Licence to Alter Drawings in Putney

The opening consent matrix has four columns: proposed operation, affected property element, documentary authority and evidence required. The executed lease supplies the alteration covenant and demise plan; a current landlord or managing-agent instruction identifies the reviewer. HM Land Registry can provide title information and a plan showing general boundaries, but that plan is not treated as a measured drawing or a complete definition of a flat’s demise.

Each operation is classified before design language is polished. Removing a partition, cutting retained structure, changing a floor finish, moving sanitary fittings, routing an extract, replacing a window and using common parts for access can engage different clauses. LEASE explains that a lease may prohibit alterations, permit them, or make them conditional on written consent. We quote the actual clause instead of assuming that every Putney lease uses a licence.

The survey is limited by the interfaces the proposal must explain. Existing and proposed plans distinguish retained and removed construction, room uses, openings, fixed services and shared circulation where relevant. Sections or details are added through a floor, ceiling, roof, external wall or structural opening only when that relationship matters. Concealed materials and ownership are marked for investigation; they are not invented from surface finishes or neighbouring drawings.

Decision-maker identity changes the submission route. A private freeholder, resident management company, right-to-manage company, housing association or professional manager may issue its own current requirements under the lease. Wandsworth’s published alterations page is instead landlord guidance for its council leaseholders. We do not import its checklist, charges, consultation steps or legal instrument into a privately managed Putney building.

For a confirmed Wandsworth Council leasehold home, the council says structural alterations and work affecting communal services require landlord permission, while ordinary internal kitchen-unit or bathroom renewal may not. Its request route asks for scaled plans, measurements, method information, specification and scope-dependent statutory evidence. Permission is granted only through the completed legal document described by the council; sending drawings or receiving a site visit is not that permission.

A structural opening receives an engineering brief rather than a generic beam annotation. The survey locates the opening and relevant supports; an appropriately qualified engineer determines the load path, member, bearings and temporary condition for the verified construction. The licence pack records the engineer’s revision and any opening-up assumption. Landlord acceptance, Building Regulations approval and any Party Wall notice remain different decisions even when they refer to the same detail.

Wet-service and flooring proposals are documented by route and build-up. Drawings can show water supply, waste direction, penetrations, falls where designed, extract termination, waterproofing zone, access for maintenance and the proposed floor layers. Acoustic or fire information is included when the lease, surveyed separation or work makes it relevant. We do not state that every bathroom move needs the same membrane, every floor needs one proprietary system or every existing outlet is available.

Work at a flat entrance, shared corridor, riser or separating construction is screened as a building interface, not described as decoration. The pack records what is demised, what the landlord retains and which specialist information the actual alteration calls for. A product certificate can support a selected component, but it cannot prove the existing wall, establish permission to alter a common part or replace the project-specific Building Regulations assessment.

External appearance creates a separate Wandsworth planning branch. The council publishes individual maps and appraisals for East Putney, Putney Embankment, Putney Heath, Putney Lower Common and other conservation areas. We use only the designation returned for the full address. If a window, louvre, flue, plant item, roof element or entrance change affects the exterior, the proposal is checked through the correct planning route without presenting landlord consent as planning permission.

Putney Lower Common has a published Article 4 direction, but its existence is not a Putney-wide rule. The address, direction boundary and specified development must all be matched before a permitted-development conclusion is recorded. Other conservation mapping does not silently acquire that direction. Conversely, an alteration can still require private consent even when it does not need a planning application, because the lease and planning system answer different questions.

Listed status is also resolved from the property record. Wandsworth states that listed-building consent can be required for work, including interior alteration, that affects the building’s special architectural or historic interest. Where listing is confirmed, the drawings identify the affected fabric and a heritage specialist can define significance. Neither an area appraisal nor a landlord’s approval authorises loss of protected fabric, and visual age alone does not prove listing.

Building control is scoped from the work and building classification. GOV.UK identifies many alteration types that may need approval and explains that a local authority or registered building control approver can handle non-higher-risk work, while the Building Safety Regulator has the prescribed higher-risk route. The current Approved Documents provide compliance guidance. A Licence to Alter issue is neither an approval notice nor a completion certificate.

Before construction, the issue register reconciles the executed private consent, any planning or listed-building decision, building-control route, consultant designs and relevant Party Wall status. GOV.UK limits Party Wall notification to the statutory categories, including work to a party structure, building at a boundary and certain excavation below and near adjoining foundations; an award is not assumed for an internal refurbishment. Site changes are revised through every affected approval, and completion records are retained against the work actually carried out.