Partners for For Improvement in Islington. Leaseholders Handbook

Transcription

1 Partners for For Improvement in Islington Leaseholders Handbook

2

3 Contents Section Introduction How to contact us v ix Our mission statement 1 Our service promise 2 Your lease 3 Service charges 4 Reporting repairs 5 Anti-social behaviour, nuisance and harassment 6 Planned major works 7 Alterations and improvements to your home 8 Buying, selling and subletting your home 9 Buying the freehold or extending your lease 10 Buying extra land and loft spaces 11 Buildings insurance 12 Getting involved 13 Getting more advice 14 Useful contacts 15 Additional information 16

4 Translation This is a handbook for all leaseholders of Partners for Improvement in Islington. It contains important information about your tenancy. If you would like this document in another language or format, or if you require the services of an interpreter, please contact us on our freephone number If you would like to have a copy of this handbook in Braille, in larger print, on a tape or a CD then please contact us on Turkish Spanish Somali Greek Bengali Portuguese

5 Introduction Welcome to our Partners Leaseholders Handbook. It gives useful and essential information about your lease and living in your home. We hope you will find it helpful. What is Partners? Partners means Partners for Improvement in Islington. Partners is a group of organisations that manages housing through a type of contract called a Private Finance Initiative (PFI see below). The housing contract, established by the London Borough of Islington (the Council), aims to improve the standard of leasehold and tenanted properties it manages on behalf of the Council. Partners now manages two housing contracts for Islington Council. Our first contract started in May 2003 (Round 1) and our most recent contract started in October 2006 (Round 2). Our Round 1 contract lasts for 30 years and our Round 2 contract lasts for 16 years. v

6 Which organisations are involved in Partners? Partners is made up of different organisations, and each has a specific role in delivering the housing contracts. Hyde Housing Association provides the housing management service, including rent and service-charge collection, tenancy and leasehold management and customer services. We call Hyde Housing Association our Housing Management Team. United House is refurbishing the properties during the first five-and-a-half years of each contract. We call it our Works Team. United House Maintenance provides the gas services. We call it our Gas Team. Rydon Property Maintenance provides the day-to-day repairs service. We call it our Repairs Team. HBOS (Halifax Bank of Scotland) lends the money for the project. What is a PFI? A PFI is a Government programme aimed at releasing money from the private sector and central government to spend on council-owned property. It is an alternative to transferring ownership of the properties from the Council to other organisations (stock transfer). This means the Council still owns all the properties, but does not manage them. How it all works in Islington j Partners, a specially created organisation, enters into a contract with the Council to improve, manage and maintain the Council-owned properties for 30 or 16 years. vi

7 j Partners will bring the properties up to an agreed standard, keep them at that standard and provide management and maintenance services during the contract period. j Partners is paid a fixed fee for doing this. This fee is performancerelated, so if Partners doesn t provide the service or maintain the properties to the agreed standard, we lose money. j The Government gives the Council PFI credits towards the cost of delivering the contract. Who checks what Partners does? Homes for Islington monitors Partner s performance closely to make sure we are meeting the standards set by the Council. Homes for Islington is owned by the Council, but it operates as a separate organisation (called an arm s length management organisation, or ALMO). About this handbook This handbook will give you a general idea of your rights and responsibilities as a leaseholder, and our rights and responsibilities as the Council s managing agent. The section Our service promise sets out the service standards you can expect from Partners and what to do if you are not satisfied. This handbook covers many subjects and can only offer general information. If you have any questions that are not covered here, please contact the Leasehold Team at Partners who will be happy to help. See the section How to contact us About your lease Your lease is a complex legal document and you should not use this handbook as the only guide or interpretation of your lease, or of current law. You should not rely on the handbook in any disputes to do with your lease. In such circumstances we advise you to always seek independent and impartial advice. vii

8

9 How to contact us By phone Between 8.30am and 5pm, Monday to Friday, you can contact the offices on these numbers: Freephone Switchboard Minicom For out-of-hours emergency repairs, please phone Calls to 0800 numbers are free from landlines, but charged at your network rate from mobiles. In person You can visit our offices between 8.30am and 5pm, Mondays to Fridays, at: 4 6 Colebrooke Place and Omnibus Workspaces London N1 8HZ United House North Road London N7 9DP If you wish to see a member of staff from the Leasehold Team, we advise you to ring beforehand to make an appointment. By [email protected] Through our website Residents Forum [email protected] Partners Feedback Line ix

10 Notes x

11 1 Section 1 Our mission statement To improve homes and provide excellent services through partnership and innovation. Our strategic aims 1 To work in partnership and innovate to provide excellent customer services 2 To improve and maintain homes 3 To manage our business efficiently and effectively 4 To develop our people Our vision To be considered excellent by our tenants and leaseholders Our values Excellence, Partnership, Innovation, Respect, Loyalty, Trust 1

12 1 Our mission statement 2

13 2 Section 2 Our service promise Whenever you deal with us, we will: be helpful and polite listen to and respect your views ask for your views on our service and use what you tell us to improve it deal with your enquiries quickly, fairly and sensitively serve all members of the community whatever their race, ethnic or national origin, sex, disability, sexuality, religion or belief, or age. If you contact us, we will: answer your call within six rings, giving our name at the office, see you quickly, and in private if you choose answer your letters within 10 working days make sure you can use our service whatever your needs. When we visit you, we will: make appointments convenient to you let you know if we can t keep the appointment or are running late leave a card if you are out and tell you how to rearrange the appointment always carry and be willing to show you identification respect your home and all reasonable customs compensate you if we fail to keep a repair appointment we have arranged with you. 1

14 2 Our service promise We will provide you with: a copy of this handbook and a welcome letter for all new leaseholders an estimated annual service-charge statement and invoice (bill) in April each year an actual service-charge statement and invoice (bill) in October for your share of costs for the previous financial year a final statement of total costs for any major works done to your building, soon after work is completed a range of ways to pay your service-charge and major-works bills, including interest-free monthly instalments for major-works bills 2

15 2 a resale pack of essential information if you want to sell your home, normally within 10 working days of receiving payment for the pack. Meeting our service standards If you feel we have not met any of our service standards, please tell us and we will investigate. If we agree that we have not delivered a service to our set standards, we will apologise and try to put things right. If you have suffered financially because we have not met a service standard, we will consider paying you compensation. We also appreciate positive comments, so if a member of staff does something particularly well, please tell us. It can make all the difference to know that we are doing well and will help us improve our service. Making a complaint If you are unhappy with our service, you can use our complaints procedure. At each stage of the procedure we will try to resolve your complaint to the best of our ability. If you are complaining about our policy, we will explain the reason for our policy. You can view our complaints policy and procedure on our website You can get a complaints form by contacting us (see How to contact us ) or you can download one from our website. If you are unhappy with our response If you are unhappy with our response, you can take your complaint to the Independent Local Government Ombudsman. The Ombudsman will only consider your complaint if you have gone through all the stages of our complaints procedure. See Useful contacts for more information. 3

16 2 Our service promise 4

17 Section 3 Your lease 3 What is a lease? A lease is a legal agreement or contract between you and the person who owns the land and the building your home is in. The lease sets out both parties rights and responsibilities. The lease also sets out your rights and the procedures you must follow if, for example, you want to sell (assign) your lease, alter your home, or sublet it. Your lease Your lease is a type of tenancy that allows you to live in your home for a set period of time, usually 125 years, starting from when the first property in your building was sold. The set period of time is known as the lease term. If you bought your home on the open market, the seller will have transferred the rights and responsibilities to you under the lease for the rest of its term. There are a small number of properties where the council do not own the freehold of the building. In these cases the lease between you and the council is known as the underlease, but it works in almost the same way as if the Council did own the freehold. What is Partners responsible for? Your lease sets out the services Partners provides, on behalf of the Council, and how Partners can recover the cost of those services through service charges. 1

18 Your lease 3 Why you need a lease A lease will legally protect you and the Council if there is a dispute about, for example, repairs, service charges or shared areas. What if the terms of the lease are broken? Partners is responsible for ensuring the Council meets its obligations under the terms of your lease. If we have failed to do something required by your lease, please tell us and we will try to put things right. 2

19 If we think you have breached (broken) the terms of your lease agreement, we will contact you; for example, if you are behind with your servicecharge payments or have made an alteration to your home without our approval. If you do not put things right, we will take further action. As a last resort we will take legal action, which could lead to you losing your home without any financial compensation. 3 How to get a copy of your lease The Land Registry will provide you with a copy of your lease for a small fee. The Harrow Office deals with leases in Islington see Useful contacts for more details. Or you can get a copy from us for a fee of 10. Ground rent As your lease is a type of tenancy, you have to pay rent for the ground your property is built on. This is known as ground rent and is a fixed amount of 10 every year. Your rights and responsibilities As a leaseholder you have the right to live peacefully in your home. In return, you must meet the obligations of your lease. These include the following: Paying the ground rent, insurance premium and all service charges due, including your share of the costs of major repairs done to your building. Doing all repairs that are your responsibility. This includes repairing, renewing or replacing all the fittings, fixtures and services to your home. 3

20 Your lease 3 Not making any structural alterations or additions until you have our written permission. This includes moving or removing internal walls. See the section Alterations and improvements for more information. Not causing a nuisance or annoyance to your neighbors. Not harassing or causing offence to others, including Partners staff. Using your home only as a private residence. Informing Partners if you plan to transfer the lease or sublet your home. Keeping your home in good repair and condition. Allowing us into your home to do repairs to your home, or to other parts of the building, or to neighbouring properties, as long as we give you 48 hours notice in writing (except in emergencies). Allowing us into your home to do repairs to your home that are your responsibility, if you have not done them yourself within a reasonable time. We will charge you (recharge) the full cost of such work, including VAT and any administration costs. Being responsible for any water leaks and for the cost of repairing any damage caused. Not putting up a TV aerial or satellite dish outside your flat or on the building without our permission. Not displaying an estate agents board outside your home or in a window of your home. Not using your home for running a business. Not using your home for immoral or illegal purposes. You are responsible for looking after everything that is inside your home or that relates only to your home. This includes: inside walls that are not part of the main structure (e.g. dividing walls) and plasterwork ceilings and floorboards or flooring, but not ceiling or floor joists (beams) 4

21 decoration and general repairs to the inside your home doors and doorframes (including your own entrance door to your home) window glass, but not window frames toilet, sink and bath fixtures and fittings tanks, pipes, plumbing, wiring and drains supplying water, gas and electricity to only your home individual central-heating and hot-water systems and radiators individual private garden area (if you have one). 3 What property do you own? The lease plan shows the property you own, which is known as the demised premises. The plan also shows where your home is in the building and whether your property includes a private or communal garden. Usually, the space inside the roof is not included in your property, even if access to it is only through your home. The same applies to any flat roof surface on the building. Other conditions of your lease The lease also sets out various conditions for you, your family, your visitors and anyone else who lives in your home on how you and they live in and use your home. These conditions ensure that residents don t cause a nuisance to others or damage to the building. You also have other rights, such as the right to sell or sublet your home. We explain these elsewhere in the handbook. 5

22 Your lease 3 Responsibilities not covered by your lease There are other charges and services for your home that are not conditions of your lease but are still your responsibility. These include: contents insurance gas, water and electricity charges Council Tax residents parking charges garage or parking-space rent, if you rent these from the Council. Partners rights and responsibilities On behalf of the Council, we (Partners) are responsible for the main structure and exterior of the building, the shared parts and any shared services to your building. These will depend on the type of property live in, but will include: external walls and inside structural walls roof, foundations, timbers, joists (beams), chimney stacks, drains and guttering window frames common parts, including shared entrance hallways, staircases and landings boundary walls, fences and footpaths electrical and mechanical services to the building, such as entry phones and communal lighting. Partners, as agents for the Council, have the right to access your home to do inspections or repairs. We must do this at a reasonable time and give reasonable notice (48 hours notice in writing). In an emergency we may need immediate access, and if we can t contact you we may have to force entry or get a court order allowing us access (or both). 6

23 Section 4 Service charges 4 What is your service charge? Your service charge is your contribution towards the day-to-day costs of maintaining and repairing the structure, exterior and shared parts of your property. It also helps pay for things like lighting to shared areas and certain specialist services, such as pest control and grounds maintenance in communal garden areas. You service charge also covers administration and management costs. Your service charge doesn t include costs for services we only provide to tenanted homes in your building, such as internal repairs and heating services. As a leaseholder, you are responsible for these for your own home, including the upkeep of your garden, if you have one. How we share the cost of services and major works We share the cost of repairs and services to your building among all the homes in the property. According to your lease, the Council (and Partners, as managing agent for the Council) can choose any fair and reasonable way of sharing costs. At the moment, we use a points system to decide your share of service charges and major-works costs, based on the number of rooms in your home. We allocate a point each for a hall, living room, bathroom and kitchen and one extra point for each bedroom (so bedsits and studio flats would be allocated four points and a one-bedroom flat would be allocated five points). However, we do not use this system when dividing costs for window repair or maintenance. We charge you the full costs of repairing and maintaining the windows for your home only, plus a share of costs for any communal 1

24 Service charges 4 windows. Also, if you are a basement leaseholder and do not use the door-entry system, we will not charge you for any door-entry renewal or maintenance work. This will not mean that other leaseholders in the building are charged more for the door-entry system. How we work out your service charge Your Estimate Service Charge statement On 1 April or soon after each year, we will send you a statement of our Service Charge Estimate. This sets out your share of our estimated costs for the coming financial year, which runs from 1 April to 31 March. The statement will be a combination of estimated and known costs. For example, we know how much the yearly building insurance premium is, but we can t accurately predict how much communal electricity and day-to-day repairs and maintenance costs are going to be over the year coming year. When you receive your Service Charge Estimate, you can pay it over the year in instalments, monthly or every three months, by standing order. After the end of the financial year, we know how much everything has actually cost, and we then work out your share. We compare the difference between the estimated charges and the actual charges, and adjust your service-charge account accordingly. Your Actual Service Charge statement This is a statement of your share of the actual cost of services and repairs over the last financial year. We send you this six months after the end of the financial year, on 1 October or soon after. If your estimated charge for the previous year was more than the actual charge, we will put a credit on your service charge account for the difference. If the estimated charge for the previous year is less, we will ask you to pay the amount you owe us. 2

25 Explanation of the headings in your service charge statements 4 Communal Repairs The cost of day-to-day repairs and maintenance to your property, including the structure, exterior and communal areas. Communal Services The cost of communal electricity, pest control, garden maintenance and horticultural services will be deducted separately if you receive these services. Ground Rent 10 rental charge each year for the ground your building is on. Buildings Insurance Insurance cover for damage to fixtures and fittings inside your home (eg damage to your ceiling from a water leak). It also covers damage to communal areas and to the structure of your building. You are responsible for insuring your personal belongings and decorations. Management Fee The staffing costs of Partners Leasehold Team who provide leasehold services such as calculating your service charge, preparing your annual accounts, consulting and billing for major works, recovering service charges and dealing with enquiries from leaseholders who wish to alter or improve their homes. It also includes a contribution towards other staffing costs, such as the Tenancy Team s day-to-day housing management costs. These may include dealing with things like anti-social behavior problems between leaseholders and tenants, reporting communal repairs, leaseholder enquiries to Partners Repairs Team, and dealing with 3

26 Service charges 4 leasehold enquiries about grounds maintenance and pest control. It will also include the costs relating to other Partners staff involved in managing the leaseholder properties and any associated office costs. New Services Partners may, in agreement with the Council, introduce new services to the properties it manages. Before Partners introduces a new service, it must consult all the residents affected by the change. Ways to pay your service charge Most leases require leaseholders to pay their charges quarterly (every three months), or yearly in advance. With Partners you can pay: by cheque, yearly or quarterly by bank transfer direct into your service-charge account, yearly or quarterly online by bank transfer direct into your service-charge account, yearly or quarterly monthly by standing order monthly by swipe card payments at your local bank, post office, or payment outlet (swipe cards are available on request from your Leasehold Officer) over the phone using you debit card. Unfortunately we are unable to accept credit card payments. We will provide up-to-date details of payment options when we send you your estimated and actual yearly statements. 4

27 Partners will take action against leaseholders who are late paying their charges. Action will range from: adding interest onto late payments seeking a Money Judgment in the court taking legal action that may result in you losing the lease of your home (as a last resort). 4 If you have difficulty paying your service charge If you are having difficulty paying your service charge bills, you should contact the Leasehold Team at Partners as soon as possible see How to contact us. If you have service-charge arrears, you will be breaking the terms of your lease and we could take legal action. This could lead to you paying extra interest plus any legal charges, or, in extreme cases, even losing your home. We will always try to take into account your circumstances and do everything we can to keep you in your home. We will consider legal action only when we have tried everything else. Service charges for major repairs Please see the section Refurbishment and major works. 5

28 Service charges 4 6

29 Section 5 Reporting repairs Partners repair responsibilities 5 Partners is responsible for repairing and maintaining the main structure of the building and the common areas, and for providing services, including: all structural walls, roofs, window frames, foundations, shared drains and external decorations communal services to the block, such as entry-phones and communal lighting all internal and external communal areas of the building, such as internal decorations to communal areas and repairs to fences, footpaths and boundary walls. Your repair responsibilities Under the terms of your lease, you are responsible for repairing and maintaining: internal non-structural walls, floors and ceilings internal decorations kitchen units, sanitary ware (toilets, sinks and baths) and other fixtures and fittings heating systems, flues, plumbing and electrics that serve only your property. 1

30 Reporting repairs 5 Reporting repairs To report a repair or maintenance problem for which Partners is responsible, you should contact the Customer Service Team: by phone (from 8.30am to 5pm) in person at either of our offices online (see below). (See How to contact us for details.) When reporting repairs, please give us as much information as possible, including your contact details and how the repair can be accessed, if needed. Reporting repairs online: You can now report repairs for communal or external areas online via Partners website: How quickly we will complete a repair We give every repair we order a priority code, which tells you the longest time it should take to complete the repair. The times for each repair type are: Emergency repairs within 24 hours An emergency repair is a repair that if left could endanger the health and safety of you or anyone living in your home, for example dangerous wiring in a communal hallway or a serious roof leak. Please do not report these type of repairs online. Urgent repairs up to 7 working days An urgent repair is a repair that is necessary to allow you to live in your home in comfort, such as a repair to prevent a roof leak. Routine repairs 25 to 28 working days We will treat all other repairs as routine. Repairs to fences, walls and general maintenance needed to communal areas would be classed as routine. 2

31 Reporting emergency repairs out of office hours After 5pm all emergency repairs go though to our emergency call-out centre, run by First Point. First Point will take details of the emergency repair and then ask one of our appointed contractors to do what is needed to make the property safe. All other repair work needed after the property has been made safe will be dealt with within the usual timescales, listed above. Emergency repairs (after 5pm). 5 Water leaks into another property If water leaks from your home into a neighbouring leasehold home, you will be responsible for dealing with the leak and any damage caused. This will mean getting someone to repair the leak, and claiming on your own insurance for the costs. If water leaks from your home into a neighbouring tenanted home, Partners Repair Team will do any repair work needed to the tenanted home, but may bill you for the costs of the work needed to put right the damage caused. If we become aware of an ongoing leak from a leasehold property, we will try to contact the leaseholder and let them know what repair work needs to be done. If the leaseholder does not do the necessary work to stop the leak, we will write to them asking them to do the repair within a certain time. If the work is still not done, we will get an injunction (court order) to enter and do the work ourselves. We will only do this as a last resort, but the leaseholder would have to pay the full costs (including VAT) of stopping the leak, plus any legal and administration expenses. 3

32 Reporting repairs 5 Emergency leaks In an emergency when there is a serious leak, Partners may have to force entry to a home if we cannot contact the leaseholder. This would arise if the building and the homes below the source of the leak are being badly damaged. Partners will try to stop the leak and do any emergency repairs necessary. Partners will inform the leaseholder of what has happened and what repair work they will need to do. 4

33 Section 6 Anti-social behaviour, nuisance and harassment The term anti-social behaviour includes all behaviour that causes annoyance, nuisance or disturbance to people s quality of life. Your responsibilities as a leaseholder 6 You are responsible for the behaviour of everyone living in or visiting your property, including children and sub-tenants. You are responsible for their behaviour in the property, in shared areas and around the property. All the properties we manage are in traditional houses, which have often been converted into several flats or maisonettes. This means you will be living close to your neighbours and sharing some areas of the property. Many of the things you do may affect your neighbours. We take all complaints about anti-social behaviour seriously. If you report anti-social behaviour to us, we will: take full details from you of what has happened arrange an interpreter if you need one investigate by telling the other party about your report (we will not mention your name) consider the most appropriate action, after we have fully investigated contact any other agencies that may be able to help resolve the situation support and advise you throughout take action whenever we feel it is in our power to do so work with the Police and other agencies when we need to. 1

34 Anti-social behaviour, nuisance and harassment 6 What is harassment? Harassment is behaviour aimed to cause distress to an individual or group of people. Harassment can take many forms and may happen for many reasons. The most well-known type of harassment is based in a person s race, but it can be based on age, disability or sexuality. We believe you have the right to live in your home without harassment, violence, or the threat of violence. We take very seriously any report of harassment and investigate thoroughly. We work closely with you, and possibly the Police, to solve the problem. What can you do if you are suffering harassment? Contact the Police and Partners. Keep a record of all incidents, noting the date, time, place, what happened, who was involved and the names of any witnesses. Record and try to photograph any damage to your belongings (such as graffiti or vandalism). If you are hurt, go to your doctor or the nearest accident and emergency department. They will treat you, and record your injuries and treatment. This can be valuable evidence if you take your attacker to court. What can we do? When you report harassment to us, we will investigate it. We will record all the details and give you the name of someone to contact if there is another incident. We will arrange an interpreter if you need one. 2

35 We will take suitable action, which may include: doing any repairs and removing graffiti helping to make your home safe moving you to another home taking action against the person harassing you, or starting eviction proceedings. We will agree with you what we will do and confirm this in writing. We will also let you know how your case is progressing. 6 What can the Police do? If you want to involve the Police, in an emergency call 999. Otherwise, contact your local Safer Neighbourhoods Team. The Police can take action against anyone who has: physically attacked you deliberately damaged your property threatened or verbally abused you tried to cause racial hatred, for example by handing out racist leaflets. The Police will take details of any incident, whoever reports it. They will investigate and interview witnesses. If there is enough evidence and they know who is harassing you, the Police will prosecute them, if you wish. If the incident is one of a series of attacks against you, the Police may be able to arrange support for you. Nuisance and noise Nuisance, including noise nuisance, is an unwelcome feature of modern life. The person causing the nuisance may be unaware of the problems they are causing. 3

36 Anti-social behaviour, nuisance and harassment 6 In a building, sound travels very easily from one home to another. Please be aware of this and try to minimise noise from your home. Here is some general advice about avoiding noise nuisance: Don t lay laminate flooring in your home if you live in a flat or maisonette. Hard flooring increases noise from your home, so the noise from general living may be loud enough to disturb your neighbours. Don t play loud music late at night or early in the morning. Be considerate at all other times. Don t let your visitors make a lot of noise when they are leaving your property, particularly late at night or early in the morning. Don t use your washing machine or vacuum cleaner early in the morning or late at night. Tell your neighbours if you are planning a party, and be reasonable about how long it lasts. If your neighbours say you are making too much noise, listen to their complaints and respond in a reasonable way. If you are suffering nuisance If you are suffering nuisance, try to resolve the matter yourself first by talking to the person responsible. If this doesn t solve the problem, or you don t feel able to talk to the person responsible, contact Partners Leasehold Team for help and advice. We may ask you to write or us with all the details. We will only act in a dispute between neighbors if there is a clear breach of the tenancy or lease conditions. If this is the case, we can seek a court order to repossess the offending resident s property. In serious cases, this could result in the tenant or leaseholder losing their home. To succeed in any legal action, we must prove that: the nuisance exists and is likely to continue, and the nuisance is serious enough to justify eviction or forfeiture proceedings (a leaseholder losing their lease). 4

37 If we are taking legal action on your behalf, you may need to appear in court or to make a statement, so make sure you keep a note of the times, dates and type of any nuisance. In cases of excessive and ongoing noise or pollution, the Council s Environmental Health Department can take action. They have the power to deal with noise, poorly kept animals, accumulated rubbish, smoke, fumes and gases coming from a building, dust, steam and smells from industry. Keeping the communal hallways clean and tidy If you share hallways, you must arrange with your neighbours to keep them clean, including any windows. If you have recently moved in, ask your neighbours what arrangements are already in place. If windows are so dirty that they endanger health or safety, we can arrange a one-off clean. You must not keep any of your personal belongings in a communal hallway they may be dangerous or block the escape route if there is a fire. We will ask you to remove any belongings you have left in the hallway and if you do not, we will dispose of them. 6 Gardens Many of the properties we manage have communal gardens. In most cases, residents have come to an arrangement about who maintains the garden. It is your responsibility as a leaseholder to ensure that you maintain your own garden and do not allow it to become overgrown. If you have an overgrown tree in your communal garden that needs pruning, contact Partners and we will arrange for the Council s sub-contractors, Greenspace, to do the work. Please also report any plants and bushes that are growing out of control and affecting the property i.e Japanese Knotweed. 5

38 Anti-social behaviour, nuisance and harassment 6 Disposing of rubbish Make sure you put all your household rubbish in securely tied bags before putting them in the dustbin or refuse store, if you have one. If you don t have a refuse store, keep your bags of rubbish in a place where they won t block your neighbours way or annoy them. If you have your own dustbin, put it in front of your home on collection day. If you share bins with your neighbours, agree with them who will be responsible for putting them out on collection day. If you don t have a dustbin, leave your bags of rubbish in the correct place to be collected on the right day of the week. Don t put rubbish out onto the street before collection day. If you have large items to dispose of, for example large pieces of furniture, you can arrange for the Council to remove them. For bulk rubbish removal see the contact details in the useful contacts section. 6

39 Section 7 Planned major works What are planned major works? These are large renewal, repair and maintenance jobs we do to your building that we can plan for in advance. This may include work to external brickwork, the roof, communal windows and internal decorations. Under the terms of your lease, you must contribute towards the cost of this work as a service charge. However, you pay for it in a different way to your normal yearly service charge. We explain this later in this section. 7 Consulting you about major works On 31 October 2003, the regulations about consulting leaseholders about major works changed. The new regulations are quite complicated but the main points are: We now have to consult you if the cost of qualifying work to any leaseholder is more than 250. Qualifying work is repairs, maintenance, renewal or improvement work to your building. We have to follow certain procedures for consulting you if the Council has entered into what is called a qualifying long-term agreement with a contractor, such as the PFI contract Partners manages. Because the Council entered into the PFI contract with Partners before 31st October 2003, we must follow the consultation procedure stated in Schedule 3 to the Service Charges (Consultation Requirements) (England) Regulations The same rules also apply to our Round 2 contract, since the regulations also cover contracts that were advertised in the Official Journal of the European Communities before 31 October

40 Planned major works 7 How we consult you before starting major works If Islington Council had chosen Partners after 31 October 2003 to refurbish its properties, leaseholders would have been able to suggest a contractor of their choice to do the work to their building. Unfortunately, you will not be able to do this, but you will have the opportunity before work starts to comment on the proposed work or the likely cost (or both). Before the work starts, we will send a document called a Schedule 3 Consultation Notice to each leaseholder and any recognised tenants association. This document will: describe the work to be done state why the work is necessary contain a statement of the estimated total costs of the proposed work (Our statements also provide the leaseholder with an individual estimate of their own likely charge) invite written comments on the proposed work or the estimated costs (or both) during a 30-day consultation period. Partners must take into account any comments it receives about the work, and respond in writing with 21 days of receiving them. Consulting you further As well as following the legal requirement for consulting you, we also give you another more detailed estimate after the scaffolding has been put up. You will receive this estimate when the works are nearing completion or have just recently finished. It is only once you have received this second estimate that you will have to start paying for the work. Also, once the scaffolding is in place, you will have the opportunity to meet one of our Works Team at your home to discuss your estimate and the work we are doing, if you wish. You will usually receive your second estimate just after the work is completed. 2

41 Maximum charges for work to your building Under the PFI contract, the most we can ask you to contribute towards the cost of work to your building, including major works and any day-to-day repair and maintenance, is 10,000 in any five-year period. This is known as a Mandatory 10,000 Cap. If your major-works bill is more than 10,000, the mandatory cap will be applied for the next five years. This means you will not have to contribute towards the costs of any more major works or day-to-day repairs in that five-year period. Bringing our properties up to standard One of the reasons the Council decided to establish a PFI contract was to ensure Council-owned properties would be brought up to a good standard of repair. The council has set a standard of maintenance called the Availability Standard, which all its properties must reach. On behalf of the Council, we must bring all properties up to this standard through our works programme. The amount and type of work for each property will depend on its current condition. Some properties may need little work other will need major works. For all leasehold properties, we need to keep the structure, exterior and any communal areas in good repair. To reach this standard, we have extensive programmes of maintenance and refurbishment works for all properties. For properties under the Round-1 contract, the programmes of work run from April 2003 to. For properties under the Round-2 contract, the programmes run from 2006 to After the works have finished on each round, we will do periodic work to ensure we maintain all properties to the Availability Standard. 7 3

42 Planned major works For all buildings we will: bring the structure and exterior of the building up to standard (roofs, brickwork, pointing and rendering) decorate the outside and any shared hallways repair and replace windows, if needed damp-proof any properties that need this repair communal doors, boundary walls and footpaths where needed. 7 Paying your contribution towards major works Under the terms of your lease, you must pay your share of the cost of major works, in full, within 14 days of the work completing. Because major-works costs are usually high, most leaseholders would be unable to pay within 14 days. So we have arranged various payment options to help you manage your major-works bill, and to help leaseholders who are struggling financially. Payment options are listed on the notice we send you about the work that will be done (called a Schedule 3 Notice). The current options are: 1 Pay in full when you receive your second estimate, which will be sent when the works are nearly finished or recently completed. If you pay in full at this stage, we will reduce your final service-charge account bill (when issued) by 2.5%. 2 Pay in full within 14 days of receiving your Final Statement of Total Expenditure when the works are complete. If you pay in full at this stage, you will also receive a 2.5% discount. 3 Pay over 12 or 24 months by monthly standing order, starting from the date we send you your second estimate and bill. 4 Pay over five years, with interest being charged from year three. 4

43 5 If you are a Right-to-Buy leaseholder and you are still within the first five years of your lease, we can only charge you the amount stated on your Offer Notice, plus inflation costs (if applicable). If the amount stated on your Offer Notice is a lot less than the cost of the work, we may have to reduce the payment period to 12 months, but we will not do this if you are a pensioner or you are in financial difficulties. Please contact the Leasehold Services Team if you wish to discuss payment options or need more information see How to contact us. Frequently asked questions about refurbishment work We have a list of frequently asked questions about major works on our website: The list has been compiled with help from the Leasehold Focus Group and residents who have already had work done to their homes. 7 5

44 Planned major works 7 6

45 Section 8 Alterations and improvements to your home Getting permission Under the terms of your lease, you need to get our written permission before making any structural alterations or additions to your home. Examples of work you need permission for include: replacing your windows building an extension or conservatory altering the internal layout of your home converting a loft. 8 You need to get our permission for any work that will alter the structure or layout of your home, even if the work will not affect the main structure of the property, such as removing an inside wall. Once we have received details of what you want to do, we will decide whether or not to give permission. If we give permission, for all structural and some other complex building work you will also need a legal document called a Licence to Alter to be prepared and signed before work can start. In some cases, you may also need a Deed of Variation. 1

46 Alterations and improvements to your home When you need a Licence to Alter Changing the structure or layout of your home For all structural work, such as building an extension, converting a loft or renewing windows. If you intend to alter the internal layout of your home. This would include removing any structural walls; also if you want to block up an opening or create a new one. You may need one to remove a nonstructural inside wall. If you intend to remove any wall in your home, you must first inform us and we may ask you to send us your structural engineer s report. 8 Changing in the use of a room The Council does not normally allow residents to change the use of a room, for example using a bedroom as a living room. This is because most flats have a similar layout; bedrooms are above bedrooms and living rooms are above living rooms, which helps minimise noise nuisance. Having a living room above a bedroom may create a noise nuisance for neighbours. However, the use of a room may be changed if: 1 it can be proved that there is a complimentary layout in the flat below 2 the proposed work is in a maisonette and the proposed change is on the second floor so will only affect the maisonette. When you do not need a Licence to Alter You do not need a Licence to Alter for general internal decoration, renewal or replacement work. But you will need our written permission for work that may create a nuisance to neighbours, such as replacing existing flooring with wood, stone or ceramic tiles, which can create a noise nuisance. 2

47 What is a Deed of Variation? A Deed of Variation is required when you intend to build an extension, install new windows, or putting in Velux windows in the loft. The Deed of Variation makes you responsible for all future repair, renewal and maintenance work. When you do not need our permission but you still need to notify us before starting the work Please let us know about: internal rewiring to your home new heating systems new plumbing and tanks new kitchens or bathrooms installing an air conditioning/ventilation system. 8 Before starting this kind of work, we advise you to contact the Leasehold Team, who need to ensure the work will not affect other homes in the building or any communal systems or services. 3

48 Alterations and improvements to your home Doing work without the required permissions If you do work without getting the required permissions, you will be breaking the conditions of your lease. You may also be breaking Planning and Building Control regulations. If this happens, we or the Council may: order you to return your home to the condition it was in before you did the work, or take court action against you. You would have to pay all the legal and building costs involved. 8 Other permissions you may need to apply for As well as getting our permission, you may also need to get planning permission from the Council, who is the local planning authority. You may also need approval from Building Control, including a Building Notice. See Useful contacts for details. Before applying for our permission, we recommend you contact the Council s Planning Department and Building Control, because getting their permission can take much longer. If you wish, you can apply for permission from us, the Planning Department and Building Control at the same time. When we cannot process your application for permission We cannot process an application for permission if you owe service charges. If this applies to you, you will need to contact the Leasehold Team to discuss clearing your arrears first. 4

49 Extensions, conservatories and lofts If you want to build an extension, put up a conservatory or convert a loft space, you need to check that you own the space you want to alter. For example, if the garden is shared, you will not be allowed to build an extension over it. The loft is not usually included in the ownership of an individual flat, even if it seems that only you have access to it. In this case, you would need to ask us if you can buy the loft space. If you are unsure whether you own the space you want to alter, your lease plans will show exactly what you own. If you don t have a copy of your lease, contact the Leasehold Team who will provide a copy for a small fee (currently 10). Or you can contact the Land Registry see Useful contacts for details. The stages of getting permission to alter your home 8 Stage 1 If you want to alter your property, you should write first to the Leasehold Team and give us as much information as possible about what you intend to do. The Leasehold Team will do some initial checks and let you know whether your proposed alterations are in line with the Council s alteration policies. Stage 2 Your application will then be passed to our Asset Manager, who may contact you to visit your property. Our Asset Manager will report to us with recommendations about your application. 5

50 Alterations and improvements to your home Stage 3 If we are happy for you to continue, we will notify you and ask you to send us a payment for the Council s legal fees of preparing your Licence to Alter (currently 350) and Deed of Variation ( 350 if applicable). See below for more about fees. Stage 4 The Council s Legal Department will contact you or your solicitor (or both) and draw up your Licence to Alter or Deed of Variation. The Licence to Alter will give you permission to do the proposed work and will state any conditions for the building work and future maintenance. 8 Once we have received your fee payment, we will instruct Islington s Legal Services to issue the Licence to Alter (and Deed of Variation if applicable), allowing you to do the proposed work. You should not do any work until you have received your licence. Stage 5 Once the work has been completed, you should contact the Leasehold Team who may arrange for one of our Asset Managers to inspect the work. If they are satisfied with the work, they will write to let you know. If they are unhappy with the work, they will let you know what needs to be put right. The fee for this inspection is currently

51 Current fees (these may change yearly) Licence to Alter 350 Deed of Variation 350 Deed and Licence 420 Final inspection 250 Fast-track service (within three working days) Licence to Alter 500 Deed of Variation Deed and Licence 620 Final inspection 250 Cheques for the Licence to Alter and Deed of Variation should be made payable to Islington Council and not to Partners or Hyde Housing Association. 7

52 Alterations and improvements to your home 8 8

53 Section 9 Buying, selling and subletting your home When you qualify for the Right to Buy If you are a tenant interested in buying the lease for your home and your tenancy started on or after 18 January 2005, you will qualify for the Right to Buy five years from the date your tenancy started. If your tenancy started before 18 January 2005, you will qualify for the Right to Buy two years after your tenancy started. Selling your home and repaying your discount If you have bought your home under the Right to Buy and now want to sell it, you may have to repay some or all of the discount you received under the Right-to-Buy scheme. 9 Repaying your discount if you applied for the Right to Buy before 18 January 2005 If you sell: within one year, you must repay all of the discount after one year and before two years, you must repay 66.6% (two thirds) of the discount after two years and before three years, you must pay 33.3% (one third) of the discount after three years, you will not need to repay any discount. 1

54 Buying, selling and subletting your home Repaying your discount if you applied for the Right to Buy on or after 18 January 2005 If you sell: within one year, you must repay all of the discount in the second year, you must repay four-fifths of the discount in the third year, you must repay three-fifths of the discount in the fourth year, you must repay two-fifths of the discount in the fifth year, you must repay one-fifth of the discount after five years, you will not need to repay any discount. 9 If you sell within five years of buying your home, the amount of discount you must repay will be based on the resale value of your home, regardless of the value of any improvements made to it. If before you buy your home or within the discount repayment period you agree to transfer your property to someone else in the future, you will have to repay the appropriate amount of your discount. You do not have to repay your discount if in the first three or five years after buying it: you sell the property to your husband or wife as part of a divorce settlement ruled by a court, or you sell as a result of a Compulsory Purchase Order from the Council. Landlord s Right of First Refusal Normally, Leaseholders who wish to sell their homes within 10 years of purchase are required to first offer to sell their home back to their former landlord or to another social landlord at full market value. The market value must be agreed between the leaseholder and the landlord. If the value 2

55 can t be agreed, the District Valuer will decide (the cost of the Valuation will be paid by the Government). If the former landlord or another social landlord does not accept the offer within eight weeks, the leaseholder is then free to sell their property on the open market. However, it is currently Islington Council s policy not to buy properties sold under the Right to Buy, so you can sell your home on the open market straight away. You can read more about selling your home and repaying discounts from the Government s Your Right to Buy Your Home booklet, available on the Department for Communities and Local Government website see Useful contacts for more details, or visit one of our offices. Selling your home about Partners sell-on pack If you want to sell your leasehold property, we strongly recommend you ask us for a sell-on pack. This information pack is also known as an assignment pack or pre-assignment enquiries. The sell-on pack contains essential information about the property that your buyer will want to know, including: the last three years service-charge statements money owing for service charges and major works buildings insurance planned future major works current major works that we have not yet billed you for. 9 We can give the sell-on pack, which currently costs 150, to the solicitor acting on your behalf. Your solicitor should write to us asking for a pack, enclosing the fee. Cheques should be made payable to Hyde Housing Association Ltd. Once we have received the request and fee, we will post the pack to your solicitor, normally within 10 working days. 3

56 Buying, selling and subletting your home We recommend that your solicitor asks for the sell-on pack as early as possible to avoid any unnecessary delays. 9 Clearing your account We will only allow you to complete your sale if you have cleared your service-charge account. The sell-on pack will show the current balance of your service-charge account. This will be all the charges we have billed you for, including charges covering the period up to the end of the current financial year, 31 March. You must pay the whole balance on your account, including any estimated charges that cover the period from the sale to the end of the financial year, 31 March. The account must be clear on completion. We do not share the charges between the buyer and the seller. If you and the buyer want to do this, your solicitors must arrange it between themselves we cannot get involved. Sometimes, solicitors will want to hold back some money if: estimated charges are included in the balance on the account, or major works have been done but we have not yet billed you for them. This is known as retention. Again, the solicitors must make such arrangements we do not get involved. After the sale is complete We need to update our records once a sale is complete and there is a set procedure for this. The new owners solicitor must send a Notice of Assignment to the Council s Legal Department, plus the correct fees see Useful contacts for more details. This is a condition of the lease and notices must be sent within a month of the sale completing. 4

57 We can only update our records to show the names of the new owners: if the Legal Department has received and acknowledged the notices, and if all arrears have been cleared. We cannot change our records without this, even if, for example, the new owners have already notified another department of the Council, such as the Council Tax section. When you are away from your home If you are away from your home for a long period, you should: ensure your home is secure continue to pay your service charges notify the Leasehold Services Team of your absence in case there is an emergency. you should also read your insurance booklet if you plan any long absences as the cover may change. 9 Subletting Your rights and responsibilities As a leaseholder, you have the right to sublet your property. However, before you sublet, you must register the subletting with us. You will need to send the following information to the Leasehold Services Team: a certified copy of the tenancy agreement your new address the names of your tenants and a contact number a registration fee, currently 30, payable to Hyde Housing Association Ltd. 5

58 Buying, selling and subletting your home a gas safety certificate (CP12) an energy performance certificate You must pay a registration fee for each new subletting. Even though you are not living in the property, you are still responsible for making sure your tenants keep to the conditions of the lease. If your tenants break the conditions of the lease, you will be responsible. We cannot get involved in any problems you get by subletting your home. We recommend that your tenancy agreement with your tenants covers all the obligations in your lease. 9 Subletting and gas safety If you sublet your home, you are responsible as a landlord for complying with the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations This means you are legally responsible for making sure your gas appliances, pipe work and flues are safe and well maintained. You must also arrange for an annual gas-safety check by a Gas Safe registered gas engineer and ensure your tenant is given a copy of the annual gas-safety-check record (Form CP12). If you don t comply with these regulations, you may be prosecuted, resulting in a large fine or even imprisonment. You can read more on gas safety by visiting the Health and Safety Executive s website see Useful contacts for details. Even if you don t sublet your home, we strongly advise you to have regular annual gas-safety checks done by a CORGI-registered engineer. 6

59 Section 10 Buying the freehold or extending your lease Only Islington Council can deal with selling you the freehold of your building and extending your lease, but this section gives a summary of the main points and some general advice. Buying the freehold of your building The freehold of a property is the right to live in it for ever. A group of leaseholders may have the right to buy the freehold of their building. This is known as enfranchisement. They may want to do this to give them more control over the way their building is managed and maintained. To buy the freehold of your building, the building must qualify. To qualify, there must be two or more flats in the building, and at least two-thirds of all the flats in the building must be owned by qualifying tenants. A qualifying tenant is someone who owns a long lease (a lease of 10 years or more). A qualifying tenant means that you own a long lease. If your lease was originally granted under the Right to Buy legislation, you will be a qualifying tenant. It doesn t matter if you were the original buyer or not. 10 Examples If there are only two flats in the building, both must be owned by qualifying tenants. If there are four flats in the building, at least three must be owned by qualifying tenants. You cannot be a qualifying tenant if you own more than two of the flats in the building or if you have sublet your flat on a long lease (over 21 years). 1

60 Buying the freehold or extending your lease Even if your building doesn t qualify for you to buy the freehold, you can still apply to extend your own lease. Buying the freehold of a building is a complicated process, so we recommend you talk to the other residents in your building and get independent advice before you decide to go ahead. 10 The process of buying the freehold Firstly, find out whether your building qualifies. To do this, simply write to us and we can let you know. You can do this before talking to or involving the other residents in the building. If your building qualifies and all the residents agree to buy the freehold, the next step is to serve a legal notice called an Initial Notice on the Council as your landlord. This starts the formal process. Once you have given the Council the notice, you will be liable for all your costs and the Council s costs, even if you do not end up buying the freehold. For the Initial Notice to be legally valid, it must include: details of the property you want to buy, including a plan drawing a statement that the building qualifies the names and addresses of all the qualifying tenants details of the leases the name and address of the buyer (eg a company formed by the qualifying tenants) the proposed price. We recommend you get professional legal and valuation advice well before serving the Initial Notice. A solicitor would normally prepare the Notice for you and a valuer would help you assess and decide your proposed purchase price. 2

61 All the leaseholders who are taking part will have to pay any outstanding service charges before the sale can be completed. If your building is scheduled for refurbishment work, this will be put on hold until we know the outcome of the proposed purchase of the freehold. If the sale goes ahead, Partners will not do any refurbishment work as it will become the new freeholders responsibility. Extending your lease Why extend your lease? Most leases runs for 125 years from the date the first flat in the building was sold. This means there is likely to be at least 100 years left to run on your lease. At the end of the lease term, your flat will return to the ownership of the landlord, Islington Council. As the number of years left on the lease decreases, this may eventually affect its value, but this only happens when there are very few years left. Although we can give you general advice about extending your lease, we cannot tell you how much you may have to pay for it. To find out, you should get a valuation done. Who can apply to extend their lease? Leaseholders who have owned their flat for at least two years. You then have the right to buy a new lease for a term of 90 years, on top of the number of years left on your existing lease. 10 Conditions of the extended lease Your extended lease will have the same conditions as your old one, except you will have to pay a peppercorn rent, which is a very small amount to show that in law your home is leasehold, not freehold. It can be as little as 1. 3

62 Buying the freehold or extending your lease Is it worth extending your lease? You will have to pay the Council for extending your lease, so you will need to consider whether it is going to be worthwhile. You must suggest to the Council the price you think you should pay (after getting a valuation). You will have to pay the Council s costs as well as your own legal and valuation costs. The process of extending your lease If you decide to apply to extend your lease, you will need to serve the Council with a Formal Notice. This has to include certain information, including what you think you should pay for the lease extension. You will need to pay a solicitor to draw up the Notice, and once it has been served you will be liable for the Council s costs. You can get more information on buying the freehold and extending your lease from the Leasehold Advisory Service website see Useful contacts. 10 4

63 Section 11 Buying extra land and loft spaces On behalf of the Council, we will consider all requests to buy extra land or other unused areas that are not shared or owned by anyone else. The Council has to sell the land or space to you at its current market value. For example, if you are interested in doing a loft conversion and the loft space doesn t belong to you, you will need to buy that space. We class this as buying extra land. If you are thinking about a loft conversion, you will need to get our written permission to do the work, so we suggest you do this first, before going ahead with buying the land (see Alterations and improvements to your home ). Areas you cannot buy There are some areas of land we usually cannot sell. These include: garages in a separate block loft spaces with shared water tanks or other communal services roof terraces situated above another home. 11 The Council also does not allow leaseholders to buy communal areas such as basement well areas, internal stairs and communal or tenanted gardens. 1

64 Buying extra land and loft spaces The process of buying extra land Applying to buy Firstly, write to us to apply to buy the extra land. We will then do some initial checks and consider the following: Would the area be self-contained or easily identifiable as belonging to you? Would the sale interfere with our ability to maintain, renew or service any part of the building, including shared and outside areas? Would the sale cause disadvantage to other people living in the building or neighbouring buildings? Are there any plans to refurbish, renew or develop the area that will prevent the area being sold? In some cases, our Asset Manager may need to visit you to survey and inspect the area you wish to buy. If we do accept your request, we will write to let you know. If you are still happy for the purchase to proceed, we will write to you let you know what to do next. If we turn down your request to buy the land, we will explain why in full. 11 Valuing the land To find out how much the land is worth, it will have to be valued. Once our Leasehold Team has received your valuation fee we will send your application to the Council s appointed valuers, who will contact you to arrange a day to do the valuation. The valuer will write to you to let you know the valuation price, the associated legal costs, and any other requirements of the sale. If you decide to go ahead, you should let the valuer know. The valuer will then instruct Islington s Legal Department to finalise the formal conditions of sale with you and your solicitor. 2

65 Owning the land your Supplemental Lease When you buy the land, the Council s Legal Department will need to prepare a new lease for it, called a Supplemental Lease. The Supplemental Lease sits alongside your existing lease and shows the extra area you have bought. Our website contains a list of all fees. Other fees You will have to pay your solicitor s fees and the Land Registry fees, although the Council s Legal Department will on request register your Supplementary Lease for you. 11 3

66 Buying extra land and loft spaces 11 4

67 Section 12 Buildings insurance What buildings insurance covers Building Insurance covers the communal parts of the building, including the structure and exterior and any services and installations in the building. Fixtures and fittings in your property are also covered. Fixtures and fittings are anything you would not be able to take with you when you move. Examples are: floorboards bathroom and kitchen fittings fitted wardrobes decorations doors plaster on the walls and ceilings in your flat. Buildings insurance also covers accidental damage caused by leaseholders or tenants in your building ie letting a bath/shower overflow. The policy also covers damage caused by unforeseen events, for example: fire lightning explosion flood burst pipes or tanks subsidence storm theft or malicious damage (or both). 12 1

68 Buildings insurance Please read your insurance booklet which gives you more detailed information about your cover. You can request a copy from your leasehold officer The policy does not cover general wear and tear, mechanical or electrical breakdown, day-to-day maintenance or planned refurbishment works, which are all treated as normal repairs. For properties that were transferred in May 2003 (Round 1) For our round 1 leasehold properties, Partners arrange the building insurance cover by way of a blanket policy which protects all leasehold properties, including cover for full rebuilding costs. Under the terms of your lease, we are responsible for arranging buildings insurance cover, so you cannot arrange your own independent cover. We have buildings insurance cover with UK Underwriting Ltd (Acumus). What our buildings insurance covers Under our insurance policy, all homes we manage have a total insured value, which meets the full cost of rebuilding the properties we manage. We adjust our buildings insurance every year to make sure it keeps pace with rebuilding costs. 12 How to make a claim Contact Acumus quoting our insurance policy number 01302E see Useful contacts. A claim form will be sent to you. Contact Acumus within 30 days of becoming aware of any damage to your fixtures and fittings. Do not start any repair work until you have received written permission from the insurers or us. The insurers usually need you to send them two written estimates for the work. 2

69 For properties that were transferred in October 2006 (Round 2) For Round-2 leasehold properties, the Council is responsible for arranging building insurance cover. The Council s insurer is Ocaso SA UK Branch. What the Council s buildings insurance cover The Council s insurance will cover full rebuilding costs. How to make a claim Contact Davies Managed Systems, quoting the Council s insurance policy number see Useful Contacts. A claim form will be sent to you. Contact Davies within 30 days of becoming aware of any damage to your fixtures and fittings Do not start any repair work until you have received written permission from the insurers or us. The insurers usually need you to send them two written estimates for the work. Insuring your belongings contents insurance The buildings insurance policies do not cover damage to the contents of your home, whatever the cause of the damage. You will need to insure your belonging and your decorations. Please also inform your insurers that you will need cover for your own front entrance door, which, under the terms of your lease, you are responsible for repairing or renewing. The buildings insurance policies cover communal doors to your building. 12 3

70 Buildings insurance Insurance if you have just bought under the Right to Buy If you have just bought your home under the right-to-buy scheme, you will be automatically insured from the date the sale completed until the end of the current financial year. The service charge that the Council collected from you when you bought your home will cover this cost. Insurance if you bought on the open market If you bought your home on the open market, the sellers (vendors) will have already paid the insurance premium for the current year, so you will not get a bill for the insurance premium until the next financial year. 12 4

71 Section 13 Getting involved We think our residents are the best people to tell us how we re doing and to help us improve our services. There are several ways you can get involved. You can: join the Residents Forum sign up to the Partners Involvement Register complete satisfaction surveys for repairs and refurbishment work get involved in focus group meetings on subjects that interest you contribute to the residents newsletter Partners Gazette take part in telephone surveys about our service become a mystery shopper or just contact us to give us your views, ideas and suggestions. We can provide help if you want to get involved, for example transport to and from meetings, or help towards childcare costs. For more information please contact Tom Irvine, Customer First Manager, on The Residents Forum The Forum is made up of up to 20 tenants and up to 10 leaseholder representatives, who meet every two months. Representatives from various Tenant and Resident Associations for Partners properties are also on the Forum. Residents are invited to nominate themselves (put themselves forward) for election every two years. If there are more nominations than there are spaces on the Forum, there will be an election

72 Getting involved What does the Residents Forum do? Members of the Residents Forum represent the interests of other PFI tenants and leaseholders by: expressing residents views on all aspects of our service, particularly the refurbishment programme, day-to-day repairs and housing management monitoring overall resident satisfaction and working with us to continually improve the service we provide helping us communicate effectively with residents by advising us what to put into our newsletter, other literature, and on our website meeting regularly to discuss any problems our residents have representing our residents on Islington Council and Homes For Islington consultation exercises. Minutes of the Residents Forum meetings are posted on our website. 13 Contacting members of the Residents Forum If you have any issues you would like to be raised at the next meeting, you can contact the Residents Forum members. Write to: Partners Residents Forum 4 6 Colebrooke Place London N1 8HZ [email protected] You can also leave a message on the Forum answerphone by calling Please do not use this number to report Repairs use the Partners freephone number

73 Your comments will be raised and discussed at the Residents Forum meetings and fed back to our teams to help improve the service we provide. Partners Involvement Register If you wish to share your views with us or are interested in a particular aspect of our service but don t want to commit to regular meetings, you can join our Residents Involvement Register. This is a list of residents who have said they want to get involved, plus the areas they would like to be involved with. Why join the register? It s important for us to get your views, comments and suggestions so that we can improve our service, and we want to make this as easy as possible for you. For example, you may want us to consult you about changes we make to our services that will affect only leaseholders. Or you may want to your comments and ideas to us, or attend a daytime focus group, rather than attend an evening meeting. However you want to get involved, we aim to make it possible. Who can join the register? The register is open to all Partners tenants, leaseholders, as well as family members and lodgers. How to join the register To join the register, simply complete a registration form letting us know what interests you and how you want to get involved

74 Getting involved Forms are available from our reception areas or you can ask us to send you one through the post. Or you can call us and we can register you over the phone. For more information, please contact Tom Irvine, Customer Service Manager, on or 13 4

75 Section 14 Getting more advice About this handbook If you want more advice on any of the subjects in this handbook, contact Partners or visit our website see How to contact us. About Islington Council There is more information about Islington Council and all the services they provide, together with links to outside organisations and advice agencies on their website see Useful contacts. Independent advice For independent advice, contact the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE), an independent agency funded by the Government see Useful contacts. Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (LVT) The Leasehold Valuation Tribunal is an independent organisation appointed to make decisions about residential leasehold property. The Tribunal can sort out problems or disputes about: whether service charges and major-work costs are reasonable whether services have been provided or work has been done to a reasonable standard. Partners, on behalf of your landlord, and leaseholders, or their representative organisations can apply to the Tribunal. LVT hearings are less formal and quicker than court proceedings. The Tribunal asks both sides to put forward their case and present evidence to support it. You do 14 1

76 Getting more advice not need a solicitor or barrister to represent you, but you may need to get professional, technical or legal advice or support beforehand. Sometime, the Tribunal will hold a review of the case before the hearing. It can also instruct both sides to present evidence and statements and can set deadlines for providing these. If the Tribunal instructions are not followed, this can harm either party s case. If you have applied to the Tribunal and don t follow its instructions, your application could be dismissed. You cannot apply to the Tribunal about something that has already been determined (decided) by a court or referred to or determined by arbitration. We recommend you get independent advice before applying to the Tribunal. See Useful contacts. Government information leaflets The government department responsible for housing and leasehold matters is the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG). It produces a lot of useful information for leaseholders, including leaflets that you can get by downloading them from its website or by writing to the DCLG see Useful contacts. Leaflets include: Leasehold flats your right to buy the freehold or extend your lease Long leaseholders your rights and responsibilities Applying to a Leasehold Valuation Tribunal 14 Islington Leasehold Association The Islington Leaseholders Association (ILA) consults and represents leaseholders of Islington Council. For more information visit their website at or [email protected]. If you wish to join the ILA, the yearly membership fee is 20. 2

77 Section 15 Useful contacts Acumus Phone: Bulk Rubbish Removal Phone: Health and Safety Executive Homes for Islington Davies Managed Systems Phone: (their lines are open 24 hours a day) Department for Communities and Local Government Free Literature PO Box 236 Wetherby LS23 7NB Phone: Fax: [email protected] Web: Islington Council Planning Department PO Box Upper Street London N1 1YA Phone: Fax: [email protected] Building Control The District Surveyor Development House 8a Barnsbury Park London N1 1QQ Phone: Fax: [email protected] 1 15

78 Useful contacts Land Registry The Land Registry (Harrow Office) Lyon House Lyon Road Harrow HA1 2EU For general information, visit the Land Registry website at Leasehold Advisory Service LEASE 31 Worship Street London EC2A 2DX Legal Department The Town Hall Upper Street London N1 2UD Phone: /3084/3197/3460 or Fax: Phone: Fax: Website: Environmental Health Phone: (office hours) Phone: (night hours: 8pm 2am Sunday to Thursday, 10pm 4am Friday and Saturday) 15 2

79 Local Government Ombudsman 10th Floor Millbank Tower Millbank London SW1P 4QP Advice line: Website: Leasehold Valuation Tribunal 10 Alfred Place London WC1E 7LR Phone: gsi.gov.uk Website:

80 Prepared by Hyde Design, photography and print by intertype.co.uk