Your lease will set out your actual responsibilities but in general you are responsible for:
- the locks/fittings of doors and glazing of windows
- tanks, cisterns, drains, pipes, ducts, conduits, plumbing and wiring which serve your property only
- internal walls, plasterwork, ceilings and door finishes and internal decorations
- internal fixtures and fittings unless they belong to the council. For example, communal TV aerial and socket or any part of an entry system or district heating system are the council’s responsibility to maintain.
For a complete definition please consult your lease.
What happens if the council thinks you are in breach of the lease conditions?
If the council thinks that you have breached any of the terms or conditions of the lease, which includes making payment of your service charges, we will write to you to tell you why we think that a breach has occurred, and what you should do about it. If you do not do what the council suggests – or you do not tell us why you do not think there has been a breach – the council will refer the matter to the court or the First-tier Tribunal for a decision.
If the court or the tribunal agrees that there has been a breach, and you still fail to comply with the directions, then the council may serve a notice on you under Section 146 of the Law of Property Act 1925. If you comply with the terms of the notice and remedy the breach, no further action will be taken, but you will be obliged to meet the council’s costs in preparing the notice.
If you still do not comply, the council will ask the court to forfeit your lease. This means that we will ask the court to terminate your lease. If the court agrees, you will usually get 28 days to remedy the breach. After that time, if you have still not complied, the council will be entitled to repossess your home and evict anybody living in it. If you have a mortgage or other debt secured on the property and your lease is forfeited you still remain liable to your lender for the money you borrowed.
If this happens, you have six months to apply to the court for relief of forfeiture – this means that you ask the court to reverse their previous decision and allow you back into the property. It is for the court to decide whether or not to allow relief and on what conditions (if any). For example the court may insist that you pay damages for the breach.
We sincerely hope that disputes between us never get to the stage where the council seeks to forfeit your lease.
