Slight problem with Lease

realised

Hello everyone. I hope someone can help as I can't really find much information anywhere else.

We have purchased an apartment in a purpose built block. We decided to make it look more modern and to our tastes and therefore wanted to put laminate flooring throughout the property.

I wrote to the leaseholder to ask whether this was acceptable (along with a few other changes ie new boiler, kitchen, bathroom upgrades etc)

Everything came back clear apart from the fact that on the lease, it says that all rooms apart from the bathroom and kitchen must be carpetted.

Is there any way we can dispute this? I mean I feel that this rule is slightly silly as it does not really affect other people living in the block etc. When speaking to the solicitors, they mentioned we wouldn't need permission for decoration and we assumed that laminate flooring would come under the same umbrella.

Laminate flooring is the new way of carpetting isn't it?

Thanks

msgnomey

It can affect the sound insulation properties!! Living in a flat below someone with laminate flooring is a total pain....

££sc££

Do you mean you wrote to the freeholder? As if you've bought the apartment you are the leaseholder?

Did you read the lease before you purchased it?

This is a common clause in long leases now. The reason this clause is used is to prevent noise nuisance for neighbours. The sound of people walking across wooden flooring travels badly to surrounding flats, particularly those below and particularly when it's a DIY job using cheap underlay.

What floor do you live on? I don't think there's much you can do, unless you live on the ground floor, in which case as there's noone underneath you, it wouldn't cause a problem for neighbours. If this is the case you could apply to vary lease but it's going to need consent of freeholder and you'll probably need to pay both of your lawyer's bills. Probably easier and cheaper to carpet.

realised

I get confused with reference to all the names. Apologies I did mean the freeholder
You see, before we bought the property, the smaller bedroom was already laminated which is why we thought it wouldn't be a problem. The rest was carpetted. When we took off the carpet, there was already a layer of wooden flooring underneath with a concrete floor under that layer.

We live on the 2nd floor so there are people living below us.

Thank you for all your replies

Edit. I forgot to ask, as the spare room already has laminate flooring that meants we are already within breach of the lease.. I have scanned through the lease itself but it doesn't seem to say. What is the worst that could happen if I left that room as it is?

G_M

Worst? If it is in breach you could be told to lay carpet.

Do you know the people downstairs? We get regular posts here from people in flats complaining about their upstairs neighbours and laminate flooring asking for help getting the noise controlled!

realised

We have met the neighbours downstairs and they seem quite nice.

However, we don't really go into the spare room that much at the moment so hopefully it wont make too much noise.

I will speak to them to make sure we arent making too much noise!

Thank you all very much for your replies. Hope you all have happy holidays and a nice new year!