FAQs

You must be 55 years old, or over, to live at Boughton Hall. However, a family member can buy a property for a qualifying relative.

Each property is sold on a 125-year reducing lease from 1 January 2009 (the date of the first lease).

The landlord/freeholder is ERL (Chester) Limited, whose registered office is Scutches Barn, 17 High Street, Whittlesford, Cambridge, CB22 4LT, a company registered in England and Wales, company number 06525084.

We can provide the details of established estate agents and conveyancers to assist you. This is a non-obligatory service and you are, of course, free to use firms of your own choosing. Please see the Sales Team for more details.

No company or person connected with Boughton Hall receives any incentive or commission from any service provider we may recommend.

Owners/occupiers may have pets, but pets are not allowed in internal communal areas and they must not be a nuisance to other owners/occupiers. Any owner/occupier that has a pet must appoint a vet as a guardian for the pet in the event of an emergency.

There is non-allocated parking available on a first-come, first-served basis, and a maximum of one car allowed per property. No trailers, camper vans or caravans are allowed to be parked in the car park.

Our Garden Room Restaurant overlooking the gardens is provided for use by the owners/occupiers and their visitors. Its professional chefs serve freshly-prepared meals daily, including traditional Sunday lunch, and it’s the venue for special dining events.

There is a daily concierge service available, undertaken by the Duty Managers.

You can use the 1½ hours’ house-keeping assistance for cleaning, ironing or light errands (eg, shopping). Additional hours can be bought by arrangement.

We provide a guest suite for family and friends. A small charge is made to users to cover the cost of maintaining this.

Boughton Hall is staffed 24-hours a day. Tunstall have installed the call systems and all owners/occupiers are issued with an emergency pendant to make an alarm call to the Duty Manager.

Yes, and it meets every six months, with a representative from Enterprise Retirement Living (the Community Operator) and Boughton Hall Management Ltd, to discuss all aspects of the management of Boughton Hall.

The Sales Team will be happy to assist you on your move-in day and ensure that you have everything you need. We also have a handyman who can do any little jobs you may require, for which a reasonable charge is made.

The management of the exterior of the property is the responsibility of Boughton Hall Management Limited. Owners/occupiers are not permitted to paint, add hanging baskets, add satellite dishes, etc, to the exterior of any property. Any additions or changes to the properties need approval from the freeholder.

No properties at Boughton Hall can be let.

We have relationships with local CQC-registered care providers, who will be happy to come and visit you and assess your needs. However, you are free to use any agency you wish. Details can be obtained from Boughton Hall staff.

The cost of personal or domiciliary care is not covered by the monthly fee and arrangements for such care are the subject of separate agreements between the provider and the recipient.

No one connected with Boughton Hall receives any incentive or commission from any care provider we may recommend.

The service charge covers all aspects of operating and maintaining Boughton Hall (see the separate document, The Service Charge, available from the Sales Team) and is run on a not-for-profit basis, with any surplus paid back to reduce costs. A breakdown of the annual amount is shown on the Service Charge Budget, also available from the Sales Team.

The service charge is currently £147.06 per week for one bedroom properties and £166.68 per week for two bedroom properties. These equate to £637.26 and £722.28 a month (£7,647.12 and £8,667.36 per annum) respectively.

Ground rent is charged at £350 per annum, doubling every 25 years from 01/01/2009. Although the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 abolished the inclusion of ground rent in new leases for retirement properties entered into on or after 1 April 2023, this legislation is not retrospective. As all Boughton Hall leases were granted before this date, properties will still be subject to ground rent and ground rent will continue to be payable when any lease is assigned.

The freeholder will have first option to buy your property back at the agreed market value. If the freeholder decides not to make an offer, then the property will be offered first to prospective purchasers on the waiting list (if any) and then marketed on the open market. There is a Sales Administration Fee* payable to the freeholder of 1.8% (including VAT at 20%) of the achieved sales price. This is for the services of the experienced and active Sales and Marketing Team which constantly markets and promotes their retirement communities, including re-sale properties. You are free to employ your own estate agents independently, but you will be responsible for any fees payable to the estate agents, in addition to the fee payable to the freeholder.

Event Fees are also payable to the freeholder when the property is re-sold (see below).

When a property is sold or reassigned, there are “Event Fees” payable to the freeholder. These are a Deferred Development Payment, based upon a percentage of the open market value at the time of disposal, and a Sales Administration Fee, as shown in the table below.*

DDPs are normal practice in retirement villages. Their purpose is to ensure that all property owners, not just the original purchasers, contribute to the initial capital cost of the buildings (construction and/or renovation) and provision of the communal facilities, which together have been very expensive and which will benefit owners/occupiers over many years; leases have, therefore, been structured to take account of this. The alternative would be for the first purchasers to pay a very high initial price. They also ensure that the value of the landlord’s investment is maintained, thus enabling the villages to be operated by the landlord to the high standard you would expect, which in turn can help improve the resale value of the individual properties.

Our Sales Team will fully explain the DDP (and Sales Administration Fee).

Any uplift in equity (increase in value) achieved from a sale of a property, after payment of the Deferred Development Payment and Sales Administration Fee, is retained by the vendor(s).

* The Deferred Development Payment and Sales Administration Fee are called the “Relevant Percentage” and the “Marketing Assistance Fee”, respectively, in the Lease.