Loft not included in demise of property- advice

hayleyjane82

Hi

We are in the process of selling our flat (share of freehold). We are close to exchange.

Our buyers solicitor placed an enquiry regarding the loft stating it is not included in the demise of the property in the lease.

we had always assumed that we owned the loft- in the 5 years we have lived here we have always used it for light storage (clothes/suitcases), it is exclusively accessed via our flat, it houses no shared/communal services, and no one has ever asked to access it.

My estate agent tells me it is probably my buyers mortgage company who are asking the question and it's a standard question. Though it has worried me- it's the only real question mark that's cropped up in the whole process.

The other thing that troubles me is that there are loft boards down and I'm now concerned that they shouldn't be there (placed presumably by previous tennants as not a professional job as such) and that people will assume we placed them. I've looked at the lease, and indeed the loft is not mentioned- in fact it is not eluded to in any part of the lease.

Can anyone provide reassurance that this is common place and not likely to be an issue?

Thanks!

anselld

The placing of boards and the odd suitcase will not be an issue, but the fact is you do not have rights to own or use the loft. Whether or not that is an issue for the buyers only they can say.

Kynthia

It's quite common to not own the loft in a flat. Most buyers won't have a problem with this.

eddddy

So, the bottom line is that the loft doesn't belong to you - it probably belongs to the freeholder.

If you (or the buyer) were to ask the freeholder if you can use it for storage, I suspect the freeholder would either say:

- No
- Yes - if you pay rent or buy a lease

If you (and the buyer) say nothing, the freeholder would probably never find out.


The only impact it will have on the buyer's mortgage is that the valuer will ignore the loft storage space when valuing the flat. And realistically, that is unlikely to make any significant difference to the value.

ethank

The issue here is not a mortgage one, it assumes that most people who are buying the flat with a loft will want to convert it. If the buyer cannot convert it they may not want it. It is pretty much a standard enquiry when buying a flat.

AlexMac

We had this issue in our last shared freehold- a big 19th Century house converted to several flts, where only one had access to the loft (yes, the top floor one; doh!) which was excluded from any flat's demise, so in effect, owned by the freeholder like in all the other leaseholds I've owned.

A propective purchaser asked, pre-contract, if the freeholder (the six flat leaseholders, acting collectively, as this was 'shared') would permit the loft to be converted.

Interesting range of reactions; I and my ground-floor neighbour felt that subject to approprite legal and structural advice, we could flog off a bit of otherwise waste space for whatever it was worth, and so, benefit the Freehold Company funds and get a new roof in the process, all at the newbie's expense.

The owners of the flat below were, however, incensed ant the prospect of noise, nuisance and builders disturbing their peace. So they said they'd prevent it by any means possible. It didn't come to a vote, as the prospect bought in and moved in anyway without permission (and got on perfectly well with their neighbours.)

But what you (OP) describe is so common that neither it, nor the boarding nor the storage is likely to be an issue.

In another little BTL flat we own, with a long communal loft void and multiple access points from ceiling trap doors in every top floor flat, we installed a stud and plasterboard partition between 'our' bit of the loft and next door's to improve security and fire-safety. We didn't bother with freeholder permission, no-one will ever know or care, and now, many years later, it looks like an original feature.

So chill; it's just the buyer's solicitor being thorough

bouicca21

A relative similarly has the only flat with access to the loft space, though does not own it. No one cares that it is used for storage, why should they? For anyone else to use it would be an enormous faff.

hayleyjane82

Thanks everyone for your comments. I guess I'll have to sit tight and hope the buyer is happy. She has bought it as an investment but with a view to living in it at some point. I can't imagine she would have wanted to convert the loft at any point.