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Expert advice for Licence to Alter

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Licence to Alter Surveyors in London

Squarepoint Chartered Surveyors offer a wide range of professional services for buildings and commercial properties for clients across London, HaringeyHackney, Highgate, Enfield, Notting Hill and Chelsea.

What is a Licence to Alter and who does it affect?

A leasehold owner (typically of a commercial unit or a flat in a multi-apartment building ) proposing structural or material changes to their property will generally require the consent of the freehold owner under the terms of the lease. Leaseholders will typically be required to obtain a Licence to Alter before modifying their property and these often take the form of legal agreements drafted by Solicitors. This allows freehold owners to protect themselves against potential losses and ensure the works won’t adversely affect other residents in the building.

Whether you are a freehold owner or a leaseholder, Squarepoint Chartered Surveyors has the expertise to guide you smoothly through the process.

Depending on the terms of the lease, freehold owners should often consent to the proposed alterations, provided the leaseholder agrees to reasonable terms and clearly outlines the proposed works. Obtaining a Licence to Alter can often be a lengthy and complicated process, and it is important to factor this into timescales for undertaking work and ensure you are getting good advice and guidance.

Examples of works that may require a Licence to Alter:

  • Structural alterations i.e. the removal of load-bearing walls or the formation of new openings
  • Changing window units if not demised to the flat
  • Alterations to or installing additional bathrooms or WCs
  • New heating installations – i.e. forming a new penetration to the external wall for a boiler flue
  • Changes floor finishes – i.e. switching from soft floor coverings such as carpet to wood flooring

 How Squarepoint can assist freehold owners – 

We can review the lease terms and covenants relating to the Licence to Alter as well as act as an intermediary between the freeholder and leaseholder. We can also undertake an inspection of the building and review the proposed works before they commence and ensure they are appropriately designed and advise on any relevant clauses or requirements of the License to Alter.

We can also undertake inspections during and at the end of the works to ensure that the alterations are completed according to the Licence to Alter terms and that all relevant documentation has been obtained.

The benefits of our services:

  • Gain a comprehensive understanding of the proposed works
  • Protect your building and any of the other leaseholders
  • Ensure the leaseholder complies with the licence to alter agreement

How Squarepoint can assist leasehold owners –

Freehold owners can sometimes place an obligation on the leaseholder to obtain an independent report of their proposed works to form part of the Licence to Alter agreement. We will review the lease terms and covenants relating to the proposed works and provide a clear and concise report that summarises your proposals. We will advise you if there are any works that may not be permitted under the terms of the lease and work with you and the freehold owner to reach an agreement on the proposed works. We can also advise on any relevant clauses or requirements that get added to the Licence to Alter agreement to ensure it is a fair agreement and that both parties fully understand any requirements.

We can also provide a ‘sanity’ check of your proposals before you submit them to a freehold owner to ensure that your submission is clear and does not contain any items likely to be refused by the freehold owner.

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Working with Adam Graham at Squarepoint was a very smooth and easy process. He was always clear and thorough in our communication and provided very detailed advice. I would highly recommend Squarepoint!”

The team at Squarepoint were very helpful, knowledgeable and understanding when dealing with my loft conversion and party wall agreement.”

We have used Squarepoint Chartered Surveyors at several of our Parishes and have found them to be very efficient in the production of reports on a variety of issues such as building condition surveys and PPM, defect investigations and Party Wall matters.”

Young, trustworthy, professionally competent and committed to delivering on time and on budget.”

Fast and friendly service with an extremely thorough survey. The Surveyor’s phone call to explain the findings of the report, before the official survey was sent, was invaluable.

I used Squarepoint for a party wall agreement. From my initial conversation with Eve through to Adam completing the party wall award, the process was smooth, professional and timely given the challenges of COVID lockdown. Thank you for your great service.

Really helpful team at Squarepoint, on hand to help with any queries and take you through the whole process clearly and at a pace guided by you. Our party wall surveyor, Adam, was great at communicating and efficient throughout  the whole process, could not ask for more.

I had been hunting for a simple job that required a surveyor’s expertise, but had been struggling to find trust throughout my enquiries, until I spoke to Adam.

The advice simply and honestly given by Adam on our first call was remarkable. His friendly but competent application and manner made it easy for me to hire him, and not only did he more than deliver on the required services, but his price was the most competitive I could find. Would highly recommend Eve and Adam at Squarepoint.”

 

I recently hired Adam to help with a party wall award required on both sides of my terraced house.

He was able to liaise with both parties to answer their initial questions/concerns, which led to them both appointing him as the agreed surveyor, which saved me time and money.

Adam prepared the final award comprehensively and quickly. I would thoroughly recommend him and his friendly Admin assistant Eve.

From the very first time I called Scott, he was very attentive to my requirements for a building survey. From the outset he noted down my areas of concern, updated me with progress prior to the survey and gave me a thorough debrief after the survey. The quality of his report was excellent, very easy to understand and, importantly, comprehensive.

I was extremely pleased with the excellent service provided by Scott Buchanan of Squarepoint Chartered Surveyors, and  I hope to contact yourselves in due course with a view to getting further advice.