Read the Licence Before the Ladder Comes Out: Auditing Leasehold Consent for Flat Alterations
Photo: Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Flat owners in England and Wales are often surprised to learn that their lease governs far more than the rent. Buried in the covenants is usually a restriction on making improvements — anything from removing an internal wall to fitting a new kitchen — without the freeholder's written permission. Obtaining that permission, typically through a formal licence for alterations, is where many leaseholders come unstuck: not because consent is refused, but because the paperwork that arrives bears only a passing resemblance to what the lease actually demands.
Why the Consent Letter and the Lease Are Rarely the Same Thing
A short letter from a freeholder's managing agent saying "permission granted for the works described" is not a licence. It is an informal consent at best, and many leases require the formal instrument: a deed, executed as a deed, containing schedules of works, conditions, reinstatement obligations and often a fee. The gap matters. If the lease requires a licence and you proceed on the strength of a letter, you may have breached a covenant regardless of how cooperative the freeholder seemed.
The reverse problem is just as common. The freeholder's solicitor drafts a licence containing conditions the lease never mentioned — a requirement to reinstate the property on sale, for instance, or to pay the freeholder's legal costs on an indemnity basis. Leaseholders sign because they assume the document must reflect the lease. Frequently, it does not.
What a Proper Consent Pack Should Contain
Before a contractor sets foot in the flat, the complete file should include:
- The executed licence for alterations, dated and signed by all parties named in the lease, including any intermediate landlord where the lease requires it.
- A schedule of approved works that matches your drawings and specification exactly. A mismatch — the licence permitting a removed wall but not the steel beam supporting it — creates a permanent technical breach.
- Any third-party consents, such as building regulations approval, party wall awards where the works affect a shared wall, and landlord's notice under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.
- Confirmation of fee liability, ideally capped, since freeholders routinely charge for surveyor review and legal drafting.
- Certification requirements, such as a structural engineer's calculation for load-bearing changes.
The Condition the Freeholder's Lawyer Forgot
Errors in the freeholder's paperwork are more common than leaseholders expect. A licence may omit a condition the lease requires — certification of electrical works, or notification of a future purchaser — or, more dangerously, may fail to record that a particular consent was granted at all, leaving the schedule blank.
If you spot a defect before signing, raise it in writing and ask for a corrected version. If the error surfaces after completion, the practical remedy is a deed of variation correcting the licence. Neither is catastrophic if caught early; both become expensive when a buyer's conveyancer finds the discrepancy years later, because an incomplete consent file is one of the standard queries raised in leasehold conveyancing and can delay or derail a sale.
A Practical Checklist Before Works Start
- Read the covenants in your lease first — do not rely on the freeholder to tell you what needs consent.
- Compare the draft licence against the lease line by line, and against your contractor's quotation.
- Confirm the executing parties match the lease, including any guarantor or intermediate landlord.
- Check whether the licence imposes reinstatement on sale and budget for it.
- Store the executed licence with your title documents permanently — it forms part of the property's record.
Consent paperwork is unglamorous, but it is the difference between an improvement that adds value and one that becomes a defect on the title. Audit the pack before the ladder comes out, not after.
