Leaseholders

Help with paying your bills

For any works where a  notice of estimate was issued prior to this date the maximum repayment period is 2 years, please contact us if you require further information.

Pre-payment option

This is available to all leaseholders who have received a Notice of Estimate since January 2010*. It’s a way to spread the payment for the cost of major work to your home.If you have received a Notice of Estimate showing the likely costs of the work to your block or flat. You can start making payments towards these costs now. If the work will cost less than £3,000, you can spread the payment over a maximum of 24 months. For any work costing more than £3,000, you can spread the payment over 36 months.  Paying in advance is optional: your lease says we can only demand payment from you after we have incurred costs and we will only send you the invoice (bill) after the work is complete.  However, please note that if you do not take up the pre-payment option, you must pay in full by the date stated on the invoice. There is no longer an interest-free repayment period after we send an invoice.

For example, if you received a Notice of Estimate dated 1 January 2010 for £3,500, you would be able to make pre-payments until 31 December 2012.  If the work actually cost £3,200 and we issued an invoice for this amount on 15 February 2012, we would expect you to pay all this money by 31 December 2012.  Any sum unpaid after this date would be subject to legal action and we would charge interest on the balance due. If you had agreed to make pre-payments of £100 a month from 1 January 2010, then when we issued the invoice on 15 February 2012, you would have already paid 26 months x £100 = £2,600.  As the work actually cost £3,200, you would have £600 to pay and a further 10 months in which to clear this debt. If you didn’t take up the pre-payment option, you would have to pay the whole invoice by 31 December 2012. If you wish to take advantage of this pre-payment option, please contact the Income Team on freephone 0800 40 80 160. Choose option 4 for Leasehold Services and then option 2 for service charges.  We will be happy to discuss a payment plan with you.

Mandatory loans

You have a legal right to apply to us for a loan during the first 10 years of the lease on your property, under the Housing (Service Charge Loans) Regulations 1992 (SI no 1708). The 10 years start from when a lease is first granted to the property, rather than to you, so if you take over the lease from someone else during this period you keep the legal right to a loan during the remaining time.

There are certain conditions:

• you must apply within 6 weeks of the date on the invoice for major work
• your total annual service charge must be over £2,330 for the year in which you receive a major work invoice 
• the smallest major-work loan is £780 and the largest is £30,950
• repayment periods for loans are:
  - loans of less than £1,500 – 3 years
  - loans between £1,500 and £4,999.99 – 5 years
  - loans greater than £5,000 – 10 years

• we charge £290 to set up the loan, and the loan will be secured by a mortgage on the property.

The current mortgage rate (as at 1 January 2010) is 5.4% + 0.25% for administration costs.  This is a variable rate that could change at any time. So in total, you repay the loan +  administration charge + interest payments, normally in monthly instalments, over 3-10 years.

Commercial loan

You can contact your existing lender to increase your mortgage, or speak to an independent financial adviser (IFA) about commercial loans that may be available.

HouseProud

HouseProud offers a range of practical and financial assistance to homeowners and leaseholders who:

• are over 60, or
• are disabled, or
• have a disabled person living with them.

You can contact HouseProud on freephone 0800 783 7569 or via their website at www.houseproud.org.uk.

Financial hardship

Are you a resident leaseholder and:

• unable to make pre-payments to cover the total amount to be billed, or
• unlikely to be able to raise a loan when we have invoiced for the work?

If you are, the following options can be considered.

Discretionary loans

Any resident leaseholder can apply for a discretionary loan, no matter how long you have held your lease. You must apply within 6 weeks of the date of the invoice for major works.

As with mandatory loans, you can borrow between £780 and £30,950.

Voluntary legal charge

A voluntary legal charge is where Enfield Council agrees that you can put off paying your major-work charge for a set term (length of time) or until your home is sold. The charge is secured on your home – that is, if you cannot pay it off yourself, the council will get the money back when your home is eventually sold.

You may apply for a voluntary legal charge if you are suffering financial hardship and meet certain other conditions. You don’t need to pay anything while the legal charge is in force, but interest will build up at 8% APR (annual percentage rate) so the whole debt plus interest will have to be repaid in the end.

A voluntary legal charge can enable you to keep your home even when you cannot pay your debts in any other way. But we see it as a last resort and you must look into all other options first. So it’s essential to talk to us and have a financial assessment before considering this option.

Capping contribution to £10,000

In some cases we may decide to cap (limit) the charges you have to pay to a maximum of £10,000. We will take into account:

• any estimate we gave you of the cost of the work before you bought the lease under the Right to Buy
• whether the purchase price you paid took account of the costs of the work
• any benefit we think you have received or will receive as a result of the work, including increases in the value of the property, its energy efficiency and its security
• whether we agree you would suffer exceptional hardship in paying your service or major-work charge, based on the criteria below, and
• any other of your circumstances that we consider relevant.

In assessing ‘exceptional hardship’ we will consider:

• whether the flat is your only or main home
• the total amount of service or major-work charges you have paid since buying the property
• the amount of service or major-work charge payable in the year you apply for a reduction because of exceptional hardship
• the financial resources available to you
• whether you can raise funds to pay the charge
• whether you could pay the charge if we extended the repayment period, and
• any other circumstances we consider relevant.

Buyback to become an Enfield Council tenant

Our buyback scheme is for resident leaseholders who can no longer afford to own their home or whose circumstances mean that owner occupation is no longer suitable. The criteria for the scheme are that you cannot raise funds through a loan, mortgage, or other options in this financial assistance package, and:

• you have a large service charge or major-work debt that you cannot afford to pay, or
• you cannot afford to pay future service or major-work charges because of money problems, or
• you cannot sell your property on the open market to raise funds, as this would leave you with nowhere else to live, or
• private owner occupation is no longer suitable for you, for example if you or your partner has a disability or long-term critical health problems.

The valuation of the property would be based on the tenanted market value.

Talk to us about your options on 0800 40 80 160.

*For any works where a  notice of estimate was issued prior to this date the maximum repayment period is 2 years, please contact us if you require further information.