Buying and selling your leasehold

Buying and selling your leasehold

Buying

You can become a leaseholder by buying the lease of a council flat.

You can buy the lease of a Council flat by:

  • Buying the lease from the council, under the right to buy scheme (subject to certain criteria).
  • Buying the lease  from the current leaseholder. If you do so, you or your solicitor must tell the council within one calendar month. The council will charge you a legal fee to register the new owners' details.
Buying and selling your leasehold

Selling

If you are already a leaseholder you are free to sell your flat without the council's permission. You can sell the property at any time (this is known as assigning the lease).

You must ensure that you make any prospective purchaser aware of the leasehold nature of the property and of any rules or conditions which apply.

Right to Buy

If you bought your home under the Right to Buy, you may need to repay all or part of the discount you received.

If you want to sell within ten years of buying your property through the Right to Buy, you may need to offer it to us or to another social landlord at full market value.

If your offer has not been accepted within eight weeks, you will be free to sell the property on the open market.

Visit our Right to Buy page for more information.

Service charges

All outstanding service charges must be paid before completion of the sale. We cannot update our records until the change of ownership has been registered. Failure to do this will result in you still being liable for any charges against the property.

After the property is sold, the buyer’s solicitor will write to us telling us about the change of ownership. This should be done within one month of the sale completing. Once this has been done we will be able to take your name off our records for any service charge and ground rent and add the new owner’s details.

Leasehold/Sellers Pack

If you are selling your home, your purchaser’s solicitor will request a pre-sale enquiry pack. 

We can provide a pack that includes all of the information we hold on your property, if there are any outstanding charges and how your lease works. We will charge a fee of £99 to provide this pack and it will be issued within 10 working days of receipt of the fee. To request a pack contact our Home Ownership team.

Need more information?

For help and advice you can contact our Home Ownership team

Our office hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 4:30pm

Telephone: 0191 278 7725

Email: leasehold@yhn.org.uk

Postal address: Home Ownership Team, YHN House, Benton Park Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE7 7LX

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