Information for both leaseholders and shared owners
Most leaseholders and shared owners pay a monthly or annual service charge.
This is set out in your lease and helps cover the communal services and maintenance needed to manage your building.
What your service charge covers
Your service charge may include:
- grounds maintenance and cleaning
- communal heating, electricity and water
- major works, such as communal decoration
- repairs to shared areas
- maintenance, including lifts,
- emergency lighting and fire alarm testing
- the sinking fund
- buildings insurance
- audit and management costs
Sinking fund
A sinking fund is money collected over time to cover large future repairs, such as replacing a roof.
It helps avoid unexpected high costs.
If you’re worried about payments
If you’re struggling to pay your service charges, please contact us. We can look at payment plans and support options.
Withholding payments is a breach of your lease and could lead to legal action, including contacting your mortgage lender.
When you need permission
Please contact the Leasehold Team before starting any work.
You’ll need permission for things like:
- replacing your flat entrance door (must meet current fire regulations)
- removing internal walls
- changing pipework or appliances, such as gas heating
Some alterations require an inspection.
Fees apply, and these are listed on the charges sheet.
Buildings insurance
Your lease usually requires us to arrange buildings insurance for your home. This covers structural damage.
You can request a summary of cover from your Leasehold Co‑ordinator.
Contents insurance
We don’t insure your belongings, so we recommend taking out your own contents insurance.
We work with two trusted providers who offer policies exclusively for Thirteen customers.
If you live on a scheme with communal grounds, our in‑house Grounds Maintenance Team will look after these areas.
We work to an annual programme that sets out how often we attend and what work we carry out.
Some services come with additional administration fees. These include:
- solicitor sale pack (LPE1) enquiries
- pet permissions
- permission for minor and major alterations
- notices to sublet
- remortgaging queries
- copies of your lease
- three years of service charge accounts
Any internal repairs we complete for you are recharged at full cost, including call‑out fees.
Leaseholder information
Your lease is a legal contract between you and Thirteen. It sets out your rights and responsibilities as the leaseholder, and ours as the freeholder.
The lease allows you to live in the property as your home for a set number of years — known as the lease term.
Before buying your home, you should get independent legal advice so you fully understand your commitments and ours.
As a leaseholder or shared owner, you're responsible for maintaining the inside of your home — usually everything from the plasterboard inwards.
This includes:
- electrical wiring and water supply pipework that serves only your home
- boilers, cookers and any other gas appliances you own
- interior fixtures, fittings, walls, ceilings, floors and decoration
All gas appliances must be inspected every year by a Gas Safe registered engineer.
If you rent out your home, you must provide us with a valid CP12 landlord gas safety certificate every year.
Other important responsibilities
You must:
- pay your service charges
- use your home as a residential property (you can’t run a business from it)
- get our written permission before making any alterations
- make sure you and anyone in your home do not cause anti-social behaviour
We repair and maintain the structure and communal parts of your building.
Examples include:
- communal fire alarms, smoke alarms and extractor fans
- communal water tanks and pumps
- district or communal heating systems
- communal wiring, supply lines and shared radiators
You’ll also find a detailed breakdown of responsibilities for specific items such as floors, ceilings, sanitary ware, kitchen units, and more — showing whether the repair sits with us or with you.
Major works are large, one‑off repairs or improvements to the structure, exterior or communal areas of your building. These works cost each leaseholder more than £250.
How major works are managed
We follow a set legal process called a Section 20 consultation. This is designed to:
- keep you informed
- give you the chance to comment
- allow you, in some cases, to nominate a contractor
You’ll receive:
- a breakdown of estimated costs
- a specification describing the work
There are four different consultation routes, and depending on the type of work, the full process can take between three weeks and five months.
Your lease explains what external areas you’re responsible for and what we look after.
We’ll always make sure buildings insurance is in place, and we’ll consult you about major works and any related costs.
Examples of what we look after
- chimney stacks
- roofs (including leaks, loose tiles, storm damage)
- cracked or unsafe external glass
- communal TV aerials
- rainwater goods, gutters, downpipes and soil pipes
- foundations, subsidence and rising damp
- structural deterioration of balconies, canopies and roof structures
Examples of what you look after
- locks, handles and hinges on your own windows and doors
- doorbells, knockers and numbers
- items that exclusively serve your home (e.g., drains, water pipes, gas supply)
- keeping marked garden areas clean and tidy
Communal areas
We look after shared spaces, including:
- communal gardens (where marked)
- shared forecourts, paths and roadways
- staircases, landings and corridors
- communal external and internal doors and windows
- lifts, post boxes and CCTV
Shared owner information
As a shared owner, it’s important to understand how your lease works, what you’re responsible for, and what we look after.
You can also find out about staircasing and reporting a shared ownership repair.
As a shared owner, you buy a percentage of your home — usually between 25% and 75% — using a mortgage, deposit or savings.
You then pay rent on the share that we still own.
In most cases, you can buy more shares later (known as staircasing) until you eventually own 100% of the property. When this happens, your home is no longer classed as shared ownership.
When you buy a shared ownership home, you’re responsible for all repairs and maintenance.
The rent you pay covers the share of the home that we still own. This rent:
- is lower than a full market rent
- is based on a percentage of the unsold equity
- goes back into the funding used to build or acquire your home
We understand that circumstances can change. If you’re having difficulty paying your rent, please speak to us as soon as possible — we’re here to help.
Being a shared owner comes with specific responsibilities set out in your lease.
What you’re responsible for
You are responsible for:
- all repairs and maintenance — inside and outside your home
- paying all charges linked to your home, including rent, mortgage (if applicable), estate service charges and council tax
- using your home as a residential property only
- not sub‑letting your home
- not running a business from your property
- getting our written permission before making any alterations
- making sure you and anyone visiting your home do not cause anti‑social behaviour
These responsibilities exist because shared ownership is an affordable housing product supported by government funding.
Get in touch
For more information, please get in touch with our home ownership team.