you complete the purchase. You may have to pay some charges owed by the previous leaseholder (unless you are the first leaseholder) if they are not cleared before the purchase.

Selling your home

You can sell the property at any time. This is known as assigning the lease. If you bought your home under the Right to Buy, 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.

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.

For more information about selling your leasehold property please read our frequently asked questions.

Buying the lease of a Newcastle City Council property

If you are buying one of our properties you should ask your solicitor to request a ‘Pre-sale enquiry pack' from the vendor’s solicitor.   The information in this pack includes:

• landlord/managing agent details
• lease details
• service charges and ground rent
• buildings insurance 
• major and other works
• repairs and maintenance
• landlords permission
• sub-letting the property
• breaches of covenant
• details of notice of transfer and charge

When you become the leaseholder you will be liable for any outstanding service charges and future liabilities. You should ensure that you check this information and get legal advice before purchasing the property.

All new purchases must be registered within one month. Your solicitor needs to send us the notice of transfer.

All notices should be served to:

Head of Legal Services
Newcastle City Council

And sent to:

Your Homes Newcastle
YHN House
Benton Park Road
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE7 7LX

The Council’s charges are currently £85 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 pre-sale enquiry pack. Our fee for this is £75. 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 within one month. 

All outstanding service charges must be paid before completion of the sale. We cannot update our records until the change of ownership has been registered. Failure to do this will result in you still being liable for any charges against the property.

Subletting/renting your home

You can rent out your home to someone else, but you will remain responsible for the property. You must tell us the arrangements and give us an alternative correspondence address for you as well as details and contact numbers for your tenants in cases of emergencies.

The insurance company needs to be told 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 permission 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.

• Sub-let form (word doc)

You will still need to pay the service charges as well as making sure your tenants behave and do not cause a nuisance to the neighbours.

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:

The property may be sublet to a single person, couple or a family. It shouldn't be sublet to seperate unrelated individuals, however, as long as they do not cause a nuisance to the other neighbours we will not take any action against you if you do sublet to seperate individuals.

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.

Subletting

If you have sublet your flat and it has any gas appliances in it, the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 apply to you. This means that as a landlord you have a duty by law to your tenants and you must make sure that a gas safety check is carried out every year and that your appliances are properly maintained.

Landlords who breach the gas safety laws and put lives at risk face tough sentencing in the courts. You can get further 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 be able 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.