Consent to alteration

Parisse

Hi 

"I am in the process of purchasing a leasehold property in london and have asked my solicitor to confirm with the freeholder whether I can replace part or all of the carpet with wood flooring (a change prohibited by the terms of the lease). The freeholder is requesting £300 plus VAT to grant consent for this change. My solicitor mentioned that it's typical for a fee to be charged for such requests, but they couldn't provide any insight into whether this amount is reasonable. Has anyone else experienced this? Does £300 seem excessive for this type of change? I'm not sure what the freeholder is charging for. The solicitor also mentioned that I could address this post-completion, but there’s no guarantee the freeholder would approve the request or charge the same amount."

eddddy

Parisse said:

The freeholder is requesting £300 plus VAT to grant consent for this change. 

Just to clarify - it will be a fee for considering your request. You will have to pay the fee whether or not consent is granted.

Parisse said:

"I am in the process of purchasing a leasehold property in london and have asked my solicitor to confirm with the freeholder whether I can replace part or all of the carpet with wood flooring (a change prohibited by the terms of the lease). 

If it's prohibited by the lease - in general, a freeholder cannot give you consent to breach your lease.

So I'd expect consent to be refused. 

I'm surprised your solicitor hasn't told you this - unless there is some important information that you haven't mentioned.

Emmia

The reason that leases state the place must be carpeted is to reduce noise transmission between flats through the floor. Carpet is a much better insulator than wooden flooring.

Our lease says our flat must be carpeted, but the previous owners put wood floors down - with clearly a lot of insulation as sounds don't seem to transmit. We haven't changed the flooring back to carpet, but if it was an issue we'd have to carpet the place quickly 

That £300 will be for them to consider your request, nothing more.