Your Property Lease

Your property lease tells you your duties and responsibilities as a leaseholder and Basildon Council's responsibilities to you as your Landlord.

When you buy the lease to a flat or maisonette from Basildon Council you do not buy the flat itself, you just buy a lease for a period not more than 125 years which gives you the right to live in the property for an agreed period of time.

Your lease will contain details of the property including a map showing your home, the block it is in, the estate where the block is located and any garden, shed or garage included in the sale. The estate in the lease is your boundaries of responsibility and you will be expected to pay a proportion of all works carried out to the estate set in the lease.

The lease tells you your duties and responsibilities as a leaseholder and the council's responsibilities to you as your Landlord. Not all leases are the same and Basildon Borough Council have seven different leases so you should always check the terms of your lease or seek independent legal advice if in doubt.

If you are a leaseholder and break the terms of your lease, you could risk losing your home.

Please Note: Your lease is a key document for you to refer to if you have a query. There are several different leases in use amongst leaseholders of Basildon Council properties, so it is important to refer to your own particular lease document.

If you have any questions regarding your lease document or require further information, please contact our Leasehold Services Team who are dedicated to dealing with all enquiries about leases and service charges.

Extending the period of your lease

Leaseholders have the right to extend their lease under legislation. The process involves leaseholders being given a new lease with a 90 year term plus the remaining term of the old lease.

All our leases run for 125 years and at present none of our leases have less than 90 years to run.

If you want to know exactly how many years are left on your lease you can put your request in writing to:

Alterations and additions to your leasehold property

It is a requirement of your lease that you cannot carry out alterations or additions to the property without first putting your request in writing to the Leaseholder Services Team.

Examples of alterations include knocking through a wall, adding/replacing doors, windows and replacing boilers. An addition would include building an extension.

Basildon Council will either deny permission or give consent within 10 working days of receipt of the letter.

If the Leaseholder has already carried out the work before obtaining Landlords permission.

If the Leaseholder has already carried out the work before obtaining Landlords permission, then the leaseholder is in breach of their lease and may have difficulty in selling the property, as the property may no longer comply with the requirements of the existing lease.

Consent is required before alterations and additions can be made. If permission is denied the leaseholder may be required to return the property to its original condition.

Leaseholder alterations commonly require Building Control and Planning Permission

Please note that even after Basildon Council has granted permission for a leaseholder to carry out alterations or additions to their property, the leaseholder must understand that Planning Permission and Building Control approval will still be needed for most alterations and additions.

Before starting any alterations or additions we strongly advise leaseholders to check that all necessary planning permission and building control approval has been granted.