Leasehold property owners can face a nasty shock when they need to make alterations to their home. Or when they’ve altered the property without consent…and then try to sell it.
You may well need to apply for permission to make alterations. That means getting written consent from the freeholder (landlord) – even though it’s your home and you’ve paid a hefty price for it.
It’s all too easy to fall foul of these rules. They can slow up urgent work – or even jeopardise the sale of your property.
Leasehold property generally tends to mean flats – and whatever you do in your flat usually has a greater impact on your neighbours because they’re living in the same building.
So it stands to reason that you may not be allowed to simply knock out or move supporting walls when you want to change the layout of your rooms.
Your lease is likely to provide the answer to this question. It will be dictated by the:
Let’s examine both these considerations in more detail…
You may need to apply for consent from the freeholder if you plan to remove any walls. Any such proposals may need to be supported by a report from your structural engineers or surveyors.
We get a lot of these enquiries because knocking out walls to create an open-plan lounge diner is a popular option these days. But there are other reasons you may need consent:
Adding or replacing double glazing is again an obvious issue because it may impact on the structure and aesthetics of the building.
Central heating can be something that catches out some leaseholders. Picture the scene: your old boiler has suddenly broken – and spare parts are no longer available. A new boiler could involve extensive work which may affect other flats in the building – such as cutting into concrete floors and ceilings to access the old piping if it needs to be replaced.
But what started out as a simple boiler repair/replacement could suddenly become a potential leasehold issue.
If you are unsure how to proceed, get in touch with our specialist team at Coles Miller.
The rules concerning alterations will be covered by the covenants of the lease. These fall into two types:
An alterations protocol regulates applications for consent. It is not binding but the parties should act in accordance with the protocol – or face criticism from the courts.
Your lease will almost certainly state that you have a responsibility to keep your property in good order. That means redecoration from time to time – a spot of painting, fitting new carpets. These types of works are usually permitted without the need for consent.
Upgrading a kitchen or bathroom again may not require consent – provided that you’re not moving any structural walls.
There are no fixed rules regarding the types of alterations that require consent and those that do not. You should always check your lease before carrying out alterations.
Written consent is simply the freeholder’s permission for the work to go ahead.
A licence is a much more detailed document that outlines any conditions attached to the approval – such as how and when the project should be carried out, which contractors should be used, safety conditions, the timescale and any remediation work required. This blog post about installing electric vehicle charging points at leasehold property goes into more detail about licences.
Sometimes you may need to apply for consent and enter into a licence in exchange for the consent. Effectively, obtaining a licence may give you the consent you need. But beware, the reverse is not true – granting consent does not equate to giving you a licence!
As with so many aspects of dealing with leasehold property, it pays to get expert legal advice before embarking on any project – because to do so without obtaining the correct permission(s) can be time-consuming and costly. You may be forced to put right any unauthorised alterations that you’ve made.
This is a question we get asked a lot. Usually by a leaseholder when their property sale suddenly hits a snag.
Perhaps they’ve moved a partition wall without permission (because their builder said it would be okay) – and now their flat’s new layout no longer matches the plans attached to the lease. The buyer’s conveyancing solicitor quite rightly spots this discrepancy and draws the vendor’s attention to it…putting the brakes on the sale process.
In this scenario, you would need either to apply to the freeholder for retrospective consent or face the cost and upheaval of moving the partition wall back to where it was before.
Some freeholders/landlords can seize on this as an opportunity to make some extra money. They’ll attempt to charge you a pretty penny for providing retrospective consent because they know that:
How long it takes can depend on a number of factors:
Typically, the process looks something like this (though each case is different):
The cost of obtaining consent for alterations and/or a licence would depend on the complexity of the alterations and your lease – and how reasonable your freeholder is.
As you will have gathered, there can be significant legal ramifications involved with making alterations to leasehold property.
Contact our residential leasehold property solicitors for specialist legal advice on obtaining consent and/or a licence for alterations.