First of all we ask ourselves why use a lease at all? Apartments, or indeed any property with shared facilities, need a mechanism to ensure that all properties who share the facilities also pay their share of the costs associated with them. This is done by not selling the individual properties outright, but “leasing” them – on a very long form of lease. The Law gives a degree of control to the lessor (or landlord) to make sure that all parties do act as “good neighbours” and do pay their fair share of all the joint costs. A “normal” lease has 2 parties – a lessor and a lessee. In some cases, it might also involve the creation of an intermediate management company.
Tripartite Lease

A tripartite lease is a lease with 3 parties bound into it – a lessor, a lessee and an independent management company – Trinity Estates. This way all the freehold covenants are made directly between the lessor and the lessee, and all the management covenants are made directly by the lessee with Trinity.
The Law changed which gave lessees/residents the right to club together and buy the freehold of their development from the lessor. However, this caused almost as many problems as it was designed to alleviate, because a percentage of lessees could club together, force the lessor to sell the freehold to them, and then effectively become the landlord of the neighbouring apartments or houses. It often proved very difficult for a resident to complain to his neighbour about noise or nuisance, or for service charge problems, for example, when that neighbour was also the Landlord! By embodying Trinity into the lease, this problem is eliminated. The management covenants remain in force, because there is still a management contract with Trinity, so the management issues cannot be flouted – Trinity remains responsible for ensuring the management terms continue to be complied with by all residents. The nature and character of the development is protected. Continuity is ensured. Trinity are confident in the services provided and unlike many of our competitors, we do not bind the residents into contracts in perpetuity. If the majority of residents wish to replace Trinity with an alternative company they have the ability to do this.
Having Trinity bound into the leases can be an advantage. I have outlined some of these below –
- Trinity is independent. It is charged with maintaining the development to a high standard in accordance with the terms of the lease, the terms of sale, and the wishes of the residents. It has a professional involvement only – there have so often been problems when personal interests creep in.
- Trinity is involved from the outset, with all the advantages this brings.
- With Trinity being legally responsible for management from day one, developers don’t get sidetracked into non-profitable management issues, but can concentrate on the profitable side of their business – developing and selling new homes.
- Being an independent professional organisation, bound into the leases, Trinity is charged with a duty to maintain the development for the entire term of the lease, not just for a residents’ length of stay before he/she moves on to another property. As such, Trinity can make long term decisions that are beneficial for the development, but which may be difficult for resident directors to make.
- Trinity’s impartial involvement also allows a professional approach to issues like debt collecting, due to arrears of service charge, or enforcement of terms of leases, which otherwise can create ill feelings between neighbours.
- Most people today lead very active lives with work, family and recreation to wish to get involved in such an important aspect of their development. And often, the residents who do choose to involve themselves personally in the running of the management functions by becoming Directors are, in truth, the least appropriate ones to carry them out. Far better to have a professional impartial and experienced organisation such as Trinity take care of them for the entire life of the development. We will always look to establish a working residents association and manage the development in accordance with their wishes/expectations.
- Embodying Trinity in the tripartite documentation, and not forming a separate management company, saves the developer the costs associated with the company formation, its administration during the sales period, annual audits, etc. In addition, the legal costs to the developer are decreased as the lawyers do not have to issue shares to lessees, act as directors, administer the process of handing the company over to residents, etc.
- The ease and simplicity for a developer in dealing with the management situation from day one is greatly enhanced. The delineation of responsibilities is far clearer from the outset for all concerned, particularly for the purchasers, who know to contact Trinity about management issues and not the sales staff.
- If a developer wishes to sell an apartment, for the use of a residential Building Manager for example, Trinity can obtain a mortgage in its own name much more easily where it has a legal interest or estate in the common parts. It is far more difficult and onerous to do this on behalf of a one-off management company, because this will eventually be owned and controlled by residents, but who cannot be contracted to the purchase.