Understanding your lease
When you became a shared owner, you entered into a legal agreement with us. This is known as a lease.
It’s important to understand your lease as it sets out your rights, responsibilities and restrictions, including your right to occupy the property.
As a registered provider, we access public funds to support our delivery of affordable homes, which includes Shared Ownership. We use the government standard Shared Ownership lease, known as the model lease, which is provided by Homes England.
Leases are only given when a new property is sold for the first time. If you have brought a property from a previous shared owner, your solicitor should have applied to Land Registry for the existing lease to be transferred to you.If you need a copy of your lease, please contact the solicitor that supported you when you first brought the home. If you have problems getting a copy, you can contact bpha. Please note, there may be a charge for this.
This page gives you an overview of what your shared ownership lease may contain. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government keep detailed information on shared ownership leases on their website.
Please do not make any legal decisions based on the information on this website alone. If you are unsure, you should seek professional legal advice - a good place to start is the Leasehold Advisory Service.
Your rights
You have the right to live in the property for a period of time, known as the lease term. You can work out the remaining lease term by looking for the start (or commencement) date of your lease and the lease term initially granted.
Buying more shares in the property is known as staircasing. More information can be found in the staircasing schedule of your lease. Some leases are restricted which means that shared owners cannot buy 100% of their home.
Your responsibilities
As a shared owner, you have to pay us rent for the share of the property you do not own. This is reviewed each year in line with the rent review clause in your lease.
As a shared owner, you also have to pay a service charge for services you receive while living in the property. This could include things like buildings insurance, grounds maintenance and communal electricity. You can find out more about service charges by clicking the button below.
Your lease will have a plan which shows the area of the land or building you are responsible for. This area is usually outlined in red and is known as the demised premises.
If you are a shared owner of a house, this responsibility includes repairs and maintenance to the outside of your home. If you are a shared owner of an apartment, the management company or building owner are responsible for the external areas of the building.
Your restrictions
Your lease will contain a pre-emption clause which means you have to let us know when you want to sell your home.
We will advertise your property for a set period, known as a nomination period, and during this time we can nominate a buyer for your home. If we are unable to find a buyer within the nomination period, you will be able to sell your home on the open market unless the lease is a ‘designated protected area – mandatory buyback’ lease - in which case bpha will either buy back your home or arrange for a Nominated Association to buy it.
Making non cosmetic changes to your home may require consent from us. To get consent and to read more about improving your home, click the button below.
Your lease may contain a restriction preventing you from keeping pets at the property, or certain types of pets such as livestock. You can contact bpha to ask permission for pets and this will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
Renting your property to someone who is not a shared owner is known as subletting and is not allowed. There are occasions where you may be allowed to let out your home on a short-term basis. Please contact us for more information.
Support and getting in touch
If you are having difficulties meeting the terms of the lease, please contact us as early as possible so we can support and work with you to avoid action being taken.
Some of the services we offer include:
If our in-house services can’t support you, we can direct you to other agencies.
