Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 15
15
Accepted
Paragraph: 91
Mandate Homes England ensure providers include lease guidance and signposting in Key Information Documents.
Recommendation
Homes England should ensure that providers include simple guidance on lease arrangements within the Key Information Documents distributed to shared owners, including information on how rights and responsibilities are allocated and guidance on how to extend the lease. It should also make sure it is clearly signposting to existing advice and guidance services that may be helpful to shared owners in understanding their leases, such as the Leasehold Advisory Service, in these documents. These changes to guidance should be introduced before the end of the 2024 calendar year.
Government Response Summary
The government states that Homes England's key information documents already include relevant lease information, rights/responsibilities, lease extension processes, and signposting to advice services like LEASE, thus fulfilling the recommendation.
Paragraph Reference:
91
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
31. All of Homes England’s key information documents contain relevant information on shared ownership leases, including the rights and responsibilities of the shared owner and their registered provider, as well as the lease extension process and the types of costs involved. These documents also contain a series of useful links to various forms of advice and guidance, including to the Leasehold Advisory Service. 32. The Government and Homes England maintain an open dialogue about how the key information documents can be improved based on feedback from a variety of stakeholders. The documents were, for example, recently adjusted to show how rents might increase over a five-year period to provide households with an overview of how this financial liability might change over time.