License for Alteration- advice for Leaseholder

da_rule

Firstly, I wouldn’t say staff holidays and illness is unreasonable, also 6 weeks isn’t that long.

Few questions OP:
1) Is the garden space you want to build on within the land demised to you under your lease?
2) When making the planning application you served the required notice on the freeholder (as required by Certificate ?
3) How much have you factored in for costs (the freeholder will probably want you to pay their legal costs as well as potentially a premium for the grant)?
4) Have you considered that once the the works are done you may need to also vary the lease (at your cost) as the plans will have changed and therefore some covenants may need rewording?

I would ignore SmashedAvocado’s advice. Even if consent was being unreasonably withheld or delayed, there are likely to be a variety of other clauses under the lease an annoyed freeholder could use to cause you inconvenience. For example, there is probably a clause stating that you are not to maim, damage, cut into etc the fabric of the building - so you’d probably be in breach of this.

There is also likely to be a clause that you are not to do anything that constitutes an annoyance to other occupants - building noise.

There is also likely to be a clause that states that you are not to do anything that could invalidate the freeholders insurance (or cause the premium to increase). Increasing the footprint of the building may do this.

gentlecleanser

da_rule wrote: »

Firstly, I wouldn’t say staff holidays and illness is unreasonable, also 6 weeks isn’t that long.

Few questions OP:
1) Is the garden space you want to build on within the land demised to you under your lease?
2) When making the planning application you served the required notice on the freeholder (as required by Certificate ?
3) How much have you factored in for costs (the freeholder will probably want you to pay their legal costs as well as potentially a premium for the grant)?
4) Have you considered that once the the works are done you may need to also vary the lease (at your cost) as the plans will have changed and therefore some covenants may need rewording?

I would ignore SmashedAvocado’s advice. Even if consent was being unreasonably withheld or delayed, there are likely to be a variety of other clauses under the lease an annoyed freeholder could use to cause you inconvenience. For example, there is probably a clause stating that you are not to maim, damage, cut into etc the fabric of the building - so you’d probably be in breach of this.

There is also likely to be a clause that you are not to do anything that constitutes an annoyance to other occupants - building noise.

There is also likely to be a clause that states that you are not to do anything that could invalidate the freeholders insurance (or cause the premium to increase). Increasing the footprint of the building may do this.

Hi Da_Rule

Thanks for the reply. to answers your questions:

1) Is the garden space you want to build on within the land demised to you under your lease?- Yes, we would like to build in the rear garden which is 'owned' by us under the lease
2) When making the planning application you served the required notice on the freeholder (as required by Certificate ?
Yes, this form was issued to the Freeholder management agency.
3) How much have you factored in for costs (the freeholder will probably want you to pay their legal costs as well as potentially a premium for the grant)? Yes we are aware that we will need to pay the surveyour fees and legal fees of drawing up the new license
4) Have you considered that once the the works are done you may need to also vary the lease (at your cost) as the plans will have changed and therefore some covenants may need rewording? Yes, we have been through this with the solicitor and there are no covenants within the lease

We have now had a reply for the surveyour and have been quote £1500 for them to come out to survey the property and right the report.
We are aware once this has been done, we will then have legal fees from the freeholder to draw up the license plus our solicitor fees to look over the license for alteration

Does £1500 for the surveyor sound reasonable to people?
Can anyone advise how much they have paid for this?

Thanks

cattie

Considering a surveyor doing a building survey for mortage purposes can charge anywhere from £900-£1200 + vat, depending on where in the country you are, then £1500 for the type of survey required in for your purposes doesn't sound unreasonable.

Fire_Fox

Have you had professional input from anyone who specialises in leasehold properties/ specialises in negotiating with freeholders or managing agents? Given the scope of the work you propose, I would be surprised if a specialist would advise you to apply for planning permission before starting to negotiate with the freeholder.

You do not own the structure of the building nor the parcel of land that it is built upon including the garden. You have a long lease which permits you to occupy the space within the building for a fixed period of time. This is not like extending a freehold house.

The structure remains the property of the freeholder. Repairs, maintenance, compliance with Building Regulations, buildings insurance, health and safety are their responsibility, and usually chargeable to all the leaseholders. Your proposal affects all of these.

The implications are huge. The other leaseholders may need to be formally consulted. Your long lease or plans may need to be varied. Months not weeks is entirely reasonable.

gentlecleanser

Update on this in case anyone else is looking with similar problems.
Spoke to the advisors at this free government run service who are super helpful. https://www.lease-advice.org/

We have been advised that the wording in our lease states that the demise of the property includes the exterior walls and garden (unusual case as most lease would not include these). This means that the free holder has no right to charge us a premium for building the extension and can only charge the surveyor fee and solicitor fee for drawing up license both of which must be reasonable.

They have said that as we are now approaching 2 months and have not been able to make any progress with the freeholder, this can be considered 'unreasonably withholding consent'

They have said £1500 seems high for the surveyor and to question it.
We have and they are not moving on the price.

We are now at the stage where we are having to appoint a solicitor in order to try and get some movings. If this does not work we will be forced to go through reporting the company to the property ombudsman.