Leasehold garden renovation

NicolaDod

I’d like to do up my garden by paving and gravelling some areas. Freeholders, would you typically expect leaseholders to request permission to do this this, or is this similar to changing the flooring in a flat? More importantly, am I legally required to request permission. 

For context this is a new build with separate gardens for each flat. 

While garden building restrictions (E.g. shed, annex, fence higher than 6ft) are stated in the lease agreement, there is no mention of paving/AstroTurf etc. I wanted to come here before asking the freeholder and opening a can of worms that could’ve remained shut!

davidmcn

You can do whatever the lease doesn't explicitly prohibit you from doing.

need_an_answer

Personally I  would open the can of worms and find out from the freeholder rather than potentially make an expensive mistake by the freeholder not agreeing
Usually restrictions will be pointed out in the lease and any charges for making requests should also be made available to you to decide beforehand if you wish to continue with the application.
Some freeholders are less bothered than others how you renovate areas but each will have their own view I'm afraid there isnt an industry standard as such.
To make an enquiry shouldn't attract a charge and at least you can then judge what type of freeholder you are dealing with

NameUnavailable

Best to check first. If you breach the terms of your lease you can end up losing your flat. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6170745/Leaseholder-locked-legal-battle-freehold-property-owner-seizes-600-000-London-flat.html

eddddy

need_an_answer said:

Personally I  would open the can of worms and find out from the freeholder rather than potentially make an expensive mistake by the freeholder not agreeing

It's not the freeholders who decide whether a leaseholder can landscape the garden, it is the lease.

If the lease is not crystal clear on the topic, a lot of freeholders would not want to comment - i.e. they would not want to make a legal judgement on whether the lease allows the OP to do the landscaping.

For example,

• If the freeholders said "go ahead and do the landscaping"...
• A neighbouring leaseholder complained that the OP had breached a covenant by doing the landscaping
• The matter went to tribunal, and the tribunal decided that the OP had breached the lease
• The OP could potentially sue the freeholder for negligence, in telling them to go ahead

eddddy

NameUnavailable said:

Best to check first. If you breach the terms of your lease you can end up losing your flat. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6170745/Leaseholder-locked-legal-battle-freehold-property-owner-seizes-600-000-London-flat.html

As you might expect, that news story is a load of garbage.

Having briefly read the court ruling, the significant facts seem to be:

• The leaseholder was making major structural alterations to their upstairs flat
• They hadn't got the freeholders consent, they hadn't told the freeholder what they were doing, and they wouldn't allow the freeholder in the flat to have a look
• As a result of the structural alterations, the walls of the flat downstairs were cracking, the ceiling was damaged, and building dust was falling in through the ceiling

In order to deal with difficult leaseholders, in simple terms, the law allows freeholders to say "Stop breaching your lease, or I'll forfeit your lease". And 99.999% of leaseholders will stop breaching their lease.

It's a bit like if I get an injunction because of noisy neighbour's radio. Essentially the injunction says "Turn down your radio, or you'll go to prison.". And 99.999% of people would turn it down.

But it seems that this leaseholder simply ignored the legal process - maybe hoping that the court would give up and go away. So the legal process just chugged along and eventually the lease was forfeited - essentially because the leaseholder didn't step in to stop it.

NicolaDod

Thank you all for taking the time to answer my question. Every response here has been helpful!