Your lease is a legal contract between you and Oxford City Council. It confirms what has been agreed about your property and gives details of your rights and responsibilities, as well as ours.
What your lease covers
Your lease describes the property you’ve purchased, including any garden, garage or shed. If you own a flat, it also shows the area of your block, or the estate that your home is in, for the purpose of calculating leaseholder charges.
Your lease is divided into sections called ‘schedules’. Each schedule sets out the conditions or responsibilities that apply to you as the leaseholder and to us as the freeholder.
If you bought your home from us, we usually retain ownership of the land.
If your home is a flat, we usually own and are responsible for the communal areas and the fabric of the building (for example, the roof).
Your responsibilities
As a leaseholder, you need to:
- follow the terms of your lease
- carry out any essential internal repairs to your property
- report any repairs we are responsible for
- pay your leaseholder charges
- ensure household members and visitors do not cause nuisance or damage
Our responsibilities
We are responsible for:
- managing buildings and estates
- maintaining leaseholder records
- arranging buildings insurance (but not home contents insurance)
- calculating and billing leaseholder charges
- responding to your enquiries
- handling insurance claims
- handling property alteration requests
- overseeing the Right to Buy scheme
Services we provide
Your lease explains what you are charged for and how we bill you.
Each year, we provide:
- an estimated service charge for the upcoming account year (1 April to 31 March)
- the actual service charges for the account year ending in March
Find out more about Leaseholder charges and how to pay.
Upon request, we can also supply:
- a detailed breakdown of the work included in your statement
- details of repairs to your block and estate reflected in the actual service charges
We will formally consult you if any work to your block or estate costs more than £250. Refer to Charging leaseholders for major work for details.
You can arrange a meeting with a Home Ownership Officer to discuss your leaseholder charges, if needed. Email landlordservices@oxford.gov.uk to request this.
