Incorrect floorplan in lease

SazzyJackson

Hi all!

I'm in the process of buying my first flat (one bedroom, second floor) and the floorplan that was sent to me as part of the lease was incorrect - a couple of the internal walls had been shifted, but the biggest difference was that there was no bathroom (the flat has a separate WC, and that is correct on the floorplan, but a bathroom with a shower etc is completely absent)! This struck me as really weird (and there definitely IS a bathroom in the flat now!) so I asked my solicitor to raise it as a query, along with a couple of other questions.

Most of those questions have now been resolved but there has been absolutely no word on the floorplan. I raised the question on 31 August and my solicitor has copied me in on several emails over the last month, so I know the seller's solicitor has received those emails but there's been complete silence about the floorplan.

According to the planning office there were some applications for converting the building into flats in the early 90s but it said that the two second floor flats, including the one I'm interested in, were already existing and it seems that's where the floorplan with no bathroom comes from. The planning officer said that it was really odd and that approval wouldn't have been granted for a flat with no bathroom!

So, my question is, has anyone had anything similar happen? Is this something that can be resolved? I'm also really concerned as to why the seller has kept completely silent on this. The longer the silence goes on, the more I think there is something really dodgy going on! It's like talking to a brick wall at the minute... any tips on how to get them to actually talk to me/my solicitor?!

Many thanks in advance!

davidmcn

Is the internal layout of any relevance as far as the lease is concerned?

SazzyJackson

My solicitor explicitly told me that if the floorplan was incorrect that we needed to get a new current version drawn up. I just don't want to buy the place and then find when I come to sell it in the future find that it doesn't have planning permission/certification and that I'd be liable for getting it sorted.

More than anything, I'm just annoyed at the silence from the solicitors. It may be that a surveyor just needs to go round to draw a new floorplan, but if that's the case, it would be good to know!

silvercar

I don't know why you were sent the floorplan.

In this property and the previous one, the previous owners have made extensions and we were not given the floorplans.

Clearly the floorplan you have is wrong, so I would be tempted to shred it then the issue disappears.

But you should listen to your solicitor.

eddddy

It would be sensible for the lease floor plan to be correct - to avoid future arguments about unauthorised alterations etc

The local authority planning department have no interest in the internal layout of the flat - I think contacting them may have added to your confusion unnecessarily.

Changing a lease floor plan requires a lease variation. (It's not just a case of you or the seller slipping a new sheet of paper into the lease.)

It would require agreement between the leaseholder and freeholder, and there will probably be a chunk of legal fees to be paid. If the frholder is 'difficult', the process could be slow and quite expensive.

eddddy

silvercar wrote: »

I don't know why you were sent the floorplan.

In this property and the previous one, the previous owners have made extensions and we were not given the floorplans.

Were these leasehold flats in England / Wales (as with the OP)? Or Freehold properties on their own land?

SazzyJackson

It's not so much the layout changes that concerns me but the fact that a bathroom has been added when there wasn't (apparently) one originally. From what I've found out about building regs on gov.uk if you add a bathroom to a property you need to get building regs signed off to say that it has proper ventilation, that the bath isn't going to crash through the floor when it's full of water etc. And it's those building regs that I can find no trace of. So, to me that says that I can't be sure that the bathroom is soundly built. I'm sure it probably is but I have no proof of that as far as I can tell!

StumpyPumpy

Are you saying that the footprint/outline of the flat as shown for the lease is different to how it is now or that the footprint is correct, but additional rooms (ie bathroom) have been created inside it?

If the footprint is correct then I can't see how it matters, there is no guarantee of competence of construction or anything else implicit with something being in the leasehold document. If the footprint is wrong then you might not be buying what you think you are buying and someone could claim ownership of "your" bathroom at a later date.

SP

SazzyJackson

The footprint is correct - the bathroom was basically created out of the bedroom. So I'm not worried about that, just concerned about the bathroom not being fit for purpose - which I suppose goes beyond the leasehold documentation.

If the bathroom was built without building regulation sign off, does that matter?

The seller's solicitor is finally sending a surveyor to draw up a new floorplan - I don't know why it's taken them a month to arrange it! The guy selling the flat owns the freehold of the building so hopefully that shouldn't be an issue? I've certainly not been told that there could be additional legal fees for getting a new plan drawn up. Both the estate agent and my solicitor have indicated that it is important to have the correct floorplan, but people here seems to think it doesn't matter, so I continue to be baffled!

PasturesNew

I understand your worries - but what if the previous owner had taken the advice above about shredding the document? You'd not have these worries!

SazzyJackson

True, ignorance would be bliss!