Leasehold

S4B manage your lease on behalf of the Manchester City Council and will be your first point of contact for reporting repairs to communal areas and paying your service charge.

Zeeshan Taj is your leasehold specialist and is available in the S4B office every Tuesday and Friday. To make an appointment please contact us by email to info@s4bmanchester.co.uk or by telephone to 0300 555 0128.

Your Lease 
Your lease is a legally binding document between you (the Leaseholder) and your Landlord (Manchester City Council). The lease outlines your responsibilities and those of Manchester City Council.  These rights and obligations cannot be changed without the agreement of both parties i.e. you and Manchester City Council or by an Act of Parliament.

Responsibility

Each lease is different, so you should always refer to it for information specific to your home.  When purchasing your home, your Solicitor will provide you with a copy of the lease which should be kept safe. If you don’t have a copy of your lease, you can ask your Solicitor, complete a Land Registry Search for land and property information, or request a copy from S4B (fees apply).

As a leaseholder, you are responsible for:

  • maintaining the interior of your home
  • requesting permission to do certain things, such as home improvements and alterations, subletting and having pets
  • not doing anything which may cause nuisance to others
  • paying your ground rent, service charges and where applicable contributing to a reserve fund

If you do not keep to the legal obligations, then you are considered to have ‘breached the lease’. If you were to breach the lease, we may take legal action against you to compel you to keep to your legal obligations. Ultimately, if you continue to breach your lease we can apply to Manchester County Court to have your lease ‘forfeited’ (cancelled).  This means the freeholder will take possession of your home and you will be required to leave it.  You will not be entitled to any compensation. We will always work with leaseholders to remedy breaches of the lease before any legal action is taken.

Please contact us if you have any further queries about your rights and responsibilities as a leaseholder

Lease terminology explained

Your lease may include some unfamiliar words, so we have developed a glossary of terms – read a copy here.

Extending your lease

When purchasing your home through a leasehold arrangement, you will have the right to occupy it for a set number of years. This is known as ‘the term’ which is normally over a 99- or 125-year period.

Most leaseholders choose to extend their lease when the term drops below 80 years, however you can extend at any time. Under leasehold legislation, you have currently the statutory right to extend your lease for an additional 90 years. For example, if your lease has 70 years left and you choose to extend, the term will increase to 160 years. To find more information about extending your lease please use the Lease search tool

If you don’t want to extend your lease, at the end of the term you will hand your property back to Manchester City Council. If you do not extend your lease, you may find that you have difficulty re-mortgaging or selling the property once the lease term drops below 80 years.

Permission requests

Where your lease outlines that you must request permission to do certain things it is important that you contact us for permission before you complete any home improvements and alterations, sublet or get a pet.  Where the lease allows us to, we will charge a few for reviewing permission requests. Our fees are detailed here.

Home improvements and alterations 

If you are making minor improvements or alterations to your home, such as decorating, replacing internal doors or flooring, you won’t need to request permission from us. Before making any major improvements or alterations to your home, you will need to request permission. This can include:

  • Replacing windows, external doors, fitted kitchens or bathrooms
  • Internal structural alterations, such as removing a wall to create an open plan area
  • Any work to the gas, electric or water supply to your home
  • Building an extension, conservatory, garage or similar structure – please note, we will not give permission for any of these works if the land you wish to build on is communal.

If you are unsure about whether you need permission, please get in touch to check before committing to any works. To submit a permission request for home improvements and alterations, please fill in the below form and email it to info@s4bmanchester.co.uk

We will review your permission request and will not withhold permission unreasonably, we will charge a fee for reviewing your request. For further information on obtaining permissions for home improvements and alterations, see our guide here.

The following conditions apply to all permission requests:

  • Copies of planning permission and documentation in line with building regulations will need to be provided.
  • Any work carried out should be done so to an acceptable standard by a suitably qualified tradesperson with relevant insurances in place.
  • We may carry out an inspection prior to the work commencing and after the work is completed. If we find the work has not been carried out to an acceptable standard, you may be required to either return the property to its original condition or pay the costs associated with us doing so.
  • Should the work result in damage to communal or external areas, you will be responsible for returning areas to their original state.

Subletting 

Subletting is the term used for leasing or renting out part of your home to another person where there is already a lease in place between you and your landlord. Your lease specifies whether, with consent from Manchester City Council, you can sublet your home. Some leases use the word ‘underlet’ rather than sublet.

Even if your lease does not require you to obtain consent before subletting it is still important that you let us know if you sublet the property, this is so that we know who is occupying the building and can ensure we send important information to you at a correspondence address.

Read our subletting guide here. To submit a permission request get in touch or complete an application request form. (online form coming soon)

Pets 

Your lease will specify whether pets are allowed in your home. If your lease allows and you would like to keep a pet in your home, you will need to request permission and pay a fee. Please note, we can withdraw permission to keep a pet at any time and will always withdraw permission where pets cause a nuisance.

If your lease prohibits pets, we will not grant you permission. If you already have a pet, you will need to rehome it; for which we will allow a reasonable amount of time. To submit a permission request for pets, please contact us.

Video doorbells and CCTV

If you wish to install video doorbells or CCTV, you will need to request permission before doing so. We will not give permission to install video doorbells or CCTV where your door leads onto an internal communal area, will be intrusive to neighbouring homes/communal areas, or is deemed to be causing a nuisance.

If you have already installed a video doorbell or CCTV without our permission, we ask that you remove it until a permission request has been approved.

To submit a permission request for video doorbells or CCTV, please email info@s4bmanchester.co.uk.

Selling your home 

We know that for a variety of reasons, you may eventually wish to sell your home.

If you are thinking about selling, please contact us and let us know so we can provide you with guidance and instructions on what happens next. Telling us as early as possible will help to eliminate any problems or delays to the process.

Privacy Policy and Legal Information 

Please visit the S4B website for full details of the privacy policy and legal information