PHAEMA manual · Reference
Glossary
- 1954 Act
- The Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, Part II. Business tenants inside the Act have a right to renew their lease. A lease can be contracted out of the Act by following a set procedure before it is granted.
- Agreement for lease
- A contract to grant a lease in the future, often once building work is finished.
- Apportionment
- Charging part of a period's rent, by the day, when an agreement starts or ends part way through a period. See raising rent.
- Arrears
- Rent that is overdue: the due date has passed and it has not been paid or credited.
- Break option
- A right in a lease for the landlord, the tenant or either to end it early on a set date, usually by giving notice by a deadline. See breaks.
- Easement
- A right over someone else's land, such as a right of way.
- FRI (full repairing and insuring)
- A lease where the tenant pays for all repairs and the cost of insuring the building.
- GIA (gross internal area)
- Floor area measured to the inside of the external walls, including walls, stairs and plant rooms. Measured under the RICS Code of Measuring Practice.
- Gateway
- A decision point between a project's phases, such as approval to proceed by Cabinet. A project moves to its next phase only when the gateway decision is recorded. See projects.
- Golden Thread
- The accurate, up-to-date information about a building that the Building Safety Act 2022 requires for higher-risk buildings, and good practice for all. See compliance and building information.
- Holding over
- A tenant staying in occupation after the lease's term end, often while a renewal is agreed.
- INSPIRE Index Polygons
- HM Land Registry's free boundaries of registered freehold titles. See maps.
- Licence
- Permission to use property that does not give the occupier a lease or security of tenure.
- NIA (net internal area)
- The usable floor area inside a building, excluding common parts, stairs, toilets and plant. Usually the area rent is based on for shops and offices.
- Option to tax
- A landlord's choice to charge VAT on rent from a commercial property, which would otherwise be exempt. In PHAEMA, agreements where the council has opted to tax are marked VAT chargeable.
- Peppercorn rent
- A nominal rent, often nothing at all, used where a lease is granted for community benefit or a premium.
- Project
- A larger piece of work than a case, such as a development, an acquisition or a disposal, with a team, gateways, milestones, a budget and risks. See projects.
- Quarter days
- The traditional English rent days: 25 March, 24 June, 29 September and 25 December.
- Rent review
- A point in a lease where the rent is reassessed, for example to open market value. "Upwards only" means the rent cannot go down. See rent reviews.
- Rent roll
- The total rent receivable from all current lettings.
- Service charge
- A tenant's share of the landlord's costs of shared services, paid on account against a budget and balanced against the actual costs after the year end. See service charges.
- Void share
- The share of service charge costs that falls on empty units, which the landlord pays.
- Tenancy at will
- A tenancy that either side can end at any time, often used for short-term occupation.
- Terrier
- A council's register of the land and property it owns.
- UPRN (Unique Property Reference Number)
- The national identifier for every addressable place in Great Britain, from the AddressBase and local land and property gazetteer. Using it lets PHAEMA link to GIS, council tax, business rates and other systems.
- USRN (Unique Street Reference Number)
- The national identifier for every street.
- WAULT (weighted average unexpired lease term)
- The average time left on the council's leases, weighted by rent, so bigger leases count for more. A common measure of how secure an income is. See the dashboard.
- Wayleave
- Permission, usually for a payment, for a utility company to run cables or pipes across land.