Leasehold Matters To Housing Associations

Leasehold management in housing associations has been a Cinderella service for many years. The vast majority of our property is managed for social or affordable rents. However over the last 20 years there has been steady growth in the leasehold stock owned by HAs. The sources of this growth come from two main sources, the various shared ownership schemes and the Right to Buy (RTB).

With the changes to central government funding many HAs now find that in order to continue to develop, they have to build leasehold properties for sale in order to fund their social housing activities.

These factors have led to a growth of interest in professionalising leasehold management with the HA movement. To promote this the National Housing Association Leasehold Group has established the first National Leasehold Conference aimed specifically at managers of the leasehold properties within HAs.

The aims of the conference are to raise the profile of leasehold management as a specific specialism within the movement, to launch a number of good practice guides for members which are related to the unique management of shared ownership properties, and to provide a wider support network for leasehold managers.

Many of the challenges facing HAs are the same as apply to managing agents in the private residential sector. However we also face a number of factors which make us different. We remain closely regulated by the Homes and Communities Agency, we are not bound by industry codes of practice as set out by RICS, we have a strong social housing ethic, most of our properties are on mixed tenure estates and we are usually owner managers of our properties. In general we are not appointed by residential management companies.

Our conference is a member led event and will cover diverse topics which arise from the challenges we face. A key aim in raising the profile and developing good practice guidance for our sector is to provide established practice which can be referred to at LVT cases, e.g. HAs develop management fees in fundamentally different ways to managing agents.

Increasingly in cities we are working in partnership with developers and we need to make our voice heard in the design and construction of sustainable schemes and the construction of workable head leases.

A critical challenge for HAs is that the leaseholders and shared owners tend to be our least satisfied group of residents. We need to fully understand the expectations and needs of this customer group and raise our game to meet their requirements. A key question for HAs is how we continue to manage the diverse tenures in our buildings meeting the different aspirations of each group at the same time as providing affordable services.

With the support of our partners Just Ask Services, our conference addresses all these issues and continues to promote the best practice from within our sector and the private residential sector within the special circumstances that prevail for us and our unique shared ownership tenure.

Steve Michaux is Group Director of Leasehold Services for A2Dominion Housing Group.

This article is written in his capacity as Chair of the National Housing Association Leasehold Forum.