© 2025 News On The Block. All rights reserved.
News on the Block is a trading name of Premier Property Media Ltd.
© 2025 News On The Block. All rights reserved.
News on the Block is a trading name of Premier Property Media Ltd.
In a straw poll, 70% our property management clients chose ‘Licences to Alter’ in response to a question: ‘Which part of your work do you most dread?”. The whole process of Licences to Alter is paved with issues – both technical and diplomatic. The key to their irritation factor is the number of involved parties and the collective time pressures to deal with applications promptly.
There’s the leaseholder’s application to the landlord; the landlord’s call to the surveyor; the surveyor’s review of the proposals, consideration of the lease and report on the implications to the building and the lease; the solicitor’s involvement; liaison between landlord and tenant; and the requirement to educate the landlord and tenant in the nuances of this widely misunderstood process.
And that’s all before the real work begins. Licence to Alter typically involve:
Structural Alterations:
What? Proposed changes to room sizes to create larger or open-plan spaces and re-positioning of door openings.
Specifics: A landlord’s engineer is usually recommended to check the design and calculations of the leaseholder’s engineer. Have assumptions of conditions in adjacent flats been properly assessed/considered? Schedules of condition must be prepared to check if flats above and below suffer potential damage as a result. Will load paths be impacted? Have the contractor’s temporary works been assessed and approved by the engineers?
Installation of hard floor finishes:
What? A tenant who removes carpet to install a wooden floor may be in breach of their lease due to the noise nuisance that can result.
Specifics: Acoustic tests should be carried out and acoustic insulation material suggested to meet benchmarks. Post-installation tests are also recommended to provide assurances that the new flooring/insulation
meets the
design targets.
Relocation of Wet Areas:
What? Movement of kitchens and bathrooms (particularly for en-suites) can create noise pollution and create an impact on plumbing elsewhere in the building.
Specifics: The Licence must consider ventilation, installation of macerators, waterproofing systems and specific conditions that may set a precedent throughout the building.
External Alterations:
What? Replacement windows, pipe-work alterations, installation of new louvres.
Specifics: Cutting into the landlord’s structure. Specifying the appearance and durability of the materials. How will the work be carried out safely? Are there any planning considerations?
What precedents will be set?
In isolation, nothing is particularly complex about any of these. Issues tend to arise in the communication and relationship management between all the parties.
With so many interests, and the often “urgent” gumption for the leaseholder to start works, you should avoid key responsibilities falling between different individuals, and blame culture developing from the very start.
Ensure a surveyor does more than ‘tick the boxes’. They should lead the process, When the phone rings with a reference to those three dreaded words, you can smile happily and hand the burden over to them.
Julian Davies is a Director of Earl Kendrick Associates