From 1 April 2019, all Enfield Council leaseholders who sub-let their property must register with the Home Ownership Services Team.
About 2,300 of our leasehold properties are sub-let and we don’t have a record of who is living in them. This makes it difficult to manage blocks and estates, particularly if there is an urgent need to contact residents. The Grenfell fire has highlighted why it is important to have this information.
We are introducing the subletting register to ensure that we have accurate, up-to-date information about all residents. This will help to improve safety and security in our blocks and estates. It will allow us to manage more effectively and provide a better service. The benefits are:
- Improved fire safety by ensuring that landlords comply with annual gas safety checks. Landlords will need to provide copies of Gas Safety Certificates.
- To enable direct communication when required with all residents, and therefore contribute to maintaining the security and good management of the estate.
- To enforce lease compliance, for example, overcrowding, anti-social behaviour and unauthorised alterations.
- Where emergency repairs are required, we will be able to contact the landlord and/or tenant quickly and get the problem resolved more easily. This will result in improved service and reduced costs.
- To improve tenants’ confidence in their landlords and increase landlords’ accountability by promoting good practice.
The lease requires landlords to give notice to the freeholder if they are subletting. Please be aware that if you are subletting the property and do not inform us, any claim against your buildings insurance policy may be denied.
The charge is initially £35 for each new sub-let. If a tenancy is extended, then the leaseholder will only have to inform us of the date it is extended to. Where we are not informed, there will be a charge for non-compliance.
Leaseholders subletting directly to us, need to pay £35 for the initial sub-let to us. If the leaseholder later decides to sub-let privately, then the above charges apply for each new sub-let.
We will write to all known non-resident leaseholders by 1 April 2019, inviting them to register.
Thank you for your co-operation.