Demised premises

"Demise" is the old legal word for a lease. The demised premises are what the leaseholder has the right to occupy, and usually what they must repair themselves.

Why it matters to directors

The boundary between the flat and the rest of the building decides whose repair it is, and whose cost.

• Leases often say the flat includes things like the inside of the windows, internal walls, floorboards down to the joists, and pipes and wires that serve only that flat.
• They often exclude the structure, the roof, the foundations, the main walls and anything shared.

Every lease is different. Check the definition (often in a schedule) and the lease plan, which usually outlines the flat in red. When a repair is reported, deciding whether it's within the demise is the first question.

Everything not demised to any flat is usually kept by the landlord: the structure and the common partsCommon partsThe parts of a building that aren't let to any one leaseholder and are shared, such as the entrance hall, stairs, corridors, roof space, bin store and grounds..