Details on your Shared Ownership lease:
What are my rights and responsibilities as a Shared Owner?
We're (Be One Homes) responsible for:
- Arranging building insurance**.
You're responsible for:
- **Paying the building insurance contribution.
- Keeping your home in good repair and condition.
- Having your gas regularly serviced and tested.
- Not sub-letting your home.
- Not causing annoyance or inconvenience to neighbours.
- Not carrying out any trade or business from your property.
- Not making any alterations/improvements to the property without consent from Be One Homes.
- Paying any rent and/or service charges.
- Using your home as single private property for residential use only.
- Insuring the contents of the property.
Which alterations and improvements can I make to my Shared Ownership home?
Which alterations and improvements are not allowed?
Under the terms of the Lease, you’ll require our permission to carry out any non-structural alterations and improvements. Until you own 100% of the share amount, you can’t:
- Make any alterations or additions to the exterior of the Premises.
- Make any structural alterations or structural additions to the Premises.
- Erect any new buildings on the Premises.
- Remove any of the Landlord’s fixtures from the Premises.
We don’t need to know about minor work such as decorating.
What alterations and improvements can I make to my Shared Ownership home?
Below is a list of example alterations that can be carried out. Some require permission from us, whilst others do not.
Permission is required for:
- Replacing window frames.
- Works affecting any services to the property, for example, electric, gas, drainage, or water.
- Installation of central heating/replacement of boiler.
- Any change to the internal layout of your property.
- Rewiring.
- New kitchens and bathrooms.
- Installation of aerials or satellite dishes.
Permission isn’t required for:
- Replacing glass in windows.
- Changing internal doors.
- Internal decoration.
How do I get permission to make alterations to my Shared Ownership home?
Please get in touch using the contact details at the bottom of this page if you’d like to ask for permission to make alterations to your home.
Please note that you’ll need to pay a permissions fee in advance of any alterations taking place.
How do I make changes to my Shared Ownership lease?
1. Lease Extension:
For more information on extending your lease, please get in touch using the contact details at the bottom of this page. We’d recommend you ask for support from a solicitor.
Here are the typical costs required to extend a lease (all payable by the applicant). These costs are all subject to change:
- Admin Fee: £200 plus VAT
- Independent Valuation: £420 plus VAT (you can use your own RICS valuer)
- Lease Extension Premium (based on the valuation): £5,000 to £8,000
- Be One Homes' Legal Fees: £575 to £750
- Building Works Permission Fee (retrospective): £450 plus VAT
2. Sub-letting (renting out) your Shared Ownership home:
You can’t sub-let (rent out) your Shared Ownership home.
3. Selling your Shared Ownership home:
You can sell your home at any time.
If you haven’t staircased to 100% of your home at the time of wishing to sell, you’ll need to sell your home on a Shared Ownership basis.
Please get in touch using the contact details at the bottom of this page if you’d like more information on selling your Shared Ownership home.
4. Staircasing (buying further shares) - 10% plus:
- Staircasing is when you buy additional shares in your property.
The greater the share you buy in your home, the less rent you’ll pay. When you reach 100% of the shares, you’ll become an outright owner and pay no rent.
The cost of your new share will depend on how much your home is worth when you want to buy the share and an up-to-date RICS valuation will need to be arranged.
There are no restrictions in the majority of cases, however, we’d recommend that you refer to your lease in the first instance.
Please get in touch using the contact details at the bottom of this page if you’d like more information on staircasing.
Speak with us about your lease:
- We're here to help. If you'd like more information on your lease, please get in touch.
You can call us on 01204 328000 or email leaseholdmanagement@beonehomes.com. You can also write to us at:
Leasehold Management,
98 Waters Meeting Road,
Bolton,
BL1 8SW.
