your lease

A lease is a legal agreement between you (the leaseholder) and the council (the landlord), who normally own the freehold of the land on which your property stands. Haringey Council still owns the land and the building in which your property is situated. Homes for Haringey manages the day to day services and carries out work where necessary.

The lease is the main document which sets out the responsibilities of both the landlord and the leaseholder.

There are two main types of lease, depending on when you bought the property. These are:

• leases relating to properties sold before 1 April 1990
• leases relating to properties sold since 1 April 1990.

The main differences between them are the formulas we use to calculate your service charges and your liability for the cost of improvement work.

The lease also:

• Defines your property and the block/estate it forms part of.
• Allows you to occupy the flat for a fixed number of years.
• Places certain conditions on its use & occupation.
• Requires us to manage and maintain the outside of the block, the structure and communal areas.
• Requires you to pay a share of our costs in providing services and carrying out work to the block your flat is in and the grounds and estate around it (‘service charges’).
• Makes you responsible for the internal decoration and repair of your flat.

You can request a copy of your lease from your mortgage lender, solicitor or the Home Ownership team. There is a charge of £25 for this service. However you can download a copy of the standard lease document from this website.

Download a copy of the standard lease document

As a leaseholder, it is very important to know what you are responsible for, as well as what we (Homes for Haringey) are responsible for.

You can also download a copy of our Plain English Guide to your Lease. This booklet explains the council’s standard lease in everyday English. In some parts, the standard lease will differ from yours. Where this occurs, we explain the differences. There is a lot of law that covers leasehold matters but we don’t refer to it in the Plain English Guide to your lease.

To help you understand these responsibilities, we publish a useful document called the Leaseholders’ Charter 2008, which you can download by clicking the link below. The Charter is a key part of our strategy for keeping you informed.

It explains:

• what you need to do as a leaseholder
• the types of services we provide and standards we set for them.

Download the Leaseholders' Charter

The Leaseholders’ Charter is currentlly being updated by a small team of Homes For Haringey officers and leaseholders. The Leasehold Panel has been consulted on the draft.