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About your lease

As a Westminster City Council leaseholder, learn more about your lease, how to extend your lease and freehold sales.

Your lease

When you buy a flat or maisonette from the council you purchase a leasehold interest and the council keeps the freehold interest. The lease is the contract between you and Westminster City Council. 

As the freeholder the council owns the land on which the property is built and charges a ground rent. 

Your lease will specify which parts of the property have been sold to you and what rights you have acquired over the communal land. This is called the ‘demised premises’ and will be identified by your address and by your plan or plans attached to your lease.

Since 1974, changes have been made to a standard lease due to changes to legislation and council policy. This means that there can be variations to different leases. These variations particularly affect how we charge for major repairs and improvements. 

For a guide on what is included in your lease, please refer to your leaseholder handbook.

Document
Leaseholder handbook
Leaseholder handbook PDF, 10.58 MB, 85 pages

If you have lost your copy of your lease, please get in touch and we can arrange for a new copy to be sent to you. You will need to enclose a cheque for £10 with your letter to cover our administration costs.

Address: South Area Service Centre, 137 Lupus Street, London, SW1V 3HE

More information

Buying or selling your property

Freehold purchase scheme

Subletting your property 

Extending your lease

Published: 1 January 2021

Last updated: 9 October 2023