When you buy a flat or maisonette, you do not buy the building itself - you buy a lease from the landlord, which gives you the right to live in the flat for an agreed amount of time. The lease outlines your responsibilities as a lessee and ours as a landlord, it also states what services you could be charged for.

You will be responsible for maintaining everything within your home or serving only your home for the period of the lease. Any electrical and gas testing is your responsibility to keep up with. Gas boilers should be tested and serviced every year and electrical wiring every 5 years. Any communal gas or electricity supply is maintained and serviced by us.

Lease periods

If you are a Poole leaseholder, our leases usually have an initial term of 125 years from the date the first lease in the building was granted.

If you are a Bournemouth leaseholder, it will be from the date of the original sale however some leases have now been extended by leaseholders. We currently only offer the statutory route to extension, where you must have owned the lease for at least 2 years before you can extend.

The statutory route will add another 90 years to the remaining term of your lease. We advise you extend your lease before it reaches 80 years or less as once it has less than 80 years remaining, you will have to pay an additional fee called a 'marriage value' to the freeholder (us) in addition to the extension premium and legal costs.

If you would like to extend your lease, you will need to issue a Section 42 Notice on us exercising your statutory right to extend as well as meeting the criteria. This is normally done through a solicitor and should be directed to the Leasehold team.

What we do

The services we provide to leaseholders include:

• consulting with you prior to carrying out major works that affect property
• sending you an annual statement detailing the cost of managing your property
• calculating and collecting service charges
• producing major works invoices
• responding to enquiries from leaseholders
• offering home visits to all new leaseholders
• helping you make a claim on the buildings insurance policy
• giving advice on the responsibilities and obligations contained in your lease - both yours and ours
• opportunities to get involved with us in the running of your home and neighbourhood
• advising you on housing related matters that affect the enjoyment of your home such as if you are experiencing noise or other nuisance from others that live in your block
• dealing with solicitor enquiries on re-sales on the open market

Contact us

If you would like more information regarding leasehold issues you can contact us by telephone on 0800 028 1870.

Alternatively, you can contact us by email:

• bcphomes@bcpcouncil.gov.uk for Bournemouth leaseholders
• bcphomes.leaseholdandrtbteam@bcpcouncil.gov.uk for Poole leaseholders

The Leasehold Advisory Service has free advice on leasehold legislation.