Blackpool Coastal Housing >
Right to Buy & Leaseholders >
Being a Leaseholder
Right to Buy & Leaseholders
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Contact Us
Homeownership Blackpool Coastal Housing Coastal House 17 - 19 Abingson Street Blackpool FY1 1DG  (01253) 477984  homeownership@bch.co.uk |
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Lease and Leaseholder Information
- Blackpool Council hold the freehold of the building and will be your Landlord, with Blackpool Coastal Housing managing your Lease on the council's behalf.
- You will have bought the Lease and will be a tenant with a long lease.
- You will be a Leaseholder.
- The Lease gives you the right of possession but not ownership of the property for the period stated in the lease.
The Lease is your legal agreement with the Landlord and sets out your rights and responsibilities;
for example, your payment of Service Charges, Ground Rent and Buildings Insurance Premium, your obligations relating to consent to improvements you may wish to undertake, allowing access for repairs and programmed works and the tenancy conditions connected with neighbourhood issues.
The Lease also sets out the Landlords responsibilities.
Open the Leaseholders Handbook or click on the "Handbook and Newsletters" button for further information. An example of what a Lease looks like is available is available to download, if you become a Leaseholder you will have your full legal version as part of the completion of sale process, this document may be held on your behalf by your Solicitor or Mortgage provider. Your Landlord Blackpool Council can provide a copy but a charge is made by them for this service.
The current Homeownership Policy document iand the Homeownership Information leaflet and Service Standards are published under the leaflets button.
You will be invoiced in April and October each year for Service Charges, which includes your share of the day to day (responsive) repairs to your block or your own flat and your share of planned/programmed works to your block or your own flat.
Your April invoice will include your annual Ground Rent and Buildings Insurance Charges.
Click on the Paying your Service Charges button.
Landlord Consent
Your Lease tells you that you must ask for Landlord Consent before you undertake any improvements such as installing new windows or doors, central heating or any new kitchen or bathroom work.
You should write to Homeownership with details of the improvements you are planning and we will offer advice on the work and issue a consent letter for your own records. It is important that any work is undertaken by suitably qualified tradespeople and that no damage or nuisance is caused.
Consent is not given to Loft conversions as the loft is never sold with the Lease and remains the property of the Council.
Gas Safety: It is important that all Leaseholders provide a copy of their annual Gas Safety Certificate, if you are sub letting it is also a legal requirement that one is provided.
Leaseholders can join the Blackpool Council Gas Safety Care & Maintenance Scheme, there is an annual charge payable in full for which Leaseholders are invoiced separately from their Service Charges. Open the Information form and for more information about Gas Safety see the Repairs Gas Safety section on this web site.
Fire Safety: There are very strict rules from Government on the standard required for doors and windows in blocks of flats. Please contact Homeownership for more information and to obtain Landlord Consent if you are planning to replace your existing front door or windows.
- Please note an ordinary UPVC door will not be legal if it opens onto communal areas, and any window which faces onto a communal area must be glazed with safety glass.
- Any replacement windows and door must meet the legal requirements of The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO). A copy of the specification/guarantee is required for the Leasehold file and for the Block Fire Risk Assessment which is available for inspection by the Fire Service.
- If you privately install a door/window which fails to meet the Fire Safety Reform Act requirements Blackpool Coastal Housing will, in order to meet its obligations to ensure block safety, be required to obtain legal advice in order to enforce compliance with clauses in your Lease. For more information please contact Blackpool Coastal Housing
A free safety inspection of your flat by the Fire Service can be arranged by contacting Homeownership.
Blackpool Coastal Housing make regular block inspections, and is in the process of undertaking fire risk assessments on all blocks of flats. The Fire Service tell us that communal areas, corridors, hallways and staircases must not be used to store any furniture, mobility scooters, bikes, pushchairs, planters etc. that could cause a hazard. If you need to dispose of any large items you can contact Blackpool Council Customer First on 01253 477477 and ask about Bulky Matters.
Section 20 Notice of Intention : If your building is included in any major external improvements works you will receive a statutory notice giving details of the work, its total cost and the share you will have to pay. You will also receive information on the statutory loans policy which may be able to help you towards the costs. The work will be undertaken by contractors who were awarded contracts following the OJEU regulations. Leaseholders can not nominate their own contractors to undertake any work to the external parts of blocks of flats, please see Long Term Contracts Fact Sheet. If you are interested in being included in any internal improvements being carried out under the Decent Homes programme please see the "Decent Homes" section on this web site.
Insurance : Leaseholders pay for buildings insurance in their April invoices the Landlords current insurer is Royal & Sun Alliance, however, if you wish you can arrange to take out home contents insurance through them as part of an easy and affordable scheme agreed with Blackpool Council. If you decide to take out this insurance you will pay Royal and Sun Alliance direct, not the Council. A copy of their Simple Contents Insurance booklet can be downloaded here.
LATEST NEWS
April 2011 - The Leasehold Service Charge accounts have been moved onto the new Housing Management Computer System, this means the look of your invoices have changed and now you will receive seperate invoices one for the annual Ground Rent and Buildings Insurance Premium and one for the half yearly service charges. If you are in a block that has had planned programmed work there will be an other invoice for those costs and you will be able to set up a seperate Direct Debit to pay this.
All Leaseholders will now have a new account number which you should use when making payments or contacting us.
Please open the Question and Answer note for further information about the Service Charge changes made in April, and see below for full information about the Management Administration Cost increase.
The Homeownership section moved on 1st November 2010 to
Coastal House, 17 - 19 Abingdon Street, Blackpool, FY1 1DG
our email and phone numbers remain the same.
HOMEOWNERSHIP SERVICE IMPROVEMENT PANEL - meetings are held quarterly and all Leaseholders are invited to attend or suggest agenda items see below.
The most recent meeting was held on 19th January 2011 at Coastal House. Minutes are published on the Handbook, Newsletter & Service Improvement Panel page.
2009-10 SATISFACTION SURVEY
The report can be found through the Handbook, Newsletter & Panel button. If you wish to be involved in discussing the survey results please come along to the Leaseholder Service Improvement Panels and Conference. Details from the survey will be made available through future Leaseholder Newsletters.
Help for Leaseholders who are elderly or disabled and may need help to continue to live as independently as possible is available from Blackpool Vitaline
Blackpool Vitaline, Devonshire House, 307 - 309 Church Street, Blackpool, FY1 3PF
Phone 01253 477600/477678
follow this link for more information
SERVICE CHARGES - MANAGEMENT ADMINISTRATION COSTS
Following ratification by Blackpool Council on 18th February 2011 the increase of this one element of the Service Charges has been introduced with effect from April 2011. This charge is made to all Leaseholders for BCH services provided. Follow the above link to see the current list of services covered by this element of the Service Charge.
An updated report on this Service Charge element is now available to read or download.
FORUM renamed HOMEOWNERSHIP SERVICE IMPROVEMENT PANEL
Service Improvement Pannels are meetings held quarterly at various locations throughout Blackpool. Each Leaseholder will receive an invitation before the event and suggestions for topics for discussion are welcome. The aims and objectives of the meetings will be discuss and review Homeownership perfomance and service standards and suggest and monitor improvements to the service.
The minutes and agendas for the meetings are available on the link
Handbook, Newsletters and Panel button
If you are unable to attend meetings but have access to the internet and emails you can become a member of the Homeownership e-group, for more information contact Homeownership.
For more information on how you can become involved in helping to monitor and introduce improvements to the services Blackpool Coastal Housing supply please see the Customer Involvment pages
Page last modified on 28 November 2011