Some of our estates include properties that are owned by leaseholders or freeholders and some were sold on a shared ownership basis under Government schemes.
Leaseholders
Your lease is a legal agreement and defines the rights and obligations that you have as a leaseholder and that CDS (or your Co-op) has as freeholder. Where a block is fully sold to leaseholders all of the costs of managing and maintaining the block will usually be shared between the owners. CDS will have commission, organise work and will recharge costs. What we are allowed to charge for will be set out in your lease.
Details of our insurance policy is available here.
Please report any repairs covered by us here.
Shared Owners
If you are a shared owner you own a percentage of your home and CDS (or your Co-op) will own the balance. You will usually pay rent on the part that you do not own as well as service charges to cover the cost of maintenance and management. You can sometimes increase the share that you own through staircasing.
Please report any repairs covered by us here.
Shared Ownership Lease Extension Policy
Following a recent change to CDS Policy, leases on shared ownership properties can now be extended without staircasing.
Shared owners only have the statutory right to extend their leases if they first staircase to 100 percent ownership. However, having investigated the issue it has been agreed that leaseholders on shared ownership properties will now be able to extend their leases regardless of staircasing. This change is beneficial to leaseholders as it will allow them to retain the market value of their interest in the property. Furthermore, it prevents the risk of a property becoming un-mortgageable if a leaseholder is unable to staircase to 100% as banks are often hesitant to offer mortgages to properties with a lease with less than 85 years remaining.
For any enquires regarding your lease and staircasing contact our Housing Services Manager, Temi.
Freeholders
Freeholders own their home outright but sometimes you will still make a contribution to the costs of maintaining your estate.
Please report any repairs to communal areas here.
