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Home > Tenancy Information > Leaseholders

Leaseholders

Aire Valley Homes Leeds has 283 leaseholders. Our Leaseholder Officer can be contacted by phone on 2141930 or by e-mail at avhleeds.leaseholders@avhleeds.org.uk.

If you’ve bought your leasehold under the Right to Buy you are responsible for Service Charges and Ground Rent.

New agreement with Morrison Facilities Services plc

The Council, Aire Valley Homes Ltd and West North West Homes Ltd propose entering into a Long Term agreement (the Proposed Agreement) with Morrison Facilities Service plc, for the carrying out of works to Council buildings, including the building you live in.

For more information regarding the Long Term agreement and related costs, please see the Useful Files section of this page.

What do I have to pay for?

Usually you have to pay your share of the following costs, generally known as service charges.

The landlord's cost of maintaining the common parts, structure and outside of the property. (These could include repairs to or replacing the roof, windows, lifts, staircase or external painting. The costs could sometimes be very high - several thousand pounds).
The cost of any services provided by the landlord such as caretaking and day to day maintenance of the grounds, lighting for halls, stairways and footpaths, not water, central heating etc.
The costs of any improvements to the structure, for example installing entry phones or double glazing - if the lease requires you to pay for improvements.
The landlord's management costs and the cost of insuring the structure and outside of the flat against accidental damage.

What else may I have to pay for?

Your own costs in maintaining the interior of the flat. The lease may require you to do certain things, such as to paint every few years.

What are my rights after I buy?

Your lease sets out your rights and obligations. But you also have rights under the law.

These include:

the right to obtain a summary of the relevant costs of any service charges
he right to look at the documents on which the summary is based
the right to be consulted about planned major works
the right to challenge a charge which you think is unreasonable; and
the right to challenge works or services which you think are not of a reasonable standard.

Legal changes

The Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 introduced a more stringent requirement for landlords to consult their leaseholders if they have to pay a service charge. This came into effect on 31 October 2003.

It concerns the individual charges to the leaseholder and seeks to make sure they have a proper chance to consider and comment on proposals that will affect them before decisions are made.

The rules say consultation must take place on contracts where the recharge to the leaseholder will:

Be more than £100 a year for goods, services or works they will have to pay a Service charge for
Where work to buildings they live in results in a charge of £250 or more.

The minimum consultation period is 60 days extending to 90 days for major work.

Leaseholders have the right to nominate a contractor where the service charge exceeds the amounts stated above in these categories and where the contract is for more than 12 months or where the contract is providing a long-term agreement such as a partnership.

The right to consultation applies whether a contract has or has not been advertised through a Public Notice. This refers to a contract being advertised in the Official Journal of the European Community (OJEC). In terms of goods and services this currently applies to contracts greater than £154,000.

The Act sets out schedules to cover each potential circumstance although the right of the leaseholder to nominate their own contractor to carry out work is restricted to where:

Goods and services or works are done where the recharge exceeds £100 a year, the contract is greater than 12 months and an OJEC notice has not been required. An example could be cleaning or security service.

Where "Qualifying Works" are to be done where the recharge is more than £250, the contract is for less than 12 months and an OJEC notice is required. An example would be a contract to re-roof a block.

Failure to comply with these requirements restricts recovering costs from the leaseholder and could result in lost income to Aire Valley Homes Leeds.

Thinking of buying your flat?

Think carefully. You need to make sure you can afford the commitment.

You need to consider:

Mortgage repayments

If your lender agrees you could add some repair and improvement costs to your mortgage. But will you be able to keep up the repayments - say, if the interest rates go up?