Leaseholder
This key topic page shares information on how the Ombudsman can help with complaints from leaseholders. It covers common concerns we see in our casework and learning from our Spotlight report on leasehold, shared ownership, and new builds.
What is a leaseholder?
A leaseholder is someone who owns a property, for a set amount of time, as outlined in a legal contract called a ‘lease’. This means leaseholders have the right to live there for a set time period. The lease will specify things a leaseholder is responsible for, such as:
- sharing the cost of repairs to the building - the proportion depends on the specific lease
- following the conditions laid out in the lease - these might include things like noise restrictions or pet policies and permissions to make alterations to the property
Leaseholders also pay ground rent to the freeholder who owns the land and service charges to cover maintenance costs for shared areas like communal areas or gardens.
How the Ombudsman can help leaseholders
We can consider complaints from a resident who has a lease, tenancy, license to occupy, service agreement, or other arrangement to occupy premises owned or managed by a landlord member about housing management.
Our fact sheet provides guidance on what we can consider when investigating leaseholder complaints.
Guidance
Landlord expectations
Landlords can read the expectations to find out how to review leaseholder complaints proactively and implement the Housing Ombudsman’s core lessons.
Resident expectations
Residents can read the guidance provided to understand what your landlord must do and what the Ombudsman can do in relation to leaseholder complaints.
Reports
Spotlight report
Our spotlight report on leaseholders, shared ownership and new builds, brings together insight from our casework. It provides recommendations for landlord learning and case studies to improve standards in area’s we see the most complaints.
Insight report on service charges
Our Insight report on service charges and the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction looks into our complaints data, a selection of case studies and key learning points on the managment of charges.We work closely with the First Tier Tribunal and have included case studies in this report from them to show their work in this area.
Case studies
The case studies are examples from our case work. We will always try to show one example where the landlord did things right and received a finding of no maladministration and an example where a landlord did not act in the correct way and received a finding of severe maladministration or maladministration.
No maladministration
In this case, the landlord provided the resident, a leaseholder of a one-bedroom flat, with suitable information, explanations, and guidance regarding service charges.
The resident raised concerns about unfair service charges, including communal guttering work, increased electricity costs, and fire risk assessment charges.
The Ombudsman's investigation focused on the actions the landlord took when the resident asked for information on how the service charge was calculated. The landlord responded promptly and within the time scales set out in the Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code. They provided detailed itemised calculations and explained changes due to rising energy costs and legal requirements for fire assessments that had caused a cost adjustment.
When the landlord identified an error in their calculations on a charge for guttering and drain work, the landlord corrected the error and adjusted their service charge information.
The Ombudsman is unable to consider the level of service charge or the level of increase but can consider the actions the landlord took when the resident asked for information on how the service charge was calculated.
Severe maladministration
We found severe maladministration in this case after a 3-year delay in responding to a leaseholders ongoing reports of damp caused by a leak and repairs needing to be done to the property.
After reporting the issue, the landlord made some repairs, but the resident reported the issue was still ongoing pursuing updates on at least 15 occasions.
The resident also raised concerns about window-related plaster damage. The lease terms did not cover internal repairs, but the landlord offered no clear guidance on claiming against their building insurance as per their policy.
The resident exhausting the landlord’s complaints process. The final response from an independent adjudicator incorrectly directed the resident to the courts for a resolution, causing delay in the resident bringing their complaint to the Ombudsman.
The investigation found poor record-keeping, lack of oversight, and poor communication by the landlord. The Ombudsman’s orders included an apology to the resident, compensation of £2,300, for the landlord to identify the source of the water ingress and review their handling of the complaint.
Podcast
Leasehold Advisory Service podcast
Martin Boyd, Chair of the Leasehold Advisory Service will join Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman for a conversation about changes to the leasehold sector and the challenges the organisations are seeing for leaseholders.
They discuss common leaseholder issues, including disputes over service charges, maintenance responsibilities, lease length, communication challenges, and the complexities of legal rights, providing insights and advice for navigating these challenges.
Landlord Learning Hub
Centre for Learning online platform
Explore our NEW learning tool - the Landlord Learning Hub.
Log in and discover the training options available to you.
If you have not logged into the new Hub, you will need to set up an account to gain access to a range of learning materials.
Resident information
When to use the Housing Ombudsman Service
If you are unable to resolve the complaint with your landlord directly via its complaint procedure, this service may be able to provide you with further assistance.
View the residents' pages to find out how to raise and complaint to your landlord and when to escalate your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service.