Guide
Licence to alter: kitchens and bathrooms in leasehold flats
Most flats in North West London are leasehold, and most kitchen and bathroom work in them needs the freeholder's written permission before anything is taken out.
What a licence to alter actually is
A licence to alter is written consent from your freeholder, usually administered by a managing agent, permitting a specific alteration to a specific flat. It sits entirely separately from planning permission and building control. Planning is a public process run by the council and concerns itself mainly with the outside of the building; a licence to alter is a private matter between you and the person who owns the building, and concerns itself with what you are proposing to do to their asset.
The requirement comes from your lease rather than from legislation, so the trigger differs building to building. Some leases catch any alteration to the fabric. Others catch only structural work, or only work affecting services shared with other flats. Reading the lease is the first step, and it is worth doing before a design is settled rather than after cabinetry is ordered.
When a kitchen or bathroom triggers one
Replacing units and appliances in the same positions, on existing services, often falls outside the requirement. What tends to trigger it is movement: relocating a waste or a soil connection, cutting a new extract through an external wall or into a shared duct, altering the floor build-up over the flat below, or changing anything that could affect another leaseholder's demise.
Bathrooms trigger it more often than kitchens, because a bathroom sits directly above someone else's ceiling and a failed waterproofing detail becomes their problem rather than yours. Wet rooms and level-access showers attract particular attention for the same reason, and some agents will ask for the waterproofing system to be specified and tested before tiling.
Where the answer is genuinely unclear, agents would generally rather be asked than not. An enquiry costs a fortnight; discovering mid-strip-out that consent was needed costs considerably more.
What the pack usually contains
Requirements vary, but a typical pack includes drawings showing the existing and proposed layouts, a written specification, a method statement covering hours and access, evidence that the contractor is insured, and confirmation that gas and electrical work will be carried out by appropriately registered people. Some agents ask for a schedule of condition for the common parts. Some ask for a deposit against damage to them.
We prepare drawings and a method statement as part of the lead-in on the work we take on. What we cannot do is grant the consent: that is the freeholder's, and holding a share of the freehold changes who signs rather than whether a signature is needed. In a converted house with a shared freehold, the people signing are your neighbours, formally.
Where it sits in the programme
The wait belongs in the lead-in, alongside survey and ordering, not between strip-out and first fix. An agent's response time is outside anyone's control, and a flat with no kitchen waiting on a letter is the worst place to discover that.
In practice that means the consent process starts as soon as the scope is settled and runs while cabinetry, sanitaryware and stone are on order. The strip-out date is set once consent is in hand and the long-lead items have confirmed dates. It is a slower start and a shorter disruption.
Questions
Not on anything the licence covers. Work carried out without consent that the lease required can put you in breach of it, and a freeholder can require reinstatement. Where part of the scope is plainly outside the requirement — decoration, for example — that can sometimes run first, but the question is settled with the agent rather than assumed.
The leaseholder, usually. Agents commonly charge an administration fee and pass on the professional costs they incur reviewing the application. The amounts are set by the freeholder or their agent, not by us, and they are worth asking about early so they sit in your budget rather than arriving as a surprise.
No. It means you are one of the people granting the consent rather than a reason it is unnecessary. The lease still governs what may be altered, and the freehold company still gives permission in writing. In a small converted house that is a conversation with your neighbours, but it is a formal one.
The work this applies to
Where this comes up
Related guides
- Renovating a mansion flat: lifts, risers and common parts
A purpose-built mansion block is not a large flat in a converted house. The building itself sets most of the terms.
- Renovating in a conservation area: what consent actually covers
Much of North West London sits in a conservation area, and the rules bite far harder on the outside of a building than on the rooms inside it.