Leaseholders
Find information relevant to your lease agreement with us and about your rights and responsibilities as a leaseholder. As well as our responsibilities to you as the landlord.
Quick links
As your landlord, we (Leicester City Council) are responsible for the management and maintenance of the building, in which the property your lease is situated.
We aim to deal with your enquiries within 10 working days. If there is a likelihood that we cannot respond within 10 days, we will contact you to explain why.
As your landlord, our role is to provide the following services but not exclusively:
- Raising and issuing of the annual service charge invoice
- Consulting with you on all major works and issuing notices
- Assist investigation alongside regulatory bodies for anti-social behaviour reports
- Raising and issuing of invoice for major works
- Advising on lease agreements and ensuring compliance of our leaseholders.
- Enforce breach of lease agreements
- Issuing of statutory notices
- Interpretation of legislation and enforcing implementation of any changes
- Hold leaseholder forums
- Respond to compliments, comments and complaints
- Respond to enquiries from conveyancers/solicitors on sales of property.
Our responsibility as a landlord will also depend on the lease terms and the type of building in which the leased property is situated.
Leaseholders handbook
You can print the leaseholders handbook on the following link:
Leasehold forums
The leasehold forum will be held twice a year. Every leaseholder is invited to attend and take part in discussions. Invites to the forum are sent prior to the meeting. The aim of our leasehold forum is to work closely with our leaseholders to develop our service delivery on a continuous improvement basis, and to achieve transparency for leaseholders whilst improving performance and to deliver accountability.
Forums meetings
Forum meetings will be held virtually and face to face twice a year and dates are as follow:
- 24 January 2024 - cancelled
The last forum was held on 26 January 2023. You can find the forum presentations and minutes at the bottom of this page.
Frequently asked questions
Please see the FAQs below which may help answer queries about your lease and possible future charges.
Service charges are payable under the terms of your lease and is a proportion of the money that the council has spent on the building and/or the buildings communal area. Service charges may be divided into categories or charges for service to the block. These can include but are not limited to:
- Lifts
- Cleaning
- Communal lighting
- Fire alarm systems
- District heating provision
Annual service charges are subject to annual review and revision. Please be aware that service charges do not include costs for repairs and maintenance, for example: repairs to your district heating system.
There are three different types of service charges:
- Charges for service directly provided to your building. Such as: Cleaning, way lighting etc
- Repairs to your property and communal areas
- Major/capital work (roof replacement), this can also include Environmental Improvement Projects such as, new parking, in addition to these you also must pay other charges which, include admin fees.
We are responsible for the following repairs:
- We will carry out repairs to the building or communal areas such as: roof, shared entrances etc. Any repair inside your front door is your responsibility (except district heating or shared facilities).
- District Heating (DH) If your property is connected to the DH system, all works must be carries out by an LCC appointed engineer. Do not attempt to work on this system. This is because, district heating is a high pressurised specialised heating system that can be dangerous. No persons other than our engineers can work on this system.
Remember, where we carry out repairs to the shared areas or to the building, the proportionate costs will be issued to you as a leaseholder. This means that the full cost of the repair will be shared between everybody who lives in the block.
As a leaseholder, you will be charged for any work carried out in your property. There will be a call out fee of £64.98 for an appointment lasting up to 90 minutes.
If the repair requires materials, there will be additional charges based on the materials needed to complete the work. If the timeframe for the repair to be completed takes longer than 90 minutes you will be charged £43.32 per hour.
It is our legal obligation to arrange building insurance for leasehold properties. A proportion of the policy premium is charged to leaseholders through their service charges. However, building insurance does not cover your contents. Therefore, it is advised to arrange your own contents insurance.
Please refer to the leasehold handbook on this page for further details.
Please be aware that the above information provided is not a substitute for legal advice. If you have any queries regarding your leasehold property, you should seek independent legal advice from your own legal representation.
Tenants and leaseholder representatives
The tenants and leaseholder forum works closely with us (Leicester City Council). It consists of 13 tenants and 2 leaseholders. This is to provide service changes and improvements working alongside senior managers within the housing department.
Find out more about the Tenants' and leaseholders' forum.
If you are interested in becoming a forum representative please get in touch with us using the contact details below.
Anti-social behaviour
If you are experiencing anti-social behaviour, you can report it and find out more on our anti-social behaviour webpage.
Recycling and waste
For issues related to waste, bulk items collection and recycling, go to the recycling and waste page.
Sub-letting
If you are sub-letting your property, it is your responsibility to ensure that your tenant is aware of the fire safety procedures for the block. We advise you obtain your own landlords insurance to cover your property.
Keeping us informed
We ask for you to keep us informed if you change your contact details. Please notify us immediately if your situation changes, by using the contact details at the bottom of this page. We require up-to-date information in the case of an emergency, where we may need to access the property. For further information please see our privacy notice.
Thinking of selling?
If you are considering selling your leased property please contact us using the details below. We have a buy back scheme across the city and we may be able to assist you, if you are thinking of selling your home.
Useful links
- LEASE - get free independent advice on residential long leasehold
- My Account - report, request and enquire about our services online.
- Love Clean Streets - if you spot an environmental issue such as graffiti, litter, fly-tipping or dog fouling, we want you to take a photo and report it to us via our Love Leicester app or website.
- Household Support Fund - Open for referrals from 14 November 2022 to 5 March 2023. Funded by the Government, the grant aims to support people most in need of help with rising living costs.
- Comments, compliments and complaints
- Councillors and wards
Contact us
Send us an email: [email protected]
Ring us on: 0116 454 1007