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Newlon Housing Trust

Information for leaseholders

In this section:

  • Leaseholder protections.
  • Advice and guidance for selling, staircasing or re-mortgaging your home, or extending your lease.
  • Support with selling, staircasing or re-mortgaging your home, or extending your lease.
  • Option to sublet in certain circumstances.
  • What if there is a superior landlord or managing agent where I live?

Leaseholder protections

At the end of June 2022 the Government introduced additional legislation to the Building Safety Act which included leaseholder protections.

The leaseholder protections aim to protect all qualifying leaseholders living in homes in buildings over 11 metres (at least five storeys) in height against the costs of remediating historic cladding or non-cladding related safety defects.

This legislation is complex and Newlon needed to seek two sets of legal advice to ensure that we can apply it appropriately and fairly for our leaseholders and Shared Owners.

Following on from this advice in May 2023 Newlon wrote to all leaseholders living in our blocks over 11 metres (at least five storeys) in height to advise them that we would not be re-charging any costs to qualifying leaseholders for remedial works for historic cladding or non-cladding related safety defects.

You can find a copy of this letter here, it includes further details on the criteria for being a qualifying leaseholder and links to the Government’s information about the leaseholder protections.

The date for being a qualifying leaseholder was set by the Government as the 14th February 2022.

It has since become clear that there is an accidental ‘loophole’ in the legislation, as any qualifying leaseholders extending a lease after this date would create a new lease meaning that the leaseholder protections would not apply.

The Government has stated its intention to legislate to close this loophole. In the meantime their guidance states that landlords are expected to make sure that the current protections continue to apply in the event that a lease is extended.

Newlon can confirm that we will continue to apply the current leasehold protections when any qualifying leaseholder extends their lease.

Once any additional legislation has been enacted we will contact residents to update them on impact of the legislation and if there are any changes in the way it applies.

If you have any further questions about this matter please contact firesafety@newlon.org.uk.

Deed of certificate and landlord’s certificate

The leaseholder protections have also created two new requirements for leaseholders who are selling their home:

  • You will need to provide a leaseholder deed of certificate.
  • We will need to provide you with a Landlord’s certificate.

These are designed to ensure that the leaseholder protections are passed to anyone you sell your home to.

Information about these requirements can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mandatory-information-required-from-leaseholders-and-building-owners

Please contact the resident sales team by email at resident.sales@newlon.org.uk to enquire about either of these certificates.

Please only contact us about completing these certificates if you are actively selling your home and have instructed solicitors as they require considerable administrative preparation. There is a specific timeframe for providing landlord’s certificates and it will be difficult for us to meet this if we are required to prepare certificates for people who are not involved in live transactions.

Advice and guidance for Shared Owners and leaseholders if you are thinking of selling, staircasing or re-mortgaging your home or extending your lease.

If you are planning to sell, staircase or re-mortgage your home or extend your lease in some instances you may find that this is currently difficult because of the approach some lenders are taking in response to the Government’s previous advice notes or the requirements of PAS9980. This is most likely to be an issue if your building requires remedial works which have not yet been carried out.

For some buildings lenders may be unwilling to lend or cautious about lending. Their approach can include asking for specific reassurance about the fire safety compliance of a building and requesting information about remedial works programmes and whether any costs are likely to be passed back to leaseholders.

Newlon will always try to assist residents in these situations and in most cases we can provide the information requested by lenders.

If you are thinking of selling, staircasing, re-mortgaging or extending your lease please always contact our Resident Sales Team before committing to action. This is a condition of your lease, even if you are a 100% leaseholder, and we strongly advise you to contact us before you commit to any costs or make any long-term plans.

As of mid-2023 there has been some easing in the housing market due to the impact of the Building Safety Fund, some clarification around form EWS1, gradual completion of remedial works programmes and the introduction of leaseholder protections. However, the appetite and conditions for lending can vary significantly from building to building, according to individual circumstances and between different lenders.

Support and advice for selling your home

If you are a considering selling your home it is a requirement of your lease that you inform us of your intention to do so, even if you are a 100% leaseholder. We recommend contacting us before you incur any costs or make any long-term plans dependent on being able to sell your home. We also recommend that both you and any prospective buyer should speak to a mortgage adviser if you are using one, or any lenders involved, to understand their approach before spending any money.

Our Resident Sales Team will provide as much support and advice as we can with the sales process.

One currently common request from lenders is for Newlon as the building owner to provide a formal letter confirming a number of specific aspects of a building’s fire safety compliance.

Generally we are asked to address the following key points, depending on the type and size of building:

  • Have intrusive fire safety inspections been carried out?
  • Are any remedial works required?
  • Have they started – when will they be completed?
  • Will any costs be passed back to residents?

In most instances we will be able to provide you with a letter in response to these or similar questions.

For any enquiries about selling, staircasing, re-mortgaging or lease extensions please email resident.sales@newlon.org.uk.

Option to sublet

Shared Ownership leases prohibits sub-letting to protect public funds, but we may be able to allow Shared Owners to sublet in exceptional cases if they want to move and are struggling to sell their home because of building safety issues.

In these circumstances you can sublet for a year at a time and then for a further six months once any works have been completed. Applications can be made by filling in the form on the subletting page on our website.

Some residents have asked if we can buy back their home or their share, but we are not able to do this. Not only is this a national issue over which we have no control but we are already incurring significant extra costs for fire safety works, investigations and additional short term safety measures such as patrolling fire wardens, which we have not passed back to residents.

Staircasing applications

Shared Owners are allowed to staircase under the terms of their lease but if you are considering doing so this needs to be at your own risk and we will not be able to refund fees if the process is unsuccessful –  apply to staircase.

What if there is a superior landlord or managing agent where I live?

Some Newlon leaseholders live in buildings where Newlon is not the freeholder or building owner.

In these instances the building owner/freeholder is known as a ‘superior landlord’. In many instances they will use a managing agent to manage day to day interactions with residents, as well as areas such as service charges.

For these buildings the superior landlord is responsible for all aspects of fire and building safety if Newlon does not directly manage the blocks. This includes regular safety inspections, fire risk assessments (FRAs), meeting the requirements of the Fire and Building Safety Acts, any intrusive investigations and remedial works and applying the leaseholder protections.

If you are a Newlon leaseholder or Shared Owner living in a block with a superior landlord and have any questions or concerns about fire safety which your building owner or managing agent cannot answer, or if you are unsure about where responsibility for an issue lies, please contact us at firesafety@newlon.org.uk.