Leaseholders

Background

This section gives leaseholders and people thinking of buying one of our flats some useful information and describes some of the differences between being a leaseholder and being a tenant.

Women’s Pioneer Housing exists to provide rented homes for women on low incomes. Almost all our properties are converted flats in Victorian and Edwardian buildings in west London, many of which are listed or in conservation areas. From 1980 tenants could buy a lease under the right to buy legislation and as a result we have 90 leasehold flats, scattered across 42 of our properties. The remaining 968 flats and houses are still rented, mostly to women headed households that have been identified as being in housing need by their local council. Our tenants pay rent for the accommodation and service charges for services such as cleaning and lighting for the common parts. Leaseholders do not pay rent but do pay for services on the same basis as tenants and they also contribute to repairs and insurance and pay a management charge.

Leaseholders may notice differences between the ways Women’s Pioneer works compared with a private management company. In particular, you will find we take a long term view of the investment in our properties. We are a self funded charitable organisation and receive no grants or loans for the day to day running of our properties, therefore all costs must be met from income. The costs of providing management services, maintenance and property improvement for rented homes is wholly met by tenants through their rents and service charges. We also aim for our leasehold management work to break even, charging only what is necessary to meet our costs within the provisions of the lease.

Women’s Pioneer is a “registered provider”, regulated by the Tenant Services Authority and the Financial Services Authority. The standards we work to have to meet the TSA’s requirements and this impacts on the way we work, in the way we let our flats, manage our relationship with the local council and plan the long term maintenance of our buildings.

Charges

The detail of how we make charges to leaseholders is described in detail in the lease and we strongly advise that leaseholders familiarise themselves with this and take legal advice before purchase. In addition to the purchase price of the flat, leaseholders will need to cover the following ongoing costs:

  • A management charge to contribute to our administrative costs in managing our relationships with leaseholders, for example, by providing information and keeping accounts
  • A day to day service charge covering the actual costs of recurring expenditure such as cleaning, and common hall lighting plus a 15% administration charge to cover the costs of arranging these, for work such as obtaining tenders, letting contracts and monitoring performance.
  • One off charges, most significantly planned maintenance for the whole building that takes place approximately every eight years, with an associated 6% administration fee. This maintenance may include not only exterior and interior decoration, but also structural repairs and works to meet current health and safety requirements such as those for escape in the case of fire. The nature of our buildings can make these works expensive, both for leaseholders and tenants. Women’s Pioneer does not require leaseholders to make contributions to a sinking fund, as we have found that most people prefer to have a greater degree of control over how they pay for this work. However, this does mean that when we charge for the work (in the year after it has taken place) leaseholders must ensure that they have sufficient funds to meet this expenditure in twelve monthly instalments. Monthly payments of £750 in addition to the other charges mentioned above are not unusual.

Feedback

Although the interests of tenants and leaseholders will not always coincide, the residents of any property will have a good deal in common and we will consult all of you when we propose to make significant changes to the way we provide a service that affects your home. For leaseholders we will give you notice of when and how we plan to carry out major works that you will be charged for and to give you the opportunity to comment on our proposals. We welcome your feedback at any time and if we fail to provide a service in the way we have promised we have a complaints procedure that we hope will enable us to put things right.

Carrying out improvements and alterations to your flat

You must obtain our written consent before starting any works – we won’t unreasonably withhold consent but we do need detailed information from you including two copies of plans and any necessary consents such as building regulations approval. You’ll also need to reimburse the costs we incur in considering your proposals

If you intend to carry out improvements or alterations you must obtain our written consent before starting any work. We will need:
Two copies of the plans drawn by a technically competent firm or person, preferably an architect, engineer or surveyor to a scale not less than 1:50. An accompanying specification which fully describes the proposed works in sufficient detail to permit examination for approval purposes and for a competent contractor to execute the work.

Alterations requiring statutory consents by Local or other relevant Authorities (e.g. Town Planning, Listed Building or Conservation Area consents) must be accompanied by valid evidence that these consents have been obtained in the form of copies of the relevant documents. The works must also comply in full with the latest editions of the Building Regulations and will not receive our full and final approval until the Local Building Inspectorate or other approved Building Inspection Agency has provided written confirmation of compliance. It is acknowledged that this latter confirmation may not be available until after completion of the work. These are obligations under the terms of the lease.

We advise that you get competent professional advice on the design, detailing and specification before seeking any necessary statutory approvals. It is far better and less costly to spend time and effort in pre-planning proposed work prior to seeking our approval. If we require the services of technical consultants to examine proposals for approval purposes, we will expect you to reimburse us.

Any proposal to alter load bearing walls, partitions, openings etc, should be accompanied by an engineer’s calculations and details that show that the integrity of the structure and safety of the building is not prejudiced. We will not permit work which adversely affects the means of escape from fire. The common areas and fire escape routes must not be used for storage or preparation of building materials. It is recommended that you take all steps to protect the common parts of the property from damage as materials are taken to and from your flat in the course of the works. As you will be responsible for any damage to the common parts or any other part of the building should this occur as a consequence of your works, your contractor should have public liability insurance. Noise must be kept to a minimum and unavoidably noisy works are to be confined to between 9.00am and 6.00pm daily with no noisy work after 1.00pm on Saturdays or at all on Sundays and Bank Holidays. In the interests of being a good neighbour, it would be useful if you could advise your fellow residents of any disruptive works.

We do not give consent to alterations to common parts, external areas or to the structure and fabric of the building.