We will normally hold meetings to consult you about this work, starting at an early stage of the design process, when surveyors will explain the planned work. You will be able to ask questions, give your views and make suggestions. When a new scheme has been fully designed, we will send you a notice of intention, telling you about the work we plan to do. If the work is not going to be carried out by one of our partnering contractors, and we are going to ask for quotes from other contractors, the notice will ask you for your comments. It will invite you and any residents’ associations to nominate a contractor that you feel should be allowed to bid to do the work. The notice will give you 30 days to send us your comments or nominations for a contractor.

If the work is to be carried out by one of our partnering contractors, we will only send you one notice telling you that we are going to carry out the work and giving you a cost estimate.

If the work will not be carried out by one of our partners, after the 30-day period given in the notice of intention, we will invite a number of contractors to provide an estimate for the work, within a specific time limit. At the end of this time limit, we will assess the estimates and choose the one that we think will give the best overall value. We will then send you a notice giving details of the estimate we have chosen as well as details of at least one other estimate. If we receive an estimate from a contractor nominated by a residents’ association or by a leaseholder, the notice will include details of their estimate. The notice will also ask for your comments on the estimates and will tell you where and when you can inspect them. You will have 30 days to inspect the estimates and to give us your comments. Although we must consider your views, we do not have to follow them.

Limits to charges during the ‘initial period’ of the lease

There is a limit on the amount we can charge you for repairs and improvements during the first five years of the lease.

Whatever major improvements are carried out during this time, we can only charge you for any work we listed in the offer notice we sent to you under the Right to Buy process, plus an extra amount to allow for inflation.

The amount that we can charge you for other repairs during the initial period is limited to a certain amount for each year, plus inflation.

The conditions of the Right to Buy scheme say that a property must be valued ‘as at the date we receive your Right to Buy application’. This means that we must use the value of the flat on the day we received your application.

The initial period of your lease can begin on the same date as the valuation, that is, the date we receive your Right to Buy application. This means that if we carry out work to your home after you have applied to buy it, we can charge you for the work after the sale has been completed.

Your lease agreement

By signing the lease, you have agreed to pay a share of the cost of maintaining and improving the block and the estate. The lease also sets out your rights and duties and ours. It is important that you understand these. There is more information about your rights in the booklet The Management of Flats – the rights and duties of landlords and tenants. You can get a copy from Ascham Direct on 020 8496 4197.

Getting our permission

You must get our permission in writing before you carry out repairs, maintainance or alterations which we are responsible for, such as replacing windows or painting the outside of your flat. If you do not get our permission, we may tell you to return your home to the condition it was in before you carried out the work.

You must not carry out any work that needs planning permission or which can cause damage to the building, such as putting up satellite dishes. Any other work you carry out should meet both building, and health and safety regulations.