Remember what your solicitors tell you about extensions and alterations...

Richard_Webster

I've just been contacted by someone who bought a ground floor flat which had a bit of garden with it and so wanted to add a conservatory on the back. He checked with the Council that Planning Permission and Building Regulation approval were not required and went ahead and had it built.

He has now discovered that he needs his landlord's consent under the terms of the lease and the landlord is imposing requirements which are almost impossible for him to comply with before it will consent to the work. Depending on the detailed facts, he might be able to get a court to allow him to get round this refusal but making such an application could cost a few thousand pounds and might not succeed.

When he bought the flat his solicitor should have pointed out (preferably in a written report) that consent under the lease would be required for any alterations.

Sadly, some solicitors don't make these points clear, but there must be lots of people who don't think to check with what their solicitor told them when they come to build an extension or conservatory or make other kinds of alterations to a property.

This point often applies in a similar fashion to freehold property - there are often covenants requiring someone else's agreement to alterations and extensions, so people should never automatically assume that all they need to think about is Planning & Building Regulations.

sooz

Richard_Webster wrote: »

Sadly, some solicitors don't make these points clear, but there must be lots of people who don't think to check with what their solicitor told them when they come to build an extension or conservatory or make other kinds of alterations to a property.

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Not just big alterations. Even wanting to change a window to patio doors can be a big pain, and a nice money spinner for the freeholder.

And pets are normally forbidden, (getting permission for one small cat will cost you ) and don't even think that you can hang your washing outside.

Richard_Webster

Even wanting to change a window to patio doors can be a big pain

Yes, I had a client charged £650 by a landlord for giving retrospective consent for this to happen on a ground floor maisonette and it wasn't even work she had done. It was there when she bought it and although I would have advised her about the point, I wouldn't reasonably have known that the patio door was not original (if I even knew there was a patio door) and she probably wouldn't have thought about it.

A new Landlord bought the freeholds and wandered round the estate and wrote letters to anybody where they could find some breach or the other of the lease.

So this illustrates a further moral: When buying check the house or flat you are buying against others on the same estate/block and if there is something different about it which might not be part of the original building, question it with your solicitor and he can take it up with the seller's solicitors!

lethal0r

Yes, I had a client charged £650 by a landlord for giving retrospective consent for this to happen on a ground floor maisonette and it wasn't even work she had done.

surely thats not legal? if the previous owner has breached the contract then you are liable?

cattie

If people took the time to research what owning leasehold property entailed & also had a good read of the lease, getting a solicitor to explain any parts they don't understand if necessary then I feel there wouldn't be so much confusion with leaseholders & the fact that they need permission to do alterations or extentions to the property.

pinkshoes

cattie wrote: »

If people took the time to research what owning leasehold property entailed & also had a good read of the lease, getting a solicitor to explain any parts they don't understand if necessary then I feel there wouldn't be so much confusion with leaseholders & the fact that they need permission to do alterations or extentions to the property.

Yup, agree 100%

My lease (which I was given a copy of before exchange and completion) clearly states that I require permission of the freeholder to make any structural changes to the property, or even having a pet like cat/dog!

If the freeholder hasn't written this into the lease, then the the leaseholder can have the conservatory, but they must have been given the lease stating this???