Retrospective Consent from Freeholder

johnny182

Hi all. We're in the process of buying a leasehold house and one of the issues we've come up against is an extension done in ~2017 which has PP, b regs, but not consent from the freeholder.
The Lease states that any alterations to the property require the prior written consent of the landlord.  As the property has been extended, my solicitor requested covenant consent. It would appear that this was not sought and solicitor has asked that they obtain retrospective consent from the landlord. Our seller's solicitor has provided the option of an indemnity insurance but my solicitor replied she won't accept it and prefers to have a retrospective consent.

Has anyone requested retrospective consent before? Any idea how much it costs and how long it takes? I assume this will depend on the management company but just wondering if anyone has experience with this. We were hoping to complete in Jan but not sure if this will be possible because of this consent problem...

Thanks!

user1977

The cost and the time will depend on the individual freeholder, I doubt anybody else's anecdotes are going to be all that helpful (unless somebody has dealt with the same freeholder!).

Your solicitor's preference isn't the end of the matter - you're the client, what do you want? (though bear in mind that if you're buying with a mortgage, the lender is also the solicitor's client - what do they want?).

nicmyles

It's totally dependent on the freeholder. Some will have a clear process and schedule of fees, some will deny the permission outright as a matter of course, some will wave it through, and others will just pull a cost out of their heads and deal with it ad hoc. 

Sorry can't be more help. Do you have any idea who/what the freeholder is? I assume since it's a house they're the builders? How long ago was the house built?

canaldumidi

Indemnity insurance won't protect you from having to remove the extension if the freeholder plays hardball. Yes, it will financially compensate you, but the extension might still have to go.....

Silly sellers.

eddddy

johnny182 said:

The Lease states that any alterations to the property require the prior written consent of the landlord.  As the property has been extended, my solicitor requested covenant consent. 

Assuming that the 'extension' falls within the scope of what the lease describes as an 'alteration'...

The law says:

• The landlord cannot unreasonably withhold consent
• The landlord's fees for granting consent must be 'reasonable' (i.e. they can't use it as a way of making a profit)

Some landlords might just take a quick look at the plans and say "yes" - in which case the fee might be under £100.

Alternatively, it may be 'reasonable' for the landlord to instruct a structural engineer, surveyor etc to check the plans, inspect the extension etc - in which case, the fees might be much higher.


But if the 'extension' is not within the scope of what the lease describes as an 'alteration' - and therefore the extension isn't allowed by the lease...

... then the landlord can refuse consent, or charge a large premium in return for giving consent.



Another option might be to investigate buying the freehold (without mentioning the extension) - as long as the landlord doesn't want to send a valuer to take a look.