What happens if I don’t pay my charges?

Your lease is a legal contract between you and the council. Under the lease you have to pay all reasonable charges that the council pays for managing and maintaining your block.

If you refuse to pay your charges you are breaking the contract and we can go to court to have your lease ‘forfeited’ after a decision by the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal. If the court decides that you have seriously broken the terms of your lease, it may end the lease and give us possession of your flat. You would lose your home and would not usually get any payment or compensation.

If you have a secured loan on the flat from a bank or building society we would tell them before we started legal action. As they have a legal interest in the property they could decide to pay the bill themselves and then take their own legal action against you.

If you have difficulty paying your charges we will always try to help but if it becomes clear that you are not trying to pay your charges we can:

• apply to a Leasehold Valuation Tribunal for a decision that your charges are fair

 

• apply to the court for your lease to be forfeited and repossess your home.

We hope that things never get to this stage, but it does happen and people do lose their homes.