Make changes to your lease

You can ask us to extend your lease at any time, but please note that houses and flats have slightly different terms.

Before you proceed, we would advise you to obtain the services of a solicitor for legal advice based on your lease terms.

Here are the typical costs required to extend a lease (these are all payable by the applicant and are subject to change):

• Admin Fee: £200 plus VAT
• Independent Valuation: £420 plus VAT (you can use your own RCIS valuer)
• Lease Extension Premium (flats only) — based on the valuation: £5,000 to £8,000
• Our Legal Fees: £575 to £750
• Building Works Permission Fee (retrospective): £450 plus VAT

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If you'd like further information about extending your lease, please contact us on 01204 328000 or email leasehold@boltonathome.org.uk.

If your house has previously been sold on a leasehold title, we will sell the freehold title to the current leaseholder.

Please note, we may not own the freehold title, but we will advise you of this. If you'd like further information on your title, you can tap here to visit the 'Search for land and property information' page on the gov.uk website.

Here are the typical costs required to purchase the freehold title (these are all payable by the applicant and are subject to change):

• Admin Fee: £200 plus VAT
• Independent Valuation: £420 plus VAT (you can use your own RCIS valuer)
• Premium (based on the valuation): £5,000 to £9,000
• Our Legal Fees: £575 to £750
• Building Works Permission Fee (retrospective): £450 plus VAT

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If you'd like further information, please contact us on 01204 328000 or email leasehold@boltonathome.org.uk.

As a leaseholder, it is important that you tell us if you plan to sublet your property.

As a responsible landlord, we need to know who is residing within our block. If you choose to sublet your leasehold property, you should:

• Provide the tenant's contact details and the contact details of any management company appointed to manage the letting of the leasehold property.
• Ensure that the tenant complies with all provisions contained within the lease. As the leaseholder, you are responsible for how the tenant conducts their tenancy.
• Ensure that all costs due to us under the terms of the lease continue to be paid.

As the leaseholder, you will still be required to maintain the property and pay the service charges.

As a landlord, you are responsible for your tenant's safety. This means that you are legally required to undertake a number of important safety checks and considerations if you plan to sublet your home.

It is a criminal offence for landlords to provide appliances or items of furniture that do not comply with respective safety regulations. You can tap here for more information on important gas safety implications if you plan to sublet your home.

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If you'd like further information, please contact us on 01204 328000 or email leasehold@boltonathome.org.uk.

You can sell your home at any time.

Leases are subject to a five-year discount repayment period. This means that if you sell your home within five years of buying it, you must pay back a percentage of the discount.

Who should I tell when I sell?

Your lease states that you must inform us when you sell the property within one calendar month. If we do not receive this information, we may charge a fee if we have to investigate who the new owners are.

Your solicitor must notify us when you have accepted an offer so that we can advise them on what you owe us for day-to-day service charges, major works, building insurance, and ground rent.

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For more information on the charges you will need to pay when you sell your home, please contact us on 01204 328000 or email leasehold@boltonathome.org.uk.

Transfer of Equity is a term that refers to changing the ownership of the property.

There may be time when you want to remove or add a name to the lease for your home. Here's what you need to do if you wish to change the ownership in your property, either to joint or sole names.

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When might I need to transfer the equity of my property?

There may be many reasons why you may wish to transfer the equity of your property. This may be down to a change of circumstances where one person is no longer living at the property, or when a partner moves in.

There is no legal requirement to add a partner to the ownership of a property if they have moved in.

If you live in a Shared Ownership property, any new tenants will be subject to eligibility and affordability checks before they are added to the lease. We can refuse to add new tenants if they do not meet the criteria for Shared Ownership. 

Please note, there will be a fee payable in advance to change names on a lease.

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Changing from joint names to a sole name:

To approve a change of ownership in the property to a sole name, you must:

• Complete an application form and return this to us.
• Provide confirmation of your mortgage lender’s approval (if applicable).
• If you own your share outright, with no lender involved, we may ask for other supporting documents such as payslips and bank statements to show affordability.
• Instruct a solicitor to carry out the legal work and complete the transfer for you.
• Your solicitor will notify us of completion, and we will update our records.

Please note, if a Court Order dictates an owner needs to be removed from the deeds of the property, we are obliged to do this without going through an application process.

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Changing from a sole name to joint names:

To approve a change of ownership in the property into joint names:

• Complete an application form and eligibility form (with applicant’s details) and return this to us.
• Provide confirmation of your mortgage lender’s approval to the transfer.
• Where applicable, the new owner will be asked to confirm their eligibility for Shared Ownership, and we will send the joint application for an independent affordability check, where you will have to provide payslips, bank statements, and ID.
• Instruct a solicitor to carry out the legal work and complete the transfer for you.
• Your solicitor will notify us of completion, and we will update our records.

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We're here to help. If you'd like more information on transferring the equity of your property, please get in touch.

We would recommend you seek legal advice if you wish to buy the freehold for the block of flats of which you are a leaseholder.

There is a process to follow and criteria which needs to be met. This is a complex process and all costs associated would be the responsibility of the applicants.