Frequently Asked Questions

Our online consent to sublet form is easy and convenient. You can upload supporting documents, provide tenant’s details and even pay the sublet fee.

You will need to have registered on the HomeGround portal. If you have not yet registered, you can click here. You will need your alphanumeric security key and 12-digit customer reference number. If you need help with your password to gain access to your personal account, please click here.

We charge a fee of £75 to review your consent to sublet form, which is paid during the application process. If your lease does not require landlord’s consent and/or a notice of registration to be served, we will let you know and will refund you the £75. We do not store payment details, so you will need to supply your bank or card details for a refund. HomeGround can only send refunds to the account or card which was used to make the original payment. Please note that refunds can take up to ten working days.

To complete your application you need to upload a signed copy of your agreement with your tenants, in most cases this will be an assured shorthold tenancy agreement (AST). Please note that the minimum sublet term we would accept is three months.

It is also important that you give us your alternative address for receiving your ground rent or insurance invoices. Non-payment of ground rent or insurance might result in late payment charges or further arrears action on your account.

This type of let is not permitted according to the terms of your lease and short-term lets could be considered a breach of the lease.

Multiple agreements in your lease may prohibit this activity, for instance: that the property may not be used as a place to run a business; or that it has to be occupied by a single, private resident; or that short-term lets may be considered a nuisance.

All lets are to be a minimum of three months (90 days).

It usually takes HomeGround three to five working days to process a sublet request, from the time we receive the completed form and a payment of £75. Depending on the terms of your lease, we will send you a sublet registration document or a sublet consent certificate.

HomeGround do not charge a retrospective fee for sublets. If you have not taken consent before renting out your property, please complete the sublet request process through our website.

If you'd informed your previous landlord about the current tenancy, please send us the documentation so that we can update our records. Should it come to light that this was not obtained, our sublet process will have to be completed.

You have a right to buy your freehold under legislation, if you meet some minimum criteria. These criteria and the procedure to follow, including how your freehold is formally valued, are set out in the Leasehold Reform Act 1967.

You can only purchase your freehold if your property is a house.

• Formal negotiations require you to obtain independent legal and, usually, valuation advice.
• Informal negotiations means you deal directly with the freeholder, without following the procedures set out under the Leasehold Reform Act 1967.

You can choose to enter either formal or informal negotiations.

The Leasehold Reform Act 1967 is a detailed piece of legislation that introduced rights for leaseholders of houses to buy their freehold, among other things. It sets out a procedure to be followed by both leaseholders and freeholders.

In relation to buying your freehold, the 1967 Act includes:

1. Minimum criteria leaseholders must meet to buy the freehold;
2. The information you need to give your freeholder to claim your right to buy the freehold, and how this must be done;
3. How long the freeholder is allowed before replying to your claim and what information they must give you;
4. How the price of the freehold should be calculated. If the leaseholder and freeholder can’t agree, it gives a right to ask a specialist property tribunal to make a legally binding decision. Either party can also ask the property tribunal to decide on other disagreements, such as the minimum qualifying criteria or how much the freeholder’s reasonable costs should be (see 6);
5. How the process of recording your ownership of the freehold should be done once all issues are decided;
6. A condition that the leaseholder must pay the freeholder’s reasonable costs (for example, for the work done by the freeholder’s solicitor and valuer), as well as their own costs of going through this process.

Unfortunately, the landlord is not in a position to offer the freehold to individual leasehold flat owners on an informal basis.

However, this does not affect your statutory right under the act to seek purchase of the freehold should at least 50% of the leaseholders in the block wish to do so. Please note that you will need to seek independent legal advice should you wish to proceed this way.