Vague lease wording - is a License to Alter required? If so, extra £3k costs

harrison247

eddddy said:

harrison247 said:

But, when eventually selling the property, I would then need to state in the sale docs that works had been done in the property - in this situation it would be preferable to have some form of consent from the freeholder in case the buyer's solicitor questions this...

It depends on the mindset of the buyer - and their solicitor.

For example, if the buyer thinks the alterations should have been authorised, and there's a risk of the freeholder finding out about them sometime in the future - and coming after them with a £3k (or more) bill for retrospective consent, then they might be worried.

But they can get indemnity insurance. Or they might want to insist that you get retrospective consent before they'll exchange contracts. Or they might read the lease and agree that no consent is required.


The problem with getting retrospective consent when you sell is it can delay things. And some nasty freeholders will see it as an opportunity to charge 'rip-off' fees - because they hope you'll be prepared to pay 'silly money' to stop your sale falling through.

Good point, and this is what concerns me. I guess my 3 options are:

1. Do not mention anything to the freeholder. Then, when selling, do not mention this alteration in the TA7 bit of the Leasehold Information Form. I wouldn't feel great about this, but I also do not see how a future buyer/solicitor would actually know there was any alteration. (There is no floorplan in the lease.)

2. Do not mention anything to the freeholder. But, when selling, do declare in the Leasehold Information Form for the buyer that an alteration was carried out, include the relevant surveyor and regulation docs, and tick that freeholder consent was not needed as the walls were not bearing. Then HOPE that neither the buyer's solicitor or the freeholder disagrees.

3. Engage the freeholder now, highlighting that the lease actually only requires consent for bearing walls, and hope that they simply agree this is the case. Then I have documentation later on of a form of consent, legitimately without having required the licence for alteration.

There are so many unknowns that I'm not sure how to balance risk vs. cost!

Jonboy_1984

Depends what's around you. On our last estate the flat we had one was one of around 200 built to the same floor plan (in around 15 blocks). The next town over has an estate with the same designs (same original developer).

The alterations on our flat stood out a mile to the local estate agents and buyers who had done their research.