Loft Conversion & Scaffolding

redr0bin

Hello, I'm hoping that someone can help.

We are planning on doing a loft conversion. We live in a first floor flat in a terraced house. Our flat is a leasehold with the loft demised to us and our Freeholder owns the downstairs flat, although she rents it out.

We have planning permission and the party wall awards all organised and are just in the process of finalising the License to Alter. We have realised that no mention seems to have been made about the scaffolding. We will need to put it at the front of the house as well as in our downstairs neighbours rear garden.

Does anyone know that if this is something which should go in our License to Alter? It has taken us a year to get to this point & so we are very nervous of more delays. We have yet to speak to the downstairs tenants but are planning on offering the use of our garden for the duration of the build as well as to fix any damage. Should we be bringing this up now or waiting until the License to Alter is (finally) done?

Many thanks for any help!

zoothornrollo_2

redr0bin wrote: »

Hello, I'm hoping that someone can help.

We are planning on doing a loft conversion. We live in a first floor flat in a terraced house. Our flat is a leasehold with the loft demised to us and our Freeholder owns the downstairs flat, although she rents it out.

We have planning permission and the party wall awards all organised and are just in the process of finalising the License to Alter. We have realised that no mention seems to have been made about the scaffolding. We will need to put it at the front of the house as well as in our downstairs neighbours rear garden.

Does anyone know that if this is something which should go in our License to Alter? It has taken us a year to get to this point & so we are very nervous of more delays. We have yet to speak to the downstairs tenants but are planning on offering the use of our garden for the duration of the build as well as to fix any damage. Should we be bringing this up now or waiting until the License to Alter is (finally) done?

Many thanks for any help!

I would *seriously* consider making an offer to buy a share in the freehold so you have share of freehold in the property and draw up new leases etc.
How much is the Licence to Alter costing you?

redr0bin

License to Alter is not costing anything apart from the legal & surveyor's fees. As our freeholder owns the downstairs flat the scaffolding would still be an issue

zoothornrollo_2

redr0bin wrote: »

License to Alter is not costing anything apart from the legal & surveyor's fees. As our freeholder owns the downstairs flat the scaffolding would still be an issue

Yes and an issue for the people renting as they will be losing the use of part of the property that they are renting? They might have something to say to the owner?
We are having exactly the same thing done and our downstairs neighbour has been great, even though her yard is totally buried in building materials.
But we are share of freehold and agreed all this beforehand (we will thank her by decorating the shared hallway when it's all done, or similar).
Look, I'm sure you've done your research on this but just be careful - these instances where one of the leaseholders in a split property owns the whole freehold can be v v tricky...
E.g., your lease is totally clear that you OWN the loft space and the air above it? Cos don't forget if you are putting a dormer on you need to own that space too.
Seek good legal advice if you haven't already.
Some lawyers haven't got a clue about leasehold / freehold.