Extending a Leasehold?

zag2me

I live in a ground floor flat which has a big area out the back of just overgrown grass and bushes. Would it be possible to put an extension on the back of my flat? Might seem a stupid question as I dont own the land, but it just seems like a waste.

Doozergirl

I'm sure if that land is leased to you, you can extend. Have you seen the deeds? Does any of the garden fall to you at all or is it communal? I had a downstairs neighbour in London where the garden was divided into sections for each of us and his was immediately up against the building and he extended. I don't know whether he had to get permission from the freeholder.

If you don't own it, could you arrange with the freeholder to extend the lease to cover it? You should probably chat to a solicitor to workout what you can do and maybe approach the freeholder. A little extra piece of land wouldn't cost much.

Ian_W

No lawyer but have owned a few l/hold premises.

I would have thought the land falls into 1 of 3 catagories. It adjoins your flat so you may own the leasehold on it, you say you don't and you're probably right as garden flats tend to attact a premium, but check the lease anyway.

Whilst you're doing that, check if there is any reference to it as communal gardens and rights for you to use them. If there is, then it's probably the same on the other owners leaseholds, so given they have rights to use the land [even though by the sound of it, none do] it's probably a NO/NO.

If neither of those apply it's probably owned by the freeholder with no leaseholders having any rights to use it. Sometimes the freehold is held by all the leaseholders together in a company, sometimes by a 3rd party owner. Sounds like the latter in this case - if so, nothing to stop you approaching them to see if you can buy the land to extend onto. Not sure doozerg is right that it wouldn't cost much, you'd have declare it was to build onto as in most l/holds you need their permission to make serious alterations anyway.

If you can figure out ownership, you're in with a chance. You will need PP [flats, I don't think, have extending rights without it-unlike houses] etc but it could add significant value depending on what you do. Alternatively, you could avoid the hassle, cost & upheaval by buying the leasehold to use as a garden. Again it will usually add value particularly in a town or city location. Also give you a nice place to sit out & relax with a glass of vino!! :beer:

Certainly worth checking out I think.

zag2me

Thanks for the help guys, im going to talk to my solicitor about the leasehold and who owns the land.

Doozergirl

Depends on what your idea of 'much' is I supppose! I'm not sure, but I think you pay a percentage of the building costs for the lease eg. £10,000 conservatory, pay £1000 for lease... Def cheaper then the cost of moving though!

It can't be extortionate - isn't the freeholder legally bound to charge appropriately?

Ian_W

Not too sure about that DoozerG. Certainly bound in respect of existing l/holders & their leases BUT if the land is owned by the freeholder with no l/holder having rights to it, I would have thought, they could charge what they wanted to sell effectively a new leasehold.
Leasehold rights/laws are extremely complex. But that wouldn't be dealing with an existing l/hold simply selling some more of the property to someone who happens to hold a lease on another part of the building. In theory there is no reason why they couldn't sell the land to someone who doesn't have a leasehold, though what a third party could do with it is difficult to imagine.