Information for freeholders on estates
What you need to know if you're a freeholder of a property on a council estate.
Service charges
If your house is on one of our council estates you may be asked to pay a service charge towards the cost of shared services and communal areas on your estate. This charge is payable under the terms of the transfer document for your property, and your solicitor should have explained this to you when you bought your property.
As a freeholder you are not charged for any costs that relate only to tenants or leaseholders. For example, you are not charged for:
- any repairs or maintenance of tenanted properties
- collecting tenants’ rents
- dealing with and letting of empty properties
- managing tenants’ transfer requests
- management of blocks of flats etc.
For general information about your annual service charges, please read our frequently asked questions (FAQs) for freeholders and services information (PDF).
From our homeowners’ page you can make a service charge payment, set up a direct debit for your service charges and view your service charge account statements.
Your estate
Please contact Housing Direct to report any repairs required to communal areas or services (including communal heating and hot water systems) on your estate.
Report a repair online or call 0800 694 3344 (Monday to Friday, 8am-8pm and Saturday, 8am-12 noon).
Our Housing Office also has free phones you can use, during office hours, to call Housing Direct. Outside these hours, please report emergency repairs by calling 0800 694 3344.
Reporting a change of address
It is important that we have up to date contact details for you. We can't accept any address changes over the phone, so please send these to us in writing, either by emailing HomeOwnership@islington.gov.uk or post:
Home Ownership Services
222 Upper Street
London N1 1XR.
Selling or remortgaging your house
When you sell or remortgage your house, your solicitor will probably ask us to confirm details about your service charges. We charge a fee for providing “freehold sell-on packs” and “freehold remortgage packs”. You or your solicitor can pay for a sell on pack and pay for a remortgage pack online.
