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Photo: Tom Gilling
LIVING AT HELENA COURT, HIGHLANDS GARDENS
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Photo: Tom Gilling |
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A Guide to the Lease The lease each leaseholder is party to is intended to provide for the good order of the building and its maintenance, and to encourage good neighbourliness. Its clauses aim to avoid disputes by seeking to regulate possible issues that may arise.After becoming landlord, the Association had the lease's terms checked by an independent solicitor and these were found to be fair and well adapted to the circumstances of Helena Court. Click here to see a specimen lease. Because the present 99-year lease, prepared in 1978, is running out for mortgage purposes, the Residents Association is in the process of drafting a new 999 year one based on the present lease but updated. Once a proposal is ready, the new draft lease will be posted on this site for comment by leaseholders. The lease is a clear document on the essentials of living at Helena Court. Every leaseholder should understand its terms, because they are binding and bring rights and responsibilities. These are the main items. 1. Liability: Basically what is inside or part of the flat, incluidng the windows, is the resident's responsibility, including the insurance of the contents and damage arising in or from the flat. What is outside the flat, including the painting and routine repair of windows but not the window frames themselves, is a HCRA responsibility, including the insurance for the building. 2. Paying service and sinking fund charges: Without money, the place will fall apart, so the lease requires that we pay service charges on time and for the full amount. These go to the property's maintenance including its management and improvements necessary to maintain a good quality of life at Helena Court. The AGM determines the policy on service charges; the Board decides with the managing agent how the money should be spent and the actual level of charges within the guidelines set by the AGM. Routine works that arise over each year are covered by the "main" service charge. A distinct part of the service charge is the "sinking fund". This is to cover the inevitable deficit that will arise from adding to the routine work major works that take place in episodes over a period of years. The Agent is required to recover any arrears in respect of all service charges. Being late in payment is unfair to those who do pay, can stall works and of course endangers the state of the building and gardens. 3. Use of the Flat: The Flats are to be used as places to live. We are not meant to turn them into factories, businesses or bioengineering labs! 4. Quiet Enjoyment: The building is solid enough; however, sound travels up and down through the floors and some walls (with hidden chimneys) and so can cause nuisance. Everybody is hence expected to be considerate and not to annoy, disturb or inconvenience anyone. The lease gives each leaseholder the right to "peaceably hold and enjoy" their flat, and makes clear that it is necessary at all times to be sensitive to the noise issue. For this reason, playing musical instruments is essentially forbidden. (a piano can be heard throughout the building), as is playing televisions and audio equipment loudly. But even washing machines and dishwashers can cause disturbance at late hours, and thus the lease calls for hush between the hours of 11pm and 8am. In the same way, yelling, shouting or trampoline jumping in the middle of the night will not gain anyone's endearment! 5. Making Changes: We can paint decorate and improve our own flats and are encouraged to do so. But the garden, hallways and outside of the building are "common ways" or areas and are therefore matters for the Association through the Board of Directors. Ideas for improvements (even with voluntary work) must be brought up at an AGM or with Directors. 6. Rubbish: Skips are provided but they are only intended for normal household waste, not for industrial dumping. Large items (old arm chairs, fridges, beds, mattressing) must be disposed of privately, not dumped in the garden or in any external areas. 7. Aerials, Washing Lines etc: Sorry -- the lease says that we can't just bolt a satellite dish on the wall or put up a washing line in the garden. The building has a terrestrial aerial on the roof. Ideas about cable or a communal satellite dish have been raised and are currently under consideration as improvements. 8. Pets: These are not encouraged, particularly dogs. In the past dogs left alone have barked for hours causing severe nuisance to residents. (The lease forbids any pet that might be a nuisance to any resident.) 9. Advertising and improper use of Flats: The lease says that we can't put up posters etc. in windows. Nor can flats be used 'for any purpose of an illegal immoral improper unpleasant noisy or noxious nature'.
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