In this week’s property surveying blogpost we are going to be discussing Licence for Alterations procedures, and in particular the pre-works procedures that a leaseholder will need to follow in order to ensure that they adhere to the freeholder’s Licence for Alterations requirements.
If you are planning on undertaking works to your property that fall within the realm of a Licence for Alterations, the first and foremost thing you need to consider is obtaining your freeholder’s, or share of freeholder’s, consent thereby validating the works that you are planning on undertaking, and ensuring that they meet all of the legal requirements.
In order to do this, you will need to have a pre-works discussion and consultation with your freeholder, and likely a Chartered Surveyor that they appoint to represent their interests.
The surveyor’s duty will be to advise the freeholder of the proposed works from the perspective of the envelope of the building, and ultimately ensure that the associated risks in respect of those works are as minimal as possible.
However, that is not the only objective, the other aim is to ensure that the nuisance associated with the works is as low as it can possibly be.
In order to achieve this, the surveyor will likely put in place a number of restrictive covenants and restraints during the course of the works, that could range from anything from restricted working hours to temporary protection to common areas, to pre-work and post-work Schedule of Condition inspection reports of adjoining flats above, below or left and right, or ultimately, any other material matter that could best serve the other leaseholders, whom form part of the envelope of the building.
Licence for Alterations are more often than not overlooked, and can come as a bit of a surprise to the leaseholder once they have gone through all of the other procedures surrounding construction works, and we would therefore advise speaking to a Chartered Surveyor at the first instance, and as early on in the process as you can, as that will ensure that you are on the right side of the legal procedures, and ultimately ensure that the works can progress in a timely and reasonable manner.
If you would like to discuss Licences with our team of Surveyors here at Stokemont, give us a call or get in touch here and we will be more than happy to assist you.
