As a shared ownership customer, you part-own and part-rent your home. This means you have a lease with us, your landlord. A lease includes all the information about responsibilities you have as a leaseholder.
What is different about the new model lease?
The new model lease is similar to the previous lease but there are a few key changes:
- You can now buy a minimum initial share of 5% and buy more of your home in 1% increments for the first 15 years
- There’s now an initial 10-year period where we’ll cover the cost of £500 per year for any essential maintenance or repairs
- The term of the lease is 990 years.
Which homes are covered by the new model lease?
All shared ownership homes delivered through Homes England’s Affordable Homes Programme between 2021 and 2026 will be under the new model lease. Contact us via email at leasehold@lfha.co.uk to check if the new lease applies to your home. We’ll confirm your eligibility and tell you which lease applies to your home.
You can explore the sections below to learn more about the changes in the new model lease:
The new shared ownership model lease entitles leaseholders to a 10-year initial repairs period. This is valid from when your lease begins.
Throughout the initial repairs period, we’re responsible for the cost of essential external and structural repairs to your home. These are limited repairs which are not covered by the building warranty or any other guarantee. It includes work to:
- The load-bearing framework of the home
- The external fabric of the home
- Pipes that form part of (but don’t exclusively serve) the home
- All other structural parts of the home such as the roof, foundations, joists and external walls
If works are covered by a guarantee or warranty, the policy holder will need to claim for these.
You’re responsible for telling us that a repair is required. If you think you have an eligible repair, please email us at leasehold@lfha.co.uk.
Once the initial repairs period is over and any guarantees or warranties have expired, you’ll be fully responsible for repairs and liable for all costs, regardless of your share in your home.
As a new shared ownership model leaseholder, you’re still responsible for internal repairs and the general maintenance of your home.
We’ll help with the cost of unexpected essential repairs up to the value of £500 per year, (if they’re not covered by a warranty or guarantee) for the first 10 years, or until you own 100% of your home, whichever is sooner. The lease calls these “qualifying general repairs and maintenance works” and they include:
- Installations for the supply of water, gas, electricity and sanitation but not fixtures and fittings or appliances
- Pipes and drainage
- Installations for heating and heating water
It does not cover:
- Damage that’s deliberate or avoidable
- Qualifying repairs that are covered by an existing warranty, guarantee or insurance policy (e.g. your boiler’s initial warranty). You must ensure you register your appliances correctly – this is your responsibility, and we might ask you for proof. It will affect your claim if your appliances aren’t registered, or they’re registered incorrectly.
As a shared owner, you’re expected to maintain your home and arrange routine servicing and maintenance (e.g. boiler servicing). You may need to show us evidence of this.
Further conditions
- We must approve any “qualifying general repairs and maintenance works” before you start the work
- You’re responsible for finding and paying contractors to carry out repairs and you must use Trustmark approved contractors
- You must include evidence of the repair work alongside any claims you make for reimbursement
- If you don’t claim the maximum £500 allowance in any one year, we’ll roll over any unused balance to the following year. The maximum balance in any given year will be £1000. You can’t roll over more of the balance.
- If you use part of the contribution and claim for a repair that will exceed your remaining balance, you’ll need to pay the difference.
You can make a claim by sending us an email at leasehold@lfha.co.uk.
The repair period applies to new build homes for the first 10 years, or until you acquire 100% ownership, whichever comes first — we refer to this as the initial repairs period.
If you sell your home through a shared ownership scheme within the 10-year period, any remaining years will be transferred to the new leaseholder.
If you cause repair work due to your job or by misusing your home, the cost of repairs will be your responsibility, even if it’s within the initial repairs period. This includes damage by any tenants or visitors to your home.
Staircasing means you buy additional shares in your shared ownership home. Shared ownership homes already allow this, but under the new lease, you can increase your shares by a minimum of 1%.
For the first 15 years, you can purchase 1% each year without a RICS valuation. Instead, the valuation is calculated from the Land Registry’s House Price Index. You can’t roll over or accumulate the 1% staircasing. You can’t buy shares of 2%, 3% or 4%.
You can also purchase larger shares, starting at 5%. Find out more about staircasing.