Fixing up your flat?

If you plan to make improvements to your flat, you do need to speak to us first.

Under the terms of your lease, you need the consent of your freeholder, Octavia to carry out certain works. In some cases, you may also need to get Planning or Building Control approval from the local council.

In many cases, only our written consent is necessary. However, if you are changing the layout of your flat, you will need a licence to alter, drafted by our solicitor. The revised plans will then have to be sent to Land Registry so that if you sell on, your purchaser knows the alteration was approved.

In extreme cases, if you carry out works without our consent, you risk forfeiture of your lease and you may have to re-instate the flat to its original condition. 

What You Need to Provide for a Licence to Alter  

For Octavia to consider granting consent, you need to provide us with the following:  

1) Scale drawings (1:50) of the proposed alterations.

2) Detailed specification of the proposed alterations.

3) Where any walls are being removed, a Structural Engineer’s calculations of any structural support to be provided. Also his/her report that the removal of the wall will present no excessive stress to be caused to the building. Octavia reserves the right to appoint its own engineer to corroborate your engineer’s report.

4) Details of any alterations to the soil/waste pipes.

5) Copy of the consent given by the local authority’s Planning Department.

6) Copy of the consent given by local authority’s Building Control.

7) An undertaking to meet our solicitors and surveying fees irrespective of whether the Licence is granted or not.

8) A cheque made payable to "Octavia Housing & Care" for £176.25 (£150 plus VAT) which is our fee for considering your application.

When these are received, our surveyor will review them to see how they may affect the building. We would then inform you if we thought Octavia needed to appoint its own structural engineer. You would be obliged to reimburse Octavia for any costs incurred in his/her appointment.

If we approve your application then we will notify you of the approximate cost of the Licence to Alter and, should you agree, instruct our solicitor to draft a this.

If our surveyors need to visit the property during works then there will be a charge of £50 per hour plus VAT.

After completion of the works, in addition to you obtaining a Completion Certificate from Building Control, our surveyor will inspect your property for final approval. Our surveyor’s costs are £50 per hour plus VAT. This would usually be no more than three hours work.

Remember-no works can be undertaken until formal consent is granted.