Leasehold and consent for alterations

HouseBuyer77

Hello,

I'm in the process of purchasing a ground floor maisonette which has a conservatory extension. I'm unsure of the exact age but I've found a planning application indicating permission was granted for it in 2000. It was there when the current owners moved in (around 2003).

There is however no evidence they ever got permission for the alteration from the landlord. The lease states that permission is required for alterations (exact text below).

The lease is a very long term (999 years) and the ground rent is nominal, there is no service charge. From my reading of the lease the freeholder is expecting the leaseholders to deal with any buildings maintenance. From talking to the current owners they've only had one contact from the freeholder upon moving in. Otherwise it's just a PO Box company somewhere that receives cheques.

So the question is what to do and should I care about the potential lack of permission for the conservatory? I will of course discuss this with my solictor but I was wondering if anyone on here had some experience or advice they could share here?

Realistically it looks like the freeholder stays as hands off as possible. So it seem unlikely they'll come chasing me for permission (it has been 15 years and they haven't so far). So I'm pretty tempted to just ignore it. From what I've been reading online if you have a clause allowing alterations with permission they can't unreasonable withhold this and must make a reasonable charge. So if they did turn up asking to be paid for retroactive consent and this turned out to be £2000 say it would be annoying for me but by no means disastrous.

Lease text:
And also will not at any time make any alterations or additions of any nature whatsoever to the demised property or any part thereof nor to carry out any development thereto without the previous consent in writing of the Lessors.

HouseBuyer77

Bump, any thoughts?

Shahni

The risk is small, especially if the conservatory has been standing for 15 years with no objections from the landlord.

The CML handbook (which is basically lender's instructions to solicitors) says:

5.11.2 If there is evidence of a breach and, following reasonable enquiries, you are satisfied that the title is good and marketable; you can provide an unqualified certificate of title and the breach has continued for more than 20 years without challenge, then we will not insist on indemnity insurance.

As it is, the conservatory has been there for less than 20 years so a restrictive covenant indemnity policy may be the answer.

eddddy

Presumably, your lease includes the land that the conservatory is built on (i.e. it has not been built on the freeholder's land).

Fortunately, your lease includes this phrase:

HouseBuyer77 wrote: »

...without the previous consent in writing of the Lessors.

Even though it doesn't say so in the lease, this means that the following is implied:

... and consent must not be unreasonably withheld

So unless the freeholder has a good reason to withhold permission, the worst case would be that you have to pay them a 'reasonable' admin fee to get consent. (Probably low hundreds of pounds.)

The time that this sometimes happens is a when new 'aggressive' investor buys the freehold. The first thing they do is wander round looking for unauthorised alterations - in the hope of raising a few thousand in admin fees.

Or your mortgage lender may insist on getting the freeholder's written permission now - in which case you should negotiate with the vendor about who should pay the fee.

(Things would be much trickier if your lease simply said "no alterations".)


Edit to add....

I just re-read your post, and you seem to be aware of most of this anyway!!!

HouseBuyer77

So unless the freeholder has a good reason to withhold permission, the worst case would be that you have to pay them a 'reasonable' admin fee to get consent. (Probably low hundreds of pounds.)

The time that this sometimes happens is a when new 'aggressive' investor buys the freehold. The first thing they do is wander round looking for unauthorised alterations - in the hope of raising a few thousand in admin fees.

Yes that's my primary concern but as said above if it's on the order of a couple of thousand whilst frustrating can be dealt with and sounds like it may well be less than that.

Thank you for the advice.