A lease is a contract between the leaseholder and the landlord giving conditional ownership of the house or flat for a fixed period of time e.g. 99, 125 or 999 years.
As a lease holder you are therefore not entirely free to do whatever you want with the property and the Lease will usually contain a series of Covenants/Conditions detailing what you must, can and can not do with the property, such as obtaining the landlord’s consent to carry out alterations.
You may also be required to pay a contribution towards the upkeep of the estate where the property is part of an estate or within a larger building.
The lease should set out how your service charge will be calculated. Often it is a percentage or proportion of the total costs of repair, maintenance, management and insurance of the building. The amount you pay will normally vary but a few leases provide for a fixed service charge.
It is important that you are aware of the obligations imposed by the Lease as these will forever bind the property and any breach could result in financial implications.
If you have any questions about a leasehold property and how a lease will affect your use of a property in the future we would suggest that you contact our friendly and experienced Coveyancing team on 02920 470909.
Our Conveyancing team specialise in all aspects of residential Conveyancing including sales, purchases, remortgages and transfer of equity, acting for buyers and sellers for both freehold and leasehold properties.