What is a leaseholder?

A leaseholder is someone who owns a lease and does not own the land around their home or the building that their home is in. If your home is a flat or maisonette, it is part of a larger building which is divided into individual units. There will usually be another property above, below or next to yours, but still within the same building.

Each property is not independent, and shares the roof, the foundations and the entrance halls and stairs of the building.

Newcastle City Council owns the land and the building that your home is in and is the Freeholder of your building. They are required to maintain the exterior of the building and any common areas. You must pay towards the costs of managing and maintaining your block, estate and grounds - this means that you will be charged for any repairs carried out to the structure or communal areas of your building.

What is the lease?

The lease is a legally binding contract. When you purchased your flat or maisonette you bought the right to live there for 125 years. If you bought your home on the open market, the seller will have transferred their rights and responsibilities to you under the lease for the rest of its term. The length of the lease reduces over time from the date when it was originally granted.

The lease sets out the relationship between the landlord and the leaseholder and details each parties rights and obligations. The lease is between you (the Leaseholder) and Newcastle City Council (the Landlord) and Your Homes Newcastle manage your property on behalf of your landlord. It contains similar conditions to the tenancy agreement for our tenants, to make sure that the actions of residents do not cause a nuisance to others or cause damage to the building.

Terms of your lease – roles and responsibilities

Your responsibilities

You must:

• pay the ground rent, service charges and major works costs, when requested
• keep your home in good repair and condition and maintain any garden which you are responsible for
• not do anything which might cause damage, be a nuisance or disturbance to other residents in your building, or neighbouring buildings
• not make any structural alterations or additions unless you have permission, in writing, from us first
• allow us into your home to carry out repairs to your flat or other parts of the building, or to neighbouring properties
• take responsibility for any overflows
• not put up a TV aerial or satellite dish outside your home or on the building
• not use your home for running a business
• not leave your property empty for more than 30 days
• tell us if you are going to sublet your property

Our responsibilities

We are responsible for the main structure of the building, the shared parts and any shared services to your building or estate. These will depend on where you live and the type of property in which you live, but may include:

• Outside walls
• Inside structural walls
• Roofs, foundations, timbers, joist beams, chimney stacks, gutters, rainwater and soil pipes
• Window frames
• Lifts
• Door entry systems
• Estate lighting
• Block lighting (entrance halls, stairways etc)

We must:

• Send out annual service charge invoices
• Arrange the buildings insurance for your property and recharging the premium as part of the annual service charge
• Carry out all external repairs, maintenance and major works and recharge a share of the cost of this work to you