Rights and Obligations

This page contains information on rights and obligations of a leaseholder or freeholder. This also may be of interest to potential leaseholders/freeholders.

Alterations
Building Insurance
Garden Maintenance
Gas
Home Contents Insurance
Payment of Administration Charge
Service Charges
Subletting

Alterations

You can carry out improvements to your home. You should discuss your plans with us first and then write to us giving full details of what you plan to do. We will write back to you with an answer within one month.

We consider each application separately and normally give permission, subject to any conditions that may be appropriate for the type of work you want to do. The permission we give is called Landlord's Consent. If we don't give permission we will tell you our reasons.

In addition to Landlord's Consent, the work you wish to do may also require Planning Permission and be subject to Building Regulations. You should contact Hackney Council about these requirements as they are separate to Landlord's Consent. You must not start work until you have obtained all necessary permissions, not just Landlord's Consent.

Building Insurance

Hackney Homes is responsible for arranging the building insurance of your block, including your flat or maisonette. We will invoice you for this as part of your annual service charge, in accordance with the terms of your lease. As your lease requires you to have our block building insurance, you should not set up your own building insurance with anyone else (including your mortgage lender). You should, however, make your own arrangements for home contents insurance cover (further information shown below).

If you require a copy of your building insurance policy, please write to:

London Borough of Hackney
Insurance Section
3rd Floor, Kelton House
89 - 115 Mare Street
London E8 4RU

Garden Maintenance

You are responsible for keeping your garden tidy and free of rubbish. Some of your other garden responsibilities include trimming and lopping any shrubs, hedges and trees to make sure they do not become a nuisance to neighbours.

You must also maintain fences, garden paths and garden features (such as patios or terraces) that fall within your boundaries. The plans included with your lease will show you which boundaries you are responsible for. They are displayed on the plans using inverted "T" marks.

Hackney Homes is responsible for maintaining fences, paths etc in communal areas and you pay a proportion of the costs within your annual service charge.

Gas

You are responsible for the servicing of your gas appliances under the terms of your lease. For good health and safety reasons it is recommended that you have your gas appliances serviced by a qualified Gas Safe-registered engineer at least once a year.

If you sub-let your property and become a landlord then you are required by law to have the gas appliances serviced every year and keep appropriate records. More information on your responsibilities as a landlord are available as a PDF on the Health & Safety Executive website.

Home Contents Insurance

We strongly advise you to take out home contents insurance. This will provide cover against damage to your TV, carpets, furniture, clothing and other household contents, if, for example, you had a fire, flood or burst pipe. The insurance also covers lost or stolen keys and certain items stolen in a break-in. You must arrange your own contents insurance policy and ensure that you take out adequate cover for your belongings. Unlike building insurance, contents insurance is not included within your service charges.

Payment of Administration charge

The law requires us, under Section 158 and Schedule 11 of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, to provide you with a summary of your rights and obligations as a leaseholder in paying administration charges.

This summary provides information about what your rights and obligations are and is not exhaustive. Where you have doubt as to what your rights and/or obligations are, you are advised to seek legal advice.

The law defines this a charge you have to pay either with or as an addition to your service charges. The charge covers such matters as requests for an approval or consent under the lease, requests for information, for a breach of your lease or for failure to make a payment (eg for service charges) by the due date it's due.

An administration charge has to be reasonable for you to pay it. Where you consider that it is unreasonable, then you have a right to challenge it with Hackney Homes, as well as take the matter before the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (known as LVT, an organisation set up by the government to look into such leaseholder issues and make a decision). Even if you believe your administration charge is unreasonable, you could still make payment as this will not undermine your case with either Hackney Homes or the LVT.

Before we can demand that you pay an administration charge, we must supply you with a summary of your rights and obligations. You do not have to pay the administration charge until this is provided.

Your failure to pay on this basis will not allow any provision of the lease regarding non-payment to be applied against you.

Service Charges

This summary does not provide full interpretation of your rights under both your lease and legislation and is not meant to be a substitute to any legal or professional advice that you should seek.

It is strongly advised that where you have concerns as to what your rights and responsibilities are, that you seek professional and legal advice. This document tells you what you may expect  from London Borough of Hackney, as your landlord, and what we can expect from you as a leaseholder.

As a leaseholder, your lease is a contract between you and your landlord. Your landlord is London Borough of Hackney and Hackney Homes manages the property on the Council's behalf. Your lease specifies what you may or may not do while you own your leasehold property. If you are unhappy with what we have charged you or how we have calculated or apportioned your charges, you have a right to bring this to our attention and to withhold your payments of the disputed item(s) until we have resolved the matter for you. You must not withhold payment of the whole service charge, only the part that you disagree with.

Your rights as a leaseholder are given under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002.

Your rights include the right to ask us to provide you with the following:

Your rights also include:

Your rights as listed above also come attached with responsibilities, which include:

If you have any queries you can phone Hackney Homes' Leasehold & RTB Customer Services on 020 8356 2100 or email service.charges@hackneyhomes.org.uk.

Subletting

Many leaseholders sublet their homes. Where this occurs a notice must be served to Hackney Homes informing us that this is happening.  There is also a small charge payable for administration. This will ensure that your building insurance is adequately covered and you comply with the terms of your lease.

As the leaseholder you are responsible for the conduct of your tenants. When you notify us that you are subletting we will need you to provide us with your contact details. This can be important, particularly if there is an emergency at your property or if there are problems with your tenants. We would also recommend that you use a reputable letting agent.