Leaseholders

Leasehold homeownership of a flat is simply a long tenancy, which has been granted for up to 99 or 125 years. Nottingham City Council still owns the freehold of the building and the land it is built on. The responsibility for maintenance of the structure, the upkeep of the common areas, providing insurance and the provision of services therefore remains with the Council.

As the purchaser or owner of a leasehold flat, it is important that you understand the legal nature of the ownership. To help you understand this better, we suggest you read our leaseholder factsheet.

The service charges you pay as a leaseholder cover minor, everyday repairs to your building’s communal areas such as re-bedding paving slabs, fixing gates, replacing bulbs, repairing leaks and unblocking drains. They also cover cutting the grass and maintaining flower beds, keeping the lifts working, and CCTV.

Direct debit

One of the easiest ways to pay is to set up a direct debit. You can download your direct debit form here, or call us on 01157 469 486 and we’ll set this up over the phone

Online or on the phone with a credit or debit card

You can pay online with a credit or debit card, or you can call for free on 0800 052 0173 at any time.

You can pay your service charges online  - you will need your payment reference (starting with 37).

You can also pay your ground rent online  - this is for the £10 yearly ground rents payable to Nottingham City Council.

With cash at a PayPoint

Shops and other outlets across Nottingham take payments by PayPoint for free. Payment must be in cash, and you’ll need your Citycard. You can find out where’s nearest to you on the PayPoint website. Please allow four days for PayPoint payments to show on your account

If you don’t pay, or you don’t agree repayment terms, we may take legal action against you. This may result in the loss of your lease, a County Court Judgement (CCJ) against you, arrears registered against your mortgage or property, or arrears sent to a debt collection agency for recovery.

As a leaseholder you can carry out improvements and alterations to your home as long as you have permission.

We won’t refuse requests unreasonably, but we do have to monitor development in all our blocks of flats. You might need to apply for planning permission for some improvements and alterations.

If you carry out alterations and improvements without our permission, we may recharge you for the work we do to put the property back to its original state. Remember that the outside doesn’t belong to you.

You must tell us about structural work you’d like to do inside your home as well, such as knocking rooms through. You don’t need to tell us about things like repainting walls or putting up shelves.

If you want to make any alterations or improvements, please email us or write to:

Leasehold Team 
PO Box 10658
Nottingham 
NG8 9NW

It’s helpful to include plans of the improvement or alteration you want to do. Our surveyors may want to look at your plans – if that’s the case, we’ll let you know.

Please don’t start any works before you get our written permission. Once the works are complete, please let us know.

Remember the conditions of your lease - if we do find that a leasehold property has had works done without our permission, we may order you to change it back to the original condition at your own cost.

If you need advice or want to talk to someone about your plans, please email us, or call us on 0115 746 9486.       

Major works are things like replacement roofs, fire safety improvements, new door entry systems and improvements to communal areas. We will always inform you in advance about these works.

By law, we have to consult leaseholders about major works where the total cost to a leaseholder is over £250, or when a long-term agreement (such as new CCTV) is being made and the yearly charge will be more than £100 to a leaseholder.

We are responsible for managing fire safety in blocks of flats. By law, we must make sure that measures are in place to reduce the risk of fire and the spread of fire.

As a leaseholder, you own your flat front door, and it’s your responsibility to make sure it meets the required safety standard to delay the spread of fire and smoke. We regularly check with leaseholders to make sure their flat front doors meet the necessary fire safety standards.

In the worst case scenario, where a leaseholder refuses to comply with the standards, we can apply for an injunction to ensure the work is done.

You must have a fire door as the front door to your flat that is:

• made of material that will withstand fire for a minimum of 30 minutes
• fitted with door closers, smoke seals and smoke resistant letter boxes.

You can check out our fire door FAQs here.

If you’re not sure whether your door complies, or you’d like to talk to us about this, you can email us or call 0115 74 69 486.

Gas safety is critically important. It protects the people who live in your flat, and those in other flats in your block.

We have a legal duty to carry out an annual service on all our tenants’ gas appliances. As a leaseholder, you have a similar duty – you are responsible for making sure that gas appliances in your leasehold property are also checked every year, and for supplying a copy of your gas safety certificate to us.

If you are a leaseholder landlord, you must by law make sure that gas appliances in your leasehold property are checked every year, in accordance with the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 (GSIUR) as amended. You must also provide your tenant with a copy of the gas safety certificate, and under the terms of your lease, provide a copy of the certificate to us within one month of getting it. 

If you don’t have a current gas safety certificate, please arrange for your gas appliances to be serviced/checked as soon as possible and send us the certificate. We can carry out your gas safety check at a competitive rate - please call 0115 746 9486 for more information. 

If you no longer have a gas supply to your property, or the gas supply has been capped, please let us know so that we can amend our records. Just give us a call on 0115 746 9486.

Nottingham City Council provide the buildings insurance cover for your property. This is provided under a block policy and is administered by Nottingham City Council Housing Services on the Council’s behalf. Your lease will require you to pay a contribution to the premium for this cover as part of your service charge. You are solely responsible for the interior structure.

You can read more about this in our leasehold insurance factsheet.

You may also want to read the buildings insurance policy and terms and conditions.