- Your lease
- Buildings insurance
- Caretaking services
- Keeping us informed
- Sublet registration
- Alterations to your property
- Lease regulations observance clause
- Management information pack
- Extending your lease
Your lease
Your lease is a legal document that sets out the relationship between us and you. Your lease tells you:
- how long the lease agreement lasts
- what we are responsible for
- what you are responsible for
- how we work out charges for common repairs and services
- the amount of ground rent you need to pay
You must also comply with the tenant’s covenants with landlord and other tenants for the management of your block and estate.
Our responsibilities are set out in the lease and are governed by law. We are responsible for:
- giving you an estimate of your service charges before the start of each financial year
- notifying you of your actual service charges after the end of each financial year
- consulting you on major work and services, before inviting estimates from contractors and awarding contracts
- informing you of any rechargeable costs we have incurred, within 18 months of incurring them
- repairing and maintaining the structure and exterior of your block, including external windows
- providing repairs and services to common areas
- repairing and maintaining any communal equipment in your property, for example heating appliances, waste disposal units and door entry systems.
- requiring other leaseholders to agree to similar terms to those in your lease.
You can find information about a number of leaseholder issues including service charges and independent advice on GOV.UK.
Buildings insurance
We are responsible for buildings insurance which covers the structure and common parts of the block, but not the contents of your home. The premium is included in your service charge and the amount depends on the number of bedrooms you have. We advise leaseholders to take out separate contents insurance. See information on our home contents insurance scheme.
How to claim
Leaseholder claims are managed by QuestGates as our insurer's appointed agents.
If you want to make a claim, you need to complete their online claim form. This uploads the details of the claim, together with any documents, photos or videos you have of the damage, via a secure network. The average time to make a claim via this method is seven minutes. Once they have received it, QuestGates will contact you as soon as they can to progress the claim.
Alternatively, you can complete the claim form (PDF, 67.33 KB), and send it with two estimates for repair and photographs of the damage by email to tpasolutions@questgates.co.uk, or by post to:
QuestGates Limited
Benchmark House
Folds Point
Folds Road
Bolton
BL1 2RZ
They will then contact you by phone or email to progress the claim.
If the matter is urgent, you should contact them directly on 01204 860 427, as they may need to arrange immediate response.
Claims must be notified within 28 days of the event in the case of damage caused by riot, civil commotion, strikes, labour disturbances or malicious persons, or as soon as reasonably possible in the case of any other claim.
You will need to quote the main policy number when making a claim: 2022CP000111. The period of insurance is 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.
Your insurance documents
Types of damage covered
The policy insures the building against:
- fire, smoke, lightning, explosion or earthquake
- storm or floods
- escape of water
- theft of fixtures and fittings and malicious damage
- impact
- riot, civil commotion, strike, labour or political disturbance
- subsidence, heave or landslip of the site on which your buildings stand
- damage caused by falling aerials or satellite receiving equipment
- falling trees or branches
You are expected to take reasonable steps to safeguard your home, especially when it is unoccupied. These should include securing doors and windows, and reducing the risk of pipework freezing by either turning off the water system and draining it down, or maintaining low level heating, particularly overnight. If your property is left unoccupied, our buildings policy may not cover any damage.
If you want to rent your property to a tenant, you need to let us know first. If you don't, this may invalidate your buildings insurance and any claim you make may be refused.
Caretaking services
Our communal services team provide caretaking services for our housing estates.
There are two levels of caretaking service:
- Static - the block is serviced daily by a caretaker. View the static caretaking service (PDF, 504.08 KB).
- Mobile- the block is serviced weekly by a neighbourhood caretaking team. View the neighbourhood caretaking service (PDF, 503.69 KB).
Our caretaking services do not include:
- window cleaning
- rubbish collection
- grounds maintenance (soft verges, hedges, shrubs and weeds)
- high-rise bulky rubbish collection (caretakers will move bulky items to designated collection points)
View our Estate Services Caretaking and Cleaning Standards (PDF, 5648.26 KB).
If you have a compliment, comment or complaint, email areacaretakermanagers@enfield.gov.uk.
You can also contact:
- Communal Services Manager - email aaron.waller@enfield.gov.uk, phone 07929185373
- North Area Caretaker Manager - email dennis.munns@enfield.gov.uk
- West Area Caretaker Manager - email nic.sollis@enfield.gov.uk, phone 07929185377
- Service Support Officer - email rahul.thanki@enfield.gov.uk
Keeping us informed
You must tell us if you have changed any of your contact details, including your telephone number, email or home address.
It is important the information we hold about you is up-to-date so we can continue to write to you.
To update your contact details, you need to complete the online form below.
You can also download the contact details form (PDF, 74.83 KB), which must be signed by all leaseholders associated with the property, and email it to leaseholder@enfield.gov.uk or post to:
Homeownership Services
The Edmonton Centre
36-44 South Mall
Edmonton
N9 0TN
Failure to do so could affect the status of your buildings insurance.
Moving abroad
If you're moving abroad, you must provide a contact address and details of a person or agent who can act on your behalf in England or Wales.
Subletting your property
You must let us know if you rent out your property and provide contact details for you and your tenants as well as any managing agent in case we need to inspect the property or carry out repairs. You will need to provide us with a contact address in England or Wales to send documents to. We may also consider renting your property from you.
If you rent your property you will be responsible for your tenant's behaviour and ensuring they comply with the terms of your lease.
Sublet registration
From 1 April 2019, all Enfield Council leaseholders who sublet their property must register each sublet with the Home Ownership Services Team. As the freeholder, it is important we have details of any subtenants residing in our blocks.
You will need to complete the sublet registration form (PDF, 162.73 KB) for each tenancy agreement and pay a one-off £35 fee. This must be signed by all leaseholders associated with the property and emailed to leaseholder@enfield.gov.uk or sent to:
Homeownership Services
The Edmonton Centre
36-44 South Mall
Edmonton
N9 0TN
When we receive your registration form, we will send you the payment options and your unique subletting reference number (payment must not be made into your service charge account). Once the payment is received the sublet will be registered.
The subletting register has been added to your lease, to ensure we are accountable for all residents within our leasehold properties. The fee is to cover the admin and maintenance cost of the register and applies to leaseholders subletting privately, through a managing agent or housing association.
Failure to register could affect the status of your building’s insurance. We will also take the case to the Tribunal which could result in forfeiture of your lease.
The £35 charge does not apply to those subletting to Enfield Council. However, you’re still required to complete the registration form. For more information, view the new leaseholder flyer (PDF, 286.17 KB).
Alterations to your property
Under the terms of your lease you must get your landlords consent in writing before carrying out any alterations to your property. This is in addition to any planning and/or building control approval that may be required.
Completing alterations without obtaining consent may result in you having to reinstate the work and/or be subject to breach of lease proceedings.
To get consent, complete the alterations and improvements application form (PDF, 134.22 KB) and return by email to leaseholder@enfield.gov.uk or by post to:
Enfield Council Housing
The Edmonton Centre
36-44 South Mall
Edmonton
N9 0TN
Alterations applications are subject to administration charges, see a list of our fees.
Submitting an application for alterations will not guarantee that your alterations request will be accepted. Should your alterations not be acceptable, your application will be declined, and your application fee will be non-refundable.
Lease regulations observance clause
The Lease regulations observance clause includes information about conduct and behaviour, use of premises, health and safety, pets and animals, and repairs and alteration to your property.
Management information pack
Selling your property
If you’re a leaseholder and selling your home, your solicitor will need to get a management information pack from us. This is a standard pack of details about your property, including any planned major works.
We charge a standard fee of £180 (inclusive of VAT) for one leasehold management information pack. We aim to reply in 10 working days from receipt of payment for initial enquiries and for any following enquiries we receive.
To request a pack, email leaseholder@enfield.gov.uk or phone 020 8375 8003.
The management information pack for leasehold properties includes:
- service charge history of the last 3 years
- current service charge account balance and statement (including ground rent)
- building insurance schedule and policy booklet
- a list of section 20 notices served on the address and planned major works for the block and/or estate
- fire risk assessment for the building (communal parts only)
- asbestos report for the building (communal parts only)
If you’re a solicitor and your client is buying, you should ask the seller’s solicitors to request the pre-assignment pack, as some information is covered under data protection.
Pay a leaseholder management information pack fee
Remortgaging your property
If you’ve applied for a new mortgage or to borrow more money, or if you're a lender or solicitor and your client is remortgaging, then the mortgage provider may need a remortgage pack from us.
We charge a standard fee of £90 (inclusive of VAT) for one remortgage pack. We aim to reply in 10 working days from receipt of payment for initial enquiries and for any following enquiries we receive.
Extending your lease
For information on extending your lease with Enfield Council, visit LeasePlus90.