A2 Housing Group: Your lease

The lease is the formal legal contract between you and A2 and sets out the rights and obligations of both parties.

Leases vary depending on the type of property and the type of ownership. Your own lease will give you information that applies to you and your home. Some leases are more detailed than others.

A copy of your lease is available from your solicitor, or A2's solicitors.

Basic details
This part of your lease will include:

the name of the original leaseholder
the name of the original landlord
the address of the property
a description of the property defining boundaries and areas you are responsible, and we are responsible for
the ground rent
the items included in the service charge and how we tell you about their cost
details of buildings insurance
how you can buy more shares in your home (if you are a shared owner)
an explanation of yours, and A2's, responsibilities under the lease
how much rent and/or service charge you must pay when your lease starts
how the rent and service charges are reviewed.

Your rights under the lease
Your main rights are:

to live in your home for the length of the lease
the quiet enjoyment of your home
not to be disturbed by nuisance or acts of harassment by other leaseholders, members of their household or visitors
for flat owners, the support and shelter of other parts of the building and the repairs of the structure and shared areas.

If you are a shared owner, you have additional rights to:

buy more portions of the equity by staircasing
obtain the freehold if you acquired 100% of the equity.

The lessee's covenants
The 'lessee' is another name for the leaseholder and 'covenants' is another word for responsibilities. This part of your lease sets out your responsibilities. These include:

paying ground rent
paying service charges and/or rent on time
paying Council Tax
to maintain and repair the internal parts of your home
keeping to local bylaws
allowing us to carry out necessary repairs to the property
not causing a nuisance to your neighbours
not selling or subletting your property without our permission
not changing the property without our permission
giving up the premisies at the end of the term of the lease

Subletting
If you own 100% share of your home you are free to sublet your property but you must get our permission to do so. You will remain responsible for ensuring that all ground rent and service charge payments are made on time and that your tenants obey the rules set out in the lease. If you will not be living in the property please give
us your address and phone numbers so we can communicate with you.

If you are a shared owner you are not allowed to sub-let your home.

The landlords covenants
This part of your lease sets out our responsibilities as your landlord. These may include:

to allow you enjoyment of your home
repairing and maintaining the structure and shared areas (for blocks or flats)
cleaning and gardening in shared areas
insuring your property - this does not apply if you buy the full 100% equity of your home and become a freeholder
making sure leaseholders carry out lease covenants
giving leaseholders an annual statement of service charges

Further rights for 100% leaseholders

the right to extend your lease
the right to manage - this means that you can take over the management of the building from us. However, certain conditions must be met
- the building must be self contained (or part of another building, be capable of being redeveloped
  independently)
- it must include at lease two flats
- at least two thirds of the flats must be owned by 100% leaseholders
- the building can be part-commercial, but the non-residential part must not exceed 25% of the total floor area
- the 100% leaseholders must have a remaining term on their leases in excess of 21 years, at least 50% of leaseholders must participate, and a right to manage company must be set up
The right to enfranchisement - 100% leaseholders have a right to buy the freehold of the block of flats where they live. The following qualifications apply:
- the building can be part-commercial, but the non-residential part must not exceed 25% of the total area
- at least two thirds of the flats must have been brought to 100% ownership
- at lease half of the leaseholders of the total number of flats in the building must want to take up this right.

If you qualify on the above criteria, and you would like more information, please contact your leasehold advisor.

The service charge
We are responsible for providing the services described in the lease. In return we charge you the cost of providing these services in the form of an annual service charge.

If you live in a leasehold house, we will insure your property (buildings insurance only) but it is likely you will be responsible for arranging and paying for the repairs and maintenance to your property. If you live in a block of flats, we will maintain and repair the structure and shared areas.We will also insure the property and arrange cleaning and gardening for the shared areas. The lease will set out, in detail, the services we must provide. It
will also set out what you will have to pay towards the cost of these services.

See our section on service charges for more information.