Legal question - "Licence for Alterations"

[fred_easey]

Hi,

My girlfriend is currently having a shower room put in to her flat in London. Her and the other 5 people who live in the block recently bought the freehold for the block from the church comissioners.

She wrote to the freehold company using the address of the laywers who handled the freehold purchase to request permission for the works and has just recieved a letter back from the laywers saying that she will have to pay the laywers £500 + vat to act on her behalf to request a "Licence for Alterations" from the Freehold company.

Question is, should she pay the £587 and let the laywer sort everything out or is there an easy (read easy as cheap / free) way of requesting the Licence for Alterations from the Freehold company eg just printing out a standard letter for the other 5 people to sign to authorise the works?

Any advice much appreciated,

Cheers,

Fred

 

[Raymond Lin]

Alterations usually require 2 things

1 - Planning permission/Building regulation

may be with

2 - Covenants conditions.

Need to check the registry to see if there is any restrictive convenants that stops her doing the work. If there isn't then just apply for building regs, adding a shower room doesn't have anything to do with planning...unless her flat is listed.

 

[fred_easey]

The flat is grade II listed, so she is applying to the council to get listed building consent and AFAIK that is all fine.

The problem is with the getting permission from the freeholder, who in this case is her and the 5 other people who live in the block. The lawyer says that it will cost her £587 for the lawyer to sort it out for her, question is, does she actually need a lawyer, or can she just print off a letter and get everyone to sign it? (can you get standard letters for this sort of thing?)

 

[Norbert666]

The Licence to Alter is a legal formality that protects landlords' assets.

i.e. it stops tenants building/altering the property and potentially devaluaing it, making it dangerous, unlettable etc - trust me I've seen all sorts.

If the prescedent has already been set that other tenants have had a similar alteration, then there's very little to worry about.

For the submission you will howvere probably be asked for full details of the alterations (techincal and statutory), so be prepared.

In answer to your question, yes, it is something lawyers need to draft and you as a lay-person cannot: unfortunately.



James

 

[fred_easey]

The prescedent has definitely been set, as the people who live below and the ground floor have both done extensive renovations recently (much bigger works than just adding in a shower room).

Looks like she'll have to bite the bullet and pay the laywer then. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[Norbert666]

She'll aslo probably incurr additional fees to produce the package of info required: Building regs, planning, all drawings, details, calsulations (if applicable) etc.

Try to get your builder to provide the majority of the technical stuff for free, then you only have the statutory fees to pay.