What are my responsibilities as a shared owner or leaseholder?

As a shared owner or leaseholder, you have certain responsibilities to Magna. We, likewise, have responsibilities to you.

Here's a brief overview of the main obligations contained within your lease.

You, the shared owner or leaseholder, agree:

to pay the ground rent on time as detailed in the lease
to pay the rates or any other taxes on the property and to share the payments of any rates or taxes for the common parts of the building
to keep the interior of the premises clean and to maintain in good working repair any of the services that apply only to the premises
to pay the service charge (if due) as detailed in the lease
to pay Magna’s expenses for any fees or charges made in connection with the property, eg surveyors, accounts for management or maintenance or the collection of the ground rent. These people may be our own staff. This is included in the service charge
not to alter the property without our consent
to allow us to inspect the property inside and out following adequate notice
to allow us entry to repair any adjoining property or maintain any common services, following receipt of adequate notice of this intention
to repair any defects within one month following receipt of a notice from us
if repairs aren't carried out, to allow us to enter the property, carry out those repairs and then charge you for the work. We'll provide estimates before carrying out such works
only to use the property as a private residence
not to cause a nuisance to adjoining occupiers or to use the property for illegal/immoral purposes
not to do anything which would make our insurers refuse to pay out on any claim which we might wish to make.

Responsibilities for repairs

This section provides general guidance on repair and maintenance responsibilities. Your lease sets out the specific responsibilities that apply to your home.

If you need a full legal interpretation of your lease, you should seek advice from your own solicitor.

If you live in a house:

In most cases, you are responsible for all repairs, maintenance, and decoration to your home, both inside and outside. Magna is usually responsible for maintaining any communal or shared areas that are used by more than one property.

If you live in a flat:

You are generally responsible for:

All repairs and maintenance inside your home

Internal decoration
Glass in windows and doors

Services and installations that exclusively serve your flat.

Magna is generally responsible for maintaining:

The main structure of the building

Communal and shared areas

Communal floor coverings

Roofs

External walls

External communal entrance doors

Communal window frames and sills

Drains, gutters, and external pipework

Communal pathways, steps, and access routes.

Costs of Repairs

Where Magna is responsible for carrying out repairs, maintenance or renewal, homeowners are usually required to contribute towards the cost through service charges, as set out in their lease.

Important Information

Lease agreements vary, and repair responsibilities can differ from one property to another. The information above is intended as a general guide only.

For example, some leases may make homeowners responsible for items such as:

Window frames

Entrance doors leading into communal areas

Certain structural elements of the building

Other fixtures or fittings specified in the lease

You should always check your lease to confirm your responsibilities for repairs, maintenance, and replacement of any part of your home or the building.

The table below shows the general responsibilities for various types of repair. Your lease will show the exact responsibilities for your home.

Please note that where repairs are shown as being our responsibility, we will recharge a share of the cost of these repairs to each homeowner.

If you need to report a repair which is Magna's responsibility please click here.

Type of repair	Magna's responsibility	Homeowner's responsibility
* Please note that leases will vary and this is to be used as a guide only. Always check your specific lease for exact responsibilities.
Decorating the inside of your home	No	Yes
Decorating communal areas	Yes	No
Decorating the outside	For flats only	For houses only
Doors - internal to the property	No	Yes
Doors - external to the property	Communal doors only	Yes
Doors - communal	Yes	No
Gutters / down pipes	For flats only	For houses only
Pipes - inside	No	Yes
Pipes - outside	For flats only	For houses only
Fuses, lights & other electrical fittings - inside	No	Yes
Fuses, lights & other electrical fittings - outside	No	Yes
Fuses, lights & other electrical fittings - communal	Yes	No
Floor coverings - inside	No	Yes
Floor coverings - communal areas	Yes	No
Roofs	For flats only	For houses only
Kitchen and bathroom fittings	No	Yes
Door entry system	Yes	No

Repair Responsibilities for Shared Owners

Responsibility chart

Repairs in newly-built properties

Some repairs fall within a “defects liability period”. The defects liability period begins upon practical completion and typically lasts six to twelve months.

Any defects that arise during this period should be reported to our freephone repairs line. Upon receipt of the information a decision will be taken whether the repair is a defect of the works (ie works that are not in accordance with the contract), or a maintenance issue, that you, the leaseholder, would be responsible for. If it is a defect, instructions will be passed to the contractor to make good the defects within a reasonable time.

At the end of the defects liability period, we will prepare a schedule of defects, listing those defects that have not yet been rectified, and agree with the builder the date by which they will be put right. The builder must rectify defects within a reasonable time.

When to report a repair that is our responsibility

Please let us know immediately if you need to report an emergency repair which is our responsibility.

If the repair is our responsibility but is not an emergency, you can contact us at any time during normal working hours.

All repairs are classed as being emergency, urgent or routine and have different target times. These depend upon our surveyors, contractors and trade staff being able to gain access to undertake the work. Response times are measured from when a repair is reported.

Cyclical and planned maintenance

We will arrange a programme of redecoration and associated repairs at each block of flats. This will normally be once every six to seven years or as considered necessary in line with your lease. The work may include:

redecoration of communal areas;
repointing brickwork on the outside of the building;
repairing or replacing faulty gutters and rainwater pipes;
painting outside windows and doors and gates;
repairing faulty roofing; and
repairing broken boundary fences and footpaths.

We refer to this as cyclical maintenance. We will arrange for a condition survey to be carried out at your scheme, which will help us identify cyclical work that needs to be carried out. We will also repair or replace parts of the building that are nearing the end of their expected life. We refer to this as planned maintenance.

We may use surveyors to prepare a specification, to tender the work and to supervise contractors as they carry out the work.

Consultation on cyclical and planned maintenance and other major repairs

Under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, all landlords must give information about the repair work if the cost to a leaseholder will be more than the amount set by the government regulations. This is currently £250 a property. So, if we want to carry out any work which is likely to cost any home owner more than £250 including VAT and administration costs, we will consult you by:

providing you with details of the work we are planning to do
providing you with at least two estimates
inviting you to nominate a contractor other than the ones we have asked to tender and
asking for comments and/or observations.

Consultation will also be required if we intend to enter into a long term contract (over 12 months) where the cost of the contribution per home owner exceeds £100.
When we undertake work which will cost less than £250 per property, we are not required by law to undertake full consultation. However, we will normally advise you when such works are planned, except in the case of emergency repairs.

Paying for cyclical and planned maintenance

When we undertake cyclical and planned maintenance and other repairs, we will charge each shared owner and leaseholder a share of the cost of the work. Sinking funds may be sufficient to meet all or part of your share of the costs. Where there are no sinking funds, or they are insufficient, you will be invoiced for the amount you have to pay towards the cost of the work with an additional administration charge.

Gas servicing and fire safety

In 1998, the government introduced a new law for all landlords who rent out a property, to employ a registered gas engineer to carry out a gas safety check at least once a year, on all gas appliances. Upon request, a landlord should be able to provide a certificate to prove that their gas appliances are serviced. If you are a leaseholder that rents out your property, you are a landlord and this law applies to you. Even if you are not a landlord, Magna strongly recommend that you have your boiler and other gas appliances serviced once a year. It could reduce the cost of repairs as well as ensure that your home appliances are safe for you to use.

We do our best to keep your homes safe from fire – and we need your help.

If you have smoke alarms, test them weekly, and replace batteries when necessary.
Make sure you know what to do if you do have a fire. Have an escape route planned.
Keep your escape routes clear.
If there is anything that might prevent you escaping, please contact the home ownership team for advice.

Flat entrance doors that open onto a communal area or an escape route (whether internal or external) should meet current fire safety standards. British Standard BS8214:26 recommends that these doors provide a minimum of 30 minutes' fire resistance and are fitted with appropriate smoke seals and a self-closing device. These are commonly known as FD30S fire doors.

A compliant fire door helps contain fire and smoke, slows the spread of fire throughout the building, and provides valuable time for residents to escape safely.

You may be asked to provide evidence that your flat entrance door is a certified fire door. Certification is often identified by a label, plug, or marker located on the top edge of the door or within the hinge area. This indicates that the door has been designed, tested and installed to provide the required level of fire protection.

If your door does not meet the required fire safety standards, you may be in breach of the terms of your lease. More importantly, a non-compliant fire door could place you, your family, your visitors and your neighbours at increased risk in the event of a fire.

Cavity wall and loft insulation

If you live in a flat, the roof space belongs to Magna and does not form part of your demise. Magna does not permit you to stores items in this space and / or install cavity wall or loft insulation.

Not all properties are suitable for cavity wall insulation. If your home is in a highly exposed area that is subject to harsh weather conditions, has a cavity of less than 50mm or the structure would require expensive remedial works in order to install the insulation, it may be that your home would not benefit from these works and could prove to be detrimental to the property. If you require more information on this, you can contact us on 0800 358 6025.

Loft spaces are not designed for storage purposes. Any articles you store in a loft area are at your own risk. If we need to get access to a loft for maintenance work you may be asked to remove any items you have stored there.

Alterations

Your lease will say what alterations you can make. Any structural alterations may also need planning permission or building regulation approval (or both).

Please note there may be a charge for your landlord to grant consent for alterations.

We can only withhold permission if we have good reason. For example, if the alteration will:

make your home less safe
increase our maintenance costs
break building or planning regulations or
break the conditions of the lease.

For structural alterations, we may get the advice of a surveyor before we approve your alteration. We may also ask the surveyor to check that the completed work is done to a good standard. We will charge you the cost of the surveyor. We will tell you beforehand how much the surveyor will charge and get your approval before we ask the surveyor to start work.

We will ask you to return your home to its original state if you make an alteration without our approval.

Insurance

For most of our properties, Magna is responsible for arranging buildings insurance. This covers the structure of your home against major risks such as:

Fire

Flooding

Subsidence

Storm damage.

You can view our building insurance here: Do I need insurance on my property? | Magna.

If you are unsure whether Magna provides buildings insurance for your home, you should check your lease, as responsibilities can vary between properties.

Buildings insurance does not cover your personal belongings. We strongly recommend that you arrange your own contents insurance to protect items such as:

Furniture

Carpets and flooring

Clothing

Electrical appliances

Personal possessions.

Damage to neighbouring properties

You may be responsible for damage caused to your neighbours' property or belongings as a result of an incident originating from your home. For example:

A leaking washing machine damaging the flat below

An overflowing bath causing water damage to a neighbour's property.

In these circumstances, you may be liable for the cost of repairs or replacement. We therefore strongly recommend that your contents insurance includes personal liability cover.

Contractor damage

Magna's contractors carry insurance to cover accidental damage caused while carrying out work in your home. If you believe a contractor has damaged your property or possessions, please contact us as soon as possible so that we can help investigate the matter.

In and around your home

Information for homeowners about rubbish, pets, satellite dishes and other things in and around your home