Glossary

Terms and definitions

Assignment
This is the term used when you sell your flat and with it the lease. The new leaseholder is the assignee.

Block
The building in which your property is situated.

Common parts
The parts of the building or estate that all the residents can use, such as stairs, lifts, paths, communal gardens.

Constitution
This is a document that sets rules for an organisation such as a residents’ association.

Consultation
This is the process of asking for other people’s opinions. Where possible we will consult you about anything we do that affects you.

Covenant
A covenant is a promise to take responsibility for something. The lease states what you are responsible for during your ownership of the property.

Cyclical maintenance
Work that we usually carry out according to a programme over  a number of years.

Enfranchisement
The process where leaseholders may be able to buy the freehold of their block.

Estate
The block, any out buildings and any land associated with the block.

Fixtures
You are responsible for these fittings in your flat.  They include kitchen units, the bathroom suite, light fittings and any central heating system.

Forfeiture
This means that the lease is terminated, and we as freeholder can lawfully repossess the property, require you to vacate it and dispose of it with vacant possession. This would only take place after significant breaches of the covenants in your lease and following decision by a Leasehold Valuation Tribunal or a Court.

Freehold
Absolute ownership of property and the land on which it stands.

Ground rent
This is the rent paid to the landlord during the term of the lease. It is a small annual fixed sum payable by a leaseholder to a freeholder in recognition of the legal contract between them. We charge £10 each year as ground rent.

Improvement
Doing more work to a property than is required to satisfy an obligation to repair.

Landlord
This is a person or organisation that owns the freehold (or long term lease) of a property and grants a tenancy or lease to a tenant or leaseholder.

Lease
The lease is a contract that explains our responsibility to you, and your responsibility to us.

Leasehold
An ownership of a property in a building, that comprises other flats/maisonettes and subject to the payment of service charges and ground rent for a set period of time.

Leaseholder
This is the person who has been granted the lease by the landlord.

Leasehold
A body, that makes decisions about service charge disputes between landlords and leaseholders. It is made up of a panel of people with experience of property disputes such as solicitors and surveyors.

Lessee
This means the same as leaseholder.

Mortgagee
This is a bank or building society that has lent you money so that you can buy a property.

Rateable value
A property - based sum, used originally as a former method of local taxation, but used in this context as a reasonable way of apportioning service charges.

Section 20 Notice
This is the consultation letter we must send you when we are intending to carry out works, which cost more than an amount set by government regulations.

Section 125 Notice
This is the Offer Notice, which is provided when the lease is first sold under the Right-to-Buy scheme. It contains the estimated costs of service charges, repairs and improvements during the first five-year period of the lease, together with the maximum contribution you will be expected to pay, subject to an adjustment for inflation.

Service charge
This is a payment made by a leaseholder to a freeholder in return for services the freeholder provides.

Sub-letting
This is where you rent out part or your entire home to a sub tenant.

Tender
This is what we do to get the best prices for big contracts such as redecoration works, and is based on a detailed specification of the works. We invite contractors to give their price or ‘tender’ for the work.