• As a leaseholder you have special rights and responsibilities for your home. The lease is a legal contract between you and Bromford which sets out our responsibilities. 

    Your responsibilities:

    Pay your service charge and buildings insurance in full and on the first day of each month.

    Pay your Ground Rent either once or twice a year when we ask for this.

    Take out contents insurance.

    Maintain your home and carry out your own repairs.

    Ask our permission if you want to carry out alterations.

    Ask our permission if you want to sublet.

    Let us into the property after giving you notice to view the condition of the property or to repair an adjoining property or communal areas.

    Make an effort to sort out differences with neighbours. 
    Keep safe – arrange regular gas servicing.

    Deal with wasps, ants, insects, rats and other pests and vermin in your home. Your local authority will give you advice about this. We only treat infestations if they are within the communal areas we are responsible for.

    Obtain our permission before re-mortgaging.

    Not leave caravans, trailers, boats or other large items or untaxed vehicles on your drive or any shared area.

    Bromford’s responsibilities:
     
    Ensure buildings insurance is in place.

    Allow you to carry out your own improvements and alterations to the inside of your property - but you need our permission first.

    Maintain and repair any unadopted communal or shared areas, roads or grounds and the structure of apartments.

    Collect service charge payments from you and notify you of any changes. The leasehold advisory service can provide you with free advice on the law affecting residential leasehold property.

  • We arrange the buildings insurance on your home. There are some exceptions when someone else owns the freehold and another managing agent provides services. If this applies to you, we will have told you when you moved in.

    Our buildings insurance policy insures the structure against loss, destruction and damage. It does not cover damage or loss to the contents of your home - you will need to insure for this.

    In an emergency you should take any immediate action required to protect your property from further damage, such as boarding up, switching off gas, water or electricity.

    Any settlement will be subject to the deduction of any applicable policy excess. Our current policy runs from 1st December 2023 to 30th November 2024. No excess is payable by leaseholders and shared owners for claims in this period.

    To make a new claim or to discuss an existing claim under this policy, please use the contact details below quoting Bromford Housing and policy number 3395510.

    Download a copy of the buildings insurance summary of cover for 2023 to 2024.

    For Claims Between 28th September 2021 and 30th November 2023

    To make a new claim or to discuss an existing claim under this policy, please use the contact details below quoting Bromford Housing and policy number 2023CP000211 

    For Property Claims: Tel: 01204 860427 or Fax: 0845 070 9501
    For Liability Claims: Tel 0121 411 0533 or Fax: 0845 070 9501
    Email: tpasolutions@questgates.co.uk

    Please be aware that you need to take out your own contents insurance. Find out more about contents insurance.

  • A lease typically lasts for 125 years or 99 years from the commencement date in the lease. Your solicitor should have given you a copy of your lease when you bought the property. You can obtain a copy of your lease from Land Registry by paying a small fee. Once there is less than 70 - 80 years left on your lease, this can affect the value of the property and it might be more difficult  to sell the property.

    The length of a lease goes down over time. If the property is sold the original lease is simply assigned to the new owner rather than a new lease being created.

    Mortgage lenders are often unwilling to provide a mortgage on a property where there are less than 70 years left on the lease.

    There is a statutory right to a lease extension on a leasehold property. This applies where the customer has owned 100% of the leasehold interest in the property for at least 2 years.

    These are the two options available if you would like to extend the lease on your leasehold property: 

    - Voluntary lease extension scheme

    - Lease extension under the statutory scheme

    Complete the Lease extension form below.

    Lease extension application

    If you don't know please tick the box below.

    Please tick to confirm the below

    (If you wish to apply for a Statutory lease extension – please do not use this form – you will need to instruct your solicitor to serve a notice on us )

    Once your request has been received by the EHST we will confirm receipt via email and raise an invoice associated to any payments due.

    We will process your personal data in line with the data protection law set out in our privacy notice.

     

  • If you own a Leasehold property you will need to instruct a solicitor to register any change of ownership on the property at the land registry. 

    If the property is leasehold and Bromford is the landlord, your solicitor will have to write to us to let us know about the change before we can update our records.

    The land registry will also ask for a written notice from Bromford to confirm we have been notified of the change.

    If you are adding a new person’s name onto the lease they may be required to enter into a Deed of Covenant with Bromford to agree to comply with the terms of the lease.

    If you have a mortgage on the property and the person/ people named on the mortgage is/are changing your lease may require a notice to be served on us as the landlord before the charge can be registered against the property at the land registry.

    We charge administration fees for providing the various documents required. 

  • You may need our permission to carry out any improvements or alterations to your home.  Please refer to your lease for guidance.  If permission is required please complete an alteration request form.

    You are not allowed to make changes to the structure of the building.

    Complete an alteration request form.

    Please note: Administration fees are applicable for considering this request. Payment of the fee is required in advance of the service being provided (a sales invoice will be sent to you following receipt of the alteration request form). Fees are non-refundable in the event that consent is not given or if you decide not to go ahead with the works. You can find out more about these administration fees.

    If you wish to remortgage to fund the cost of improvement works, your mortgage lender also needs to contact us for permission.

  • If you live in a leasehold apartment you are responsible for all repairs to the inside of your property.

    This includes repairs to:
     
    • Central heating, water heaters and fitted fires 
    • Sockets switches and light fittings 
    • Baths, basins, sinks, toilets, cisterns and waste pipes 
    • Drains and waste pipes.

    We or another managing agent are responsible for:

    • Communal entrances, halls, lifts, passageways, rubbish chutes and other communal parts 
    • External repairs and painting of the exterior of the apartment and any communal areas on a set cycle.

    Report a repair - To report a repair to the structure of the building or communal areas please call us on 0330 1234 034.

  • You may need to ask our permission to sublet the property if your lease requires this.

    If you have a mortgage on the property, you may also need your mortgage lenders permission.

    If you sublet a property you remain responsible for all service charges and any ground rent payable for the property.

    To ask for permission to sublet your property please download, print and fill in the subletting a property form and return it to us.

    Download the subletting a leasehold property form.

  • When selling a leasehold property you will need to contact our legal property team

    When a sale is agreed on a leasehold property, your solicitor will need to write to us to let us know.

    They will ask for some management information about the lease and about service charge and ground rent payments.

    The buyers solicitors will also need to serve a notice on us to enable the property to be registered in the new owners name at the land registry.

     

     

  • Find out more about service charges.

  • We will consult you before undertaking any cyclical or planned works which you are required to contribute to under the terms of your transfer. These could include resurfacing an access road or a car park for example.

  • Administration fees are charged for a range of services provided to homeowners. These services are not included within the service charge. Payment of the fee is required in advance of the service being provided.

    All fees include VAT and are reviewed on 1 April each year based on the actual cost of providing services.

    Find out more about the administrative charges.

    These fees are for Bromford’s administration services only. Additional fees may apply – e.g. valuation fees and/or Bromford‘s legal fees as well as your own legal fees.