Licence to Alter Packages for London Flats

Most long leases restrict what a leaseholder can do without the freeholder’s consent. When you want to make structural or significant alterations, the freeholder typically grants permission through a Licence to Alter — a formal document, usually prepared by the freeholder’s solicitor and informed by the freeholder’s surveyor — setting out the approved works and conditions. To assess the application, freeholders and managing agents almost always require drawings and supporting technical information.

We prepare or coordinate that information: existing and proposed layouts, structural opening details for the engineer to design, and information on the matters freeholders scrutinise most — floor build-ups and acoustic performance, fire stopping between dwellings, waterproofing, and the relocation of wet areas. Where works are structural, a structural engineer’s input is required, and the freeholder’s surveyor reviews on the freeholder’s behalf. Clear documentation that anticipates these concerns helps the application progress.

Not every change needs consent, and knowing where the line falls saves time. Purely cosmetic work — redecoration, replacing kitchen units in the same position — usually does not, while structural alterations, moving or removing walls, changing the layout of bathrooms and kitchens, altering windows, and often even new flooring typically do, because the lease reserves them to the freeholder’s consent. The lease itself defines what is caught, and a freeholder generally cannot unreasonably refuse consent to a reasonable alteration. We read the lease against the proposal so the application covers exactly what it needs to.

A Licence to Alter runs to its own sequence: you apply with drawings and a specification; the freeholder’s surveyor reviews them, often raising queries or conditions; and once terms are agreed the licence is drawn up by the freeholder’s solicitor and signed before work starts. The leaseholder usually meets the freeholder’s reasonable surveyor and legal costs as well as their own, and the overall timescale sits largely outside your control. Building that lead time into the programme — and submitting a clear, complete pack to minimise queries — is the practical key to keeping it from delaying the build.

Freeholder consent is only one of the approvals a flat project may need. External alterations can also require planning permission, and most of the works will need building regulations approval, so the sensible approach is to prepare one coherent set of drawings that serves all of them rather than three inconsistent submissions. Crucially, the works should not begin until the licence is signed, even if planning and building control are in hand. We coordinate the three strands so they move together and nothing starts ahead of the consent that authorises it.

A Licence to Alter pack is not a thin layout sketch. Freeholder surveyors typically want existing and proposed floor plans, enough section and detail information to understand structural openings, and a written description of works that matches the drawings. Where wet rooms move, they look for waterproofing intent; where floors change, acoustic build-ups; where walls come out, engineer-led structural strategy; and where fire compartmentation could be affected, clear fire-stopping notes. Managing agents often add building-specific rules — floor finishes, working hours, contractor insurance, protection of common parts — that sit beside the drawings rather than on them. We assemble the pack so the surveyor can review once, not chase missing sheets.

The practical aim is fewer query loops. Incomplete packs stall while the freeholder’s surveyor asks for the next missing drawing, then the next. A complete first submission costs a little more design time up front and usually saves weeks of correspondence later — especially in mansion blocks and managed estates where several flats share structure, drainage stacks and fire strategies.

Leasehold flats often need three tracks: freeholder consent under the lease, planning permission where external or material change engages the council, and building regulations approval for the technical works. Those tracks are not interchangeable. Starting on site with planning and building control alone can still breach the lease. The efficient path is one measured survey, one design model, then drawing packages tailored to each audience — planning sheets for the council, technical sheets for building control, and freeholder-facing packs that emphasise neighbour protection, structure, acoustics and fire. We keep those packages coordinated so a late freeholder condition does not force a redesign of an already-submitted planning set.

Timescales sit partly outside your control: freeholder surveyors and solicitors work to their own diaries. Building programme contingency for the licence is not optional padding — it is how you avoid a contractor standing still with materials ordered and no signed consent. We flag that lead time at route review so the client, freeholder process and build programme stay aligned. Our Licence to Alter process guide sets the sequence out end-to-end for leaseholders.