• Leasehold newsletters

What's happening?

• 16 November 2009 - Leasehold News

Please look out for the latest edition of Leasehold News which will be posted out to all Leaseholders who requested it within the next few days.  The Autumn edition also contains our annual report that has been compiled following the Leasehold Satisfaction Survey that was carried out a few months ago.

For those who haven’t requested a copy, it is available to read online as well - visit Leasehold newsletters now.
 
If anyone would like to receive a copy of Leasehold News, please contact us and we will add you to the mailing list and send a copy to you.

• 23 September 2009 - Invoices

The Actual Invoices for 2008/09 have been issued and are currently being posted out to all Leaseholders. They will show if your account is in credit or debit after our Finance Department finalised the accounts for the year. If your account is in debit please arrange to pay any amount due within 14 days by contacting our Debt Recovery Team on 0191 278 8757.

• 10 June 2009 - Leasehold News

Please look out for the latest edition of Leasehold News which will be posted out to all Leaseholders who requested it within the next few days. For those who haven’t requested a copy, it is available to read online as well!  Click here to download the newsletter (pdf).

If anyone would like to receive a copy of Leasehold News, please contact us and we will add you to the mailing list and send a copy to you.

• 1 April 2009 - Estimated Annual Service Charges 2009/2010

All Estimated Service Charge Invoices for 2009/2010 are currently being posted out and you will receive this within the next few days. Due to legislative changes we are required to send you a separate invoice for your Ground Rent so you will be receiving two separate invoices this year.

Any existing payment arrangements, including direct debits, will no longer apply.

The lease which all Leaseholders have signed states that all service charges are due in full in advance of the financial year.  If these charges have adversely affected you, instalments may be considered but this will be at the discretion of Your Homes Newcastle and you will be required to provide evidence of income and expenditure to prove financial hardship.

• 1 April 2009 - District Heating

The Leasehold Valuation Tribunal advised us that we need to invoice Leaseholders who are connected to a District Heating System separately to the Annual Service Charges so this element will not appear on your invoice.

You will receive a separate invoice for this shortly.

Please note failure to pay heating charges may result in Your Homes Newcastle taking steps to disconnect you from the district heating system.

• Gas servicing

We wrote to all leaseholders recently to ask them if they would be interested in a gas servicing scheme if it was available.

Following the responses we received, City Build (part of Newcastle City Council) has been putting together a gas servicing programme which is designed to look after your appliances.

City Build already provides a comprehensive and dependable gas servicing programme to both public and private organisations and they are now going to offer this service to Leaseholders too.

You will receive more information about this service, including prices and how to sign up, in the post very soon.

• Leasehold drop-in events

We recently held some drop in events across the city to give Leaseholders the chance to come and discuss any issues they have in an  informal setting with members of the Leasehold Team.

The events were successful and we will be holding more of these events later in the year. Dates of future events will be announced soon. 

If you indicated on your Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey that you didn’t want to receive such invites but would now like to be invited to future events, please contact us. 

• Leasehold Valuation Tribunal – result

As many of you might have read recently in the local news, Your Homes Newcastle was challenged by a group of leaseholders from St Ann’s Close at the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal.

The case centred on increases in Service Charges and estimates for carrying out Decent Homes work. 

We have now received the tribunal's decision which found that the bulk of our charges are reasonable. However, there will be implications for some leaseholders whose charges will rise due to the requirement for us to charge in full for all services to the block.

We are particularly proud that the LVT have scrutinised what is essentially a complex legal consultation process for Decent Homes work and found it to be fully compliant.

We are currently working through the determination which will be a lengthy process due to the scope of the case. All Leaseholders who are going to be affected by the decision will be notified in due course.