Understanding your shared ownership lease
Your responsibilities as a leaseholder
The lease sets out your responsibilities and your landlord’s obligations. You should always check your lease to find out what these are. The law also gives you certain rights.
As a shared owner you are responsible for paying certain costs related to your home, including rent, service charges, and other fees set out in your lease.
Rent
You need to pay rent on the share owned by your landlord (which may be a housing association). Your landlord usually reviews the rent each year at times set out in the lease, so your rent may increase.
There are limits to how much rent your landlord can charge you. For a new-build shared ownership home, the rent is limited to 3% of the value of the share the landlord owns. Most landlords charge 2.75%.
How much your rent can go up depends on when you signed your lease. Different rules apply to a lease signed on or after 12 October 2023 compared with earlier leases.
For information on rent limits see GOV.UK guidance on paying rent on shared ownership homes.
For a “resale” home, the starting rent is set at the same level the previous shared owner was paying.
Service charge
You need to pay 100% of the service charge for maintaining the building, together with the other leaseholders. This is regardless of the share of the lease you own.
Your lease sets out what the landlord can charge for.
You can challenge a service charge if you think it’s unreasonable.
Other ongoing costs
In addition to rent and service charges, you may also need to pay:
- ground rent (usually zero for leases granted on or after 30 June 2022)
- estate charges (for shared services on your housing estate, for example, street lighting)
- major repair works fund
- other fees set out in the lease, such as administration charges
Administration charges are extra charges you may need to pay to your landlord for handling paperwork and updating legal records about your home. These include fees for:
- staircasing
- giving you permission to sublet
- changing your lease, for example, extending the lease or making legal amendments
- providing documents such as copies of the lease or management packs
- chasing missed payments and recovering rent
Insuring your household contents
You are responsible for insuring the contents of your home.
What you are restricted from doing
Your lease sets out restrictions (called covenants). For example, you may not be able to:
- keep a pet
- sell your home on the open market
- make structural alterations without permission
You usually cannot sublet a shared ownership property.
What happens if you do not comply with your lease
If you do not pay rent and service charges or comply with restrictions in your lease, your landlord can take legal action against you. You may need to pay legal costs. In the most serious case the landlord may repossess your home. This process is called “forfeiture”.
You risk losing some or all of the share you’ve built up in your home if your landlord gets possession. This share is also known as “equity”.
Forfeiture is managed by a court and a landlord must follow a strict process to get possession.
- Last updated:
- 15 June 2026
- Next review:
- 15 June 2028
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