How to get a useful answer from LEASE-iQ in under 5 minutes.
Unlike general-purpose AI chat, LEASE-iQ reads your lease and cites the exact clauses in its answers. This short guide walks you through what you'll see, so you don't hit the confusions the early users hit.
Scope note. This guide describes the position in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have different leasehold regimes. Information only, not legal advice. Always take professional advice before acting.
Why LEASE-iQ works when ChatGPT doesn't
A lease is not general text. It's a contract with a 2019 deed of variation bolted on to a 1987 master.
General-purpose AI reads a lease as flat prose and averages across every lease it has ever seen. LEASE-iQ reads yours. It holds the schedule on page 34, the cross-reference to clause 3.2, and the deed of variation that overrides both. That is the lease you actually have to live under. That is the one it answers from.
Step 1
Upload the right document.
The single biggest early-user confusion: people upload the wrong thing. Before you drop anything in, check it's actually your lease.
This IS your lease
99-year / 125-year / 999-year term on page 1. Names a "Landlord" and "Tenant" (or "Lessor"/"Lessee"). Has clauses on service charge, ground rent, repairs. Usually 30–80 pages. Has a coloured demised-premises plan.
This is NOT your lease
Land Registry Title Register (1–3 pages). Articles of Association of your management company. Conveyancer's report on title. Service charge demand or budget. TA6/TA10 forms. Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST).
Not sure what you've got? Upload it anyway. LEASE-iQ will tell you if it's a lease or something else, and will suggest what to look for next.
Step 2
While it's processing, you'll see these stages.
Early users saw "the bubbles keep going" and asked "is it thinking or am I?" Here's what's actually happening on your upload.
Uploading
The file travels from your device to LEASE-iQ. Usually a few seconds.
Reading
OCR runs on each page so every word and clause is searchable (especially important for scans or photos of paper leases).
Understanding
We parse every clause, schedule, and plan into a searchable graph of your lease. This takes the longest, typically 20 to 40 seconds for a standard lease.
Ready
The chat opens. You can ask your first question.
If it stalls for more than two minutes, refresh the page. If that doesn't help, email adam.street@building-trust.uk with the lease you uploaded and we'll look at the logs.
Step 3
What to ask. Pick one of these to get started.
Blank chat, blank brain. Start with something concrete from your actual situation. Here are four starters that always produce useful answers.
Service charge
"What services does my lease say my service charge covers? List each category with the exact clause reference."
Ground rent
"What's my ground rent under this lease, and is there an escalation clause? If so, when does it next increase and by how much?"
Alterations / pets / subletting
"Does my lease permit pets (or alterations, or subletting)? Quote the exact clause and tell me if consent is required."
Repairs
"Which party is responsible for the external walls, roof, windows, and common parts under my lease?"
Live legislation that applies to you (just shipped)
"What legislation applies to me as a leaseholder of this property?" LEASE-iQ returns the live statutes that govern your specific lease (typically LTA 1985, CLRA 2002, BSA 2022 if your building is over 18m, LAFRA 2024, and the Renters' Rights Act 2026 if any tenancy is in scope) with the sections that actually bear on you. Useful as a first sanity check before you ask anything else.
When an answer comes back, read the clause cited before acting on the plain-English answer. If no clause is cited, LEASE-iQ is telling you this is general context, not a lease-grounded conclusion.
Want a letter? Ask for one. "Draft a letter to my freeholder requesting consent to sublet, referencing the relevant clause." LEASE-iQ will use the clauses already surfaced in the conversation.
Step 4
Keep going. The conversation is threaded.
You don't have to cram everything into one prompt. Ask one focused question, read the cited clause, then ask the next. LEASE-iQ remembers the clauses it's already surfaced, so follow-ups are sharper.
Starter: "What does the lease say about pets?"
Answer cites the pets clause and notes consent is required.
Follow-up 1: "How do I apply for that consent?"
Answer walks through the consent process referenced in the clause.
Follow-up 2: "Draft me the consent letter."
LEASE-iQ produces a letter grounded in the exact clauses it's already quoted.
We'll probably email you. While we're in early pilot we read every transcript so we can improve the product. Your data is not retained or used for model training. If you signed up to help us improve the product, expect a short email from Adam (not sales, just a product conversation) about your first session.