Your lease

Here are some of your main rights and responsibilities as a shared owner. You'll find a full list in your lease document.

You agree to:

• pay your rent on time
• pay the service charge (if applicable) on time
• contribute towards costs of major works to communal areas if required
• keep your home and garden in a good state of repair and carry out your own repairs
• not do anything which may adversely affect our buildings insurance policy
• arrange your own contents insurance
• ask our permission if you want to carry out any alterations or additions, except usual decoration, to your home (find out more about this in the repairs and maintenance section)
• not sell your home without our prior written permission
• allow us, with prior notice, to inspect the condition of your home
• not cause a nuisance or annoyance to neighbours
• not park anything other than a car or small van in your parking space.

Please note: there are more clauses in your lease and you should get your solicitor or legal representative to go through it with you.

We agree to:

• allow you to live in your home without interference (unless you breach the terms and conditions of the lease)
• insure the building (but not its contents)
• not sell our interest in your home without your consent
• maintain communal areas of the estate.

Please note: there are more clauses in your lease and you should get your solicitor or legal representative to go through it with you.

Please note that there are more clauses in your lease and you should get your solicitor or legal representative to check it with you if you are not sure about anything.

You can also get advice from the Leasehold Advisory Service, an independent, free advice service for leaseholders.

No. We don’t allow subletting of a shared ownership lease, under any circumstances, on the grounds that this:

• would affect the terms and conditions on which the mortgage has been secured
• would be contrary to funding regulations on which we raised capital to make the property available
• may not adhere to the ethos of our allocations policy.

Yes, shared owners have the legal right to take in a lodger, but you must gain our permission first.

Please get in touch via myhomeonline, by email or call 0300 1234 009.

You may, depending on the terms of your lease, also need the permission of your mortgage lender.

However, legally you mustn’t allow your home to become overcrowded, so you can only take in a lodger if you have the room. Find out more about overcrowding.

If you're thinking of extending your lease, please get in touch by email or on 0300 1234 009 and we can explain the process.

We'd also recommend that you get independent legal advice before proceeding with a lease extension.

In the sad situation that a home owner dies, please get in touch with as soon as possible, so that we can explain the options available and help you sort things out.

You can contact us by email or on 0300 1234 009.

We'd also recommend that you get independent legal advice before proceeding with a lease succession.

We understand that situations change over time and this may require amendments to your lease.

For example, if you have a joint lease, but divorce or separate from your partner, your lease will need to be amended.
If this happens, you should get independent legal advice.

If you wish to add, or remove, a person to your lease, you must inform us and agree with any mortgage lender which partner is to take over the property. If you cannot agree, a court will make a ruling on who should stay or order the property to be sold.

If you're re-mortgaging to take on the lease in your name, we'll also need to approve your new mortgage.

You must be consulted about any changes that we want to make to your lease.

Generally, no changes can be made without your permission. You have the right to stay in your home until the end of your lease, as long as you keep to the conditions set out in it and pay all the charges due.

We will make every effort to help you stay in your home.

But if you breach your lease or knowingly made a false statement when you applied for the property, we can apply to the courts to have your home taken from you. This is known as lease forfeiture.

If you'd like to keep a pet in your home:

• Please check the conditions of your lease first.
• You must ask our permission. The easiest way to do this is to complete a pet request form.
• Once we've received your request, a member of the housing team will get in touch with you.

If you do have a pet, or have visitors with pets, it's your responsibility to make sure that they are supervised, kept under control and do not cause nuisance or annoyance to neighbours.

Send us a pet request form

Sorry, we don’t keep a spare set of keys.

If you lose them, it‘s your responsibility to replace them and pay for any lock changes. Please see the buildings insurance policy wording for more details on this.

If you need a copy of your lease, please get in touch with your housing officer by email or call 0300 1324 009.

If we don't have a copy of your lease in house, there may be an administration fee to cover the costs of applying for a copy.

Alternatively, your mortgage lender or solicitor may hold a copy of your lease.

If you're not happy with our service, or if you've received an excellent service, or have a suggestion please let us know.

Compliments and complaints >

If you'd like any further information or to talk to one of the team, please get in touch:

Online: My Home Online
Email: enquiries@midlandsrural.org.uk
Call: 0300 1234 009