Permission for Loft Conversion

[verve]

Permission for Loft Conversion

We would be very grateful for any help with regards to an issue with our neighbours on-going loft conversion, where the roof space is not included in the demise of their lease.

We own a ground floor one-bedroom flat in a converted terraced house. The house comprises a basement flat, 2no. flats at ground floor and 1no. at first floor. We currently rent out our flat and the others are all owner-occupied. We all have a Share of Freehold and are part of a management company, which is administered by the owner of the basement flat.

The first floor flat (above us) has begun converting the roof space without our permission. They are the only flat with access to the roof space.

We received an email from them in May 2010 asking us to agree to getting the Property Deeds amended using a Deed of Variation, so as to effectively increase the size of their demise to include the roof space and to take responsibility for roof repairs etc. No Deed of Variation was sent to us.

In response, we requested some further information with regards to plans, duration of building work etc before we could agree to any Deed of Variation or loft conversion. They provided some further information / plans and we told them that we needed some further time for consideration. We had concerns with the disruption to our tenants, visual appearance to the building and additional pressure on a small communal area.

All the other flats had agreed to the loft conversion. This was how it was left, and there was no agreement or Deed of Variation signed by us.

We discovered that building work had started this January 2011. Scaffolding has been up around the building for 4 weeks (building work starting in December). We received no notice from the first floor flat owners or consulted as part of their planning application.

Our tenants are not happy about the disruption, scaffolding and general building waste / dust. We are concerned that they may serve notice on their tenancy agreement, and we would lose very good tenants and incur the costs of finding new ones.

1. Should a Deed of Variation been drawn-upso that it released us of all obligation for roof repairs etc? Would this have required all of our signatures? What is our legal position?

2. Should we have been consulted during the planning application, as per the notice required to be given to owners with a freehold interest or leasehold interest under the ‘Town and Country Planning (General Development Procedure) Order 1995 Certificate under Article 6 or 7’? Looking up the application online, we are down on the form as having been consulted and that notice was given. This is untrue.

3. The loft is not demised in their lease and therefore it is not theirs to convert. They are adding 55 sq.m to their property with 2no. bedrooms and a bathroom. Can we seek retrospectively our share in the value of the loft space?

4. How do we ensure that we are not liable for the roof repairs etc and we are paying a fair proportion of the building maintenance costs? Can we enforce them into a Deed of Variation?

5. Are we entitled to damages if the tenants move out and we incur costs etc?

Thank you for any help or advice.

[Caspar]

Re: Permission for Loft Conversion

You need to see the planning permission being granted and find out if they have done everything legally. A call to your council should inform you where you need to go to view planning and they should be able to answer any questions you have.

[pallaz1851]

Re: Permission for Loft Conversion

Caspar is correct, you need to go to your local council and ask for a member of the Planning dept, you should be able to walk in for a query but they will tell you if you need to make an appointment.
Having been in joint property before, as far as I am aware no party can adversly or make beneficial alterations to the property without full planning permission and agreement (or at least consultation) with all parties in writing...by the planning dept.
As far as I am aware this is at best Building Regulations on their part, I feel it is full planning, in which case everything you are listing should be under consultation...
A quick visit will answer the immediate and if they are in contravention an enforcement officer will attend and make them stop!
Best wishes
Pallaz1851

[Maxie Girl]

Re: Permission for Loft Conversion

A ''Deed of Variation'' will also need to be registered at Land Registry so may be worth giving them a call too for any info..

ie: Name of person(s) that registered the deed..

Date in which it was registered etc etc..


Once you have established with the planning office whether planning permission was needed or granted.....

If you then make an appointment with your planning officer at your local council you can pre-arrange for the plans to be available for your viewing on that day/date and it's also worth knowing that you can ask for them to photo copy (at a very small cost) any of the the information within that file that you are viewing so you can take it home and study it at your own leisure, look things up or simply ask questions on..

Also, ask for the appointed planning officer's Name that is in charge of the case.. ''for reference purposes'', that way you can speak with him/her at any point with questions you may have or for explanations of the planning terminology used within the ''Town and Country Planning Act 1990''... for example... in this case you may come up against the term ''S106 Agreement'' and you wish for this terminology to be explained in more simpler terms..

[pallaz1851]

Re: Permission for Loft Conversion

Hi,
It has been troubling me all evening, for my sins I was the Parish Chairman where I live and a paper came out to me about 'Streamlining planning applications in Local Government' it was a consultative document and I believe it has now or is being implemented.......under this a lot of the planning requirements of the past have changed to ease up the backlog in Local Gov Planning & Devel. I remember Roof/Loft conversions was a part of this and I believe it was moved to Building Regs only....that may not apply as it is a joint residence. However, enclosed is a lead to run through...


http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/commonprojects/loftconversion/casestudy

You wsill note there are case studies and one of them in particular shows two ways of approaching the loft conversion with the Local office

Building regulations

"There are two options to ensure that your building conforms to the relevant building regulations: submitting Full Plans for approval in advance, or doing the work By Notice. We chose to do it By Notice, which meant we didn't have to submit plans in advance but had regular on-the-spot meetings with the Building Control Officer who would approve the work as we did it."

The method of 'doing it by notice' could be stealth measure whereupon you were not informed as you state, though how your approval was obtained I do not know, unless your tenant signed on your behalf??

Best of luck, can go back to bed now..

[verve]

Re: Permission for Loft Conversion

I’ve contacted the local planning department. They confirmed that a letter was sent out on 20th August 2010. Unfortunately, we didn’t receive the letter and planning department said that they cannot be held responsible for it not being delivered.

With regards to the notice required to be given to us by the flat owners (a freehold interest or leasehold interest under the ‘Town and Country Planning (General Development Procedure) Order 1995 Certificate under Article 6 or 7’). The planning department take the information filled in on the planning application form in good faith. i.e. that we were consulted.

They did email us some preliminary plans and stated their intention to apply for planning permission. Does this constitute a notice? It would appear as though it might constitute one. In any case, we didn’t give permission for the work or variation to the lease.

I’ve contacted the Land registry. A new title number has been created for their leasehold title in July 2010, and the old title number closed.

The new register includes ‘NOTE: Only the first floor flat, staircase leading thereto and loft space are included in the title.’

The registered Freeholder owner is the Management Company. The title absolute is the Management Company.