Frequently asked questions

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

There is a reservation fee of £1,000 to secure the property of your choice; this goes towards your deposit. This fee is transferable and will be refunded after deduction of reasonable abortive legal fees, administrative costs and any other additional costs directly incurred relating to the reservation, up to a maximum of the full value of the reservation fee, if the reservation does not proceed to sale.

To reserve off plan, please ask a member of the Sales Team.

Properties will be reserved for a period of two months. The price will be fixed at the date of reservation, subject to contracts being exchanged within two months. At the end of two months, the developers have the right to terminate the reservation and re-market the property.

Each property is sold on a 150-year reducing lease from 22 August 2018 (the date of the first lease).

The landlord/freeholder is ERL (Red House Ripon) Limited, whose registered office is Scutches Barn, 17 High Street, Whittlesford, Cambridge, CB22 4LT, a company registered in England and Wales, company number 10488787.

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 The Red House 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 Fountains Restaurant with a terrace is provided for use by the owners/occupiers and their visitors. Its professional chefs will serve freshly-prepared meals daily, including traditional Sunday lunch, and it will be 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.

The Red House 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 will meet every six months, with a representative from Enterprise Retirement Living (the Community Operator) and Red House Ripon Management Limited to discuss all aspects of the management of The Red House.

The Sales Team will be happy to assist you on your move-in day and ensure that you have everything you need. Some time will also be made available for you with our handyman, subject to booking. Three hours are provided free for all new properties; additional time can be purchased by arrangement.

The management of the exterior of the property is the responsibility of Red House Ripon 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 The Red House can be let out by the Leaseholders. The community is for those who own properties and live at The Red House.

Please see the Sales Team for more information and further details.

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 The Red House staff. 

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

No company or person connected with The Red House receives any incentive or commission from any care provider we may recommend.

The service charge covers all aspects of operating and maintaining The Red House (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 £172.82  per week for one bedroom properties and £182.31 per week for two bedroom properties. These equate to £748.91 and £790.00 a month (£8,986.92 and  £9,480.00 per annum) respectively.

Ground rent of £500 per annum is currently payable to ERL (Red House Ripon) Limited on all properties for which the original leases were granted before 1 April 2023. Ground Rent payable throughout 2023 will continue at the current rate (£500 per annum) and in years 2024 to 2027 it will be £606.12 each year. The amount of ground rent is reviewed every five years from 1 January 2023, in accordance with the lease, based on the Consumer Price Index. The next review will be on 1 January 2028 as per the terms of the lease. 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, such that ground rent is still payable on properties which are subject to leases granted before that date and will continue to be payable when those leases are assigned in future.

The freeholder will have first option to buy your property back at the agreed open 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).