Mandatory information required from leaseholders and current landlords
This guidance explains the information required to complete the leaseholder deed of certificate, and what information your current landlord must provide in the landlord’s certificate.
Applies to England
Summary
1. To demonstrate whether you are a qualifying leaseholder for the purpose of the protections, and to enable your landlord, resident management company (RMC), right-to-manage company (RTM) or named manager to calculate your maximum cap for historical non-cladding safety remediation, you must complete the .
2. To pass on any historical safety remediation costs to you, as a leaseholder, your current landlord (defined as a person who is the landlord under a lease of premises in a relevant building) must complete the .
3. This guidance explains the information required to complete the leaseholder deed of certificate, and what information your current landlord must provide in the landlord’s certificate.
Leaseholder deed of certificate
4. The sets out the information that your landlord, RMC, RTM or named manager needs for the purposes of applying the leaseholder protections. It will help your landlord, RMC, RTM or named manager to:
a. determine your qualifying status
b. calculate your remediation cap
5. You can choose to produce a leaseholder deed of certificate at any point, to affirm your entitlement to the protections for qualifying leaseholders. You must provide your current landlord with a leaseholder deed of certificate when notified to do so.
6. If your current landlord issues you with a written notice, this notice must meet all of the following conditions - it must:
a. be left at your address, sent to your address as a prepaid first-class letter, and sent via email (in instances where your current landlord has your email address)
b. state that it is a notice for the purposes of paragraphs 13 and 15 of Schedule 8 to the Building Safety Act 2022
c. include a copy of the form of the leaseholder deed of certificate
d. state the reply date (that is, the date that your reply to the notice must be received, which must be no less than 8 weeks from the date you received the notice)
e. state the address of the current landlord (this is where you must send your reply)
7. The notice must include a statement which explains that failure to complete the certificate will have any of the following consequences:
a. your lease will be treated as though it is not a qualifying lease
b. your current landlord may assume that you own a 100% share, even if your lease is shared ownership
c. the qualifying lease may be deemed to have a higher value
8. If you receive a notice, then you must carry out one of the following by the specified date:
a. provide your current landlord with a leaseholder deed of certificate which complies with the requirements laid out in paragraph 10 (below) and table 1.0 of this guidance
b. reply to your current landlord in writing stating that you will not provide a certificate. In this case, you will be treated as if you do not have a qualifying lease. This means that you will not be covered by the contribution caps when asked to pay towards remediation of non-cladding relevant defects in instances where your landlord or building owner did not meet the developer test and contribution condition
9. Your current landlord cannot charge you for sending any notice or certificate.
10. If you are completing the leaseholder deed of certificate, this must meet all of the following conditions – it must:
a. be executed by the person who is the leaseholder under the lease
b. be in the form of the template
c. be executed as a deed (that is, a legal document that is signed by you, and signed and witnessed by someone who is not a family member)
11. Table 1.0 (below) outlines the information required to complete the leaseholder deed of certificate, and the form of evidence that is required
Table 1.0 - Information and evidence required to complete a leaseholder deed of certificate
| What Needs to be Demonstrated | Evidence or Information to be Provided |
| Background Information | You must provide all of the following: - your address of the dwelling that the certificate relates to, - your name, - the name of the leaseholder on 14 February 2022. |
| Whether the lease is a qualifying lease |
| The property’s last sale price on the open market | If your lease was sold on the open market before 14 February 2022, you must provide both of the following: - evidence of the most recent sale from before that date, including an official copy of the register of title at HM Land Registry that shows the date of the sale in question, and - evidence of the price paid when the sale was completed (this must be in in pounds sterling, and must be rounded to the nearest pound). |
| Total number of UK properties owned | You must provide evidence to show that the dwelling was your only home (where you only own and reside in this property) or your principal home (where you own more than three UK properties, but reside in this property), on 14 February 2022. This could be via a Council Tax bill, a utilities bill or a bank statement to demonstrate that you reside at the address. Where you have up to three UK properties in total, but this property is not your primary residence, you do not need to complete this section, but you will still qualify for the protections. |
| Shared ownership status | Where the dwelling was owned under a shared ownership lease at the beginning of 14 February 2022, you must provide both of the following: - a copy of the shared ownership lease, - evidence of the percentage share under the shared ownership lease held on that date. |
12. You can request an additional 4 weeks to fill out the leaseholder deed of certificate. You are only able to do this if you make the request before the reply date that was set out in your current landlord notice letter.
13. If your current landlord does not receive a reply from you 14 days before the reply date, they must get in touch with you at least seven days before the reply date. When they get in touch with you, they are required to carry out all of the following:
a. state that no reply to the notice has been received
b. set out the reply date
c. telephone you to draw the notice to your attention. They are only obliged to do this in instances where they have your telephone number
14. You are required to pass these documents on to future lessees through the conveyancing process.
15. For more information on the leaseholder deed of certificate please visit the leaseholder protections frequently asked questions page.
Landlord’s certificate
16. Your current landlord must provide you with a , in any of the following instances:
a. when they want to pass on part of the cost of remediation onto you, as leaseholder, through the service charge
b. within 4 weeks of receiving a notification from you that your leasehold interest is to be sold
c. within 4 weeks of them becoming aware of a relevant defect which was not covered by a previous landlord’s certificate
d. within 4 weeks of you requesting a landlord’s certificate
e. within 4 weeks of becoming aware of a new leaseholder deed of certificate which contained information that was not included in a previous landlord’s certificate
17. Your current landlord must provide the RMC, RTM or named manager with a copy of the landlord’s certificate and leaseholder deed of certificate within one week of completion or receipt.
18. The landlord’s certificate demonstrates:
a. whether the landlord under the lease on 14 February 2022, or their landlord group, meet the contribution condition (where you are a qualifying leaseholder)
b. whether the landlord under the lease on 14 February 2022 or any superior landlord at the time was associated with the developer of the building (a superior landlord is a landlord who owns the interest in the property which gives them the right of possession at the end of another landlord’s lease)
19. A landlord’s certificate must meet all of the following conditions - it must:
a. be signed by the person who is the current landlord on the date the certificate is signed
b. be based on the circumstances of whoever was the relevant landlord on 14 February 2022
c. be in the form of the landlord’s certificate template (as found in The Building Safety (Leaseholder Protections etc.) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 )
d. contain the relevant information and be accompanied by the specified evidence, as outlined in the Leaseholder protections amendments guidance.
20. If your current landlord is unable to provide any of the information required for the landlord’s certificate, they must contact other people who may be able to provide such information. They can request that these people provide this information within three weeks of having been asked.
21. If your current landlord does not provide a valid landlord’s certificate which complies with the requirements outlined in paragraph 18 (above), they will be unable to pass costs for remediation onto you.
22. Landlords are required to provide evidence to back up their claims if they believe themselves to be exempt from the full costs of remediation of historical safety defects. Failure to disclose information or dishonestly making a false claim may be a criminal offence under the Fraud Act 2006, and their director, manager or secretary may also be held criminally liable.
Updates to this page
Last updated 10 August 2023 + show all updates
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Updated to reflect the latest leaseholder protections amendments.
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A blank MS Word version of the landlord certificate in the Building Safety (Leaseholder Protections) (England) Regulations 2022 has been provided.
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First published.