Renovating a leasehold flat: the complete guide

Renovating a leasehold flat means satisfying one more party than a freeholder does: your landlord. What you may do is decided by your lease, and the alterations clause is the first thing to read. Where that clause requires consent, section 19(2) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 means consent must not be unreasonably withheld for improvements. Where it prohibits alterations outright, the landlord does not have to engage at all.

Everything else, planning, building regulations and party wall obligations, applies on top and is entirely separate.

Start with the lease, not the design

The single most useful hour on a leasehold renovation is spent reading the lease before anything is drawn.

Three things to find.

The alterations clause, and which of three forms it takes: absolute, prohibiting alterations with no consent mechanism; qualified, requiring the landlord's consent; or fully qualified, requiring consent that must not be unreasonably withheld. Our guide to what a licence to alter is sets out what each means in practice and what a freeholder can charge.

The extent of your demise. What you actually own is often less than what you think. Internal plaster surfaces, screed, ceilings and the airspace between are commonly retained by the freeholder even where the rooms are yours. Structural walls almost always are. Whether your demise includes the floor screed decides whether you can lift it.

The repairing and use covenants, because they can restrict what you do just as effectively as the alterations clause. Flooring covenants requiring carpet across a stated proportion of the floor are common and are frequently discovered after the engineered oak has been ordered.

What usually needs consent

The honest answer is that the lease decides, and general rules mislead. That said, the pattern across most long residential leases is:

Usually needs consent. Anything structural. Removing or altering walls. Altering floors, including changing floor coverings where a covenant applies. Moving a bathroom or kitchen, because it moves drainage and can affect flats below. Altering windows, which are usually retained by the freeholder. Anything touching the roof, loft space, balcony or external walls.

Often does not. Redecoration. Replacing kitchen units in the same layout. Replacing sanitaryware in the same position. Non-structural internal work wholly within your demise.

Always check separately. Anything to services that run through other flats.

If you are unsure, ask before you commit. Retrospective consent is negotiated from a much weaker position.

The other consents, which are separate

Satisfying your freeholder satisfies your freeholder, and nothing else.

Planning. Flats and maisonettes have no permitted development rights at all. That is a significant difference from a house, and it catches people who read general renovation guidance. Every external alteration needs a planning application.

Building regulations. They apply to a flat exactly as to a house, covering structure, fire safety, drainage, ventilation and electrical safety. Our guide to the building regulations that apply to renovation work sets out which Parts bite on which work.

The Party Wall etc. Act 1996. It applies to flats. Section 20 defines a party structure to include a floor separating parts of buildings, so work to the floor between your flat and the one below can be notifiable, and the adjoining owner is a separate person from your landlord. Our guide to how party walls work in London covers who counts as an owner.

You can hold a licence to alter and still be in breach of the Party Wall Act. The consents do not substitute for one another in any direction.

Major works, and the other section 20

Worth separating clearly, because two different statutes use the same number and they get conflated constantly.

Party Wall etc. Act 1996, section 20 is the interpretation section. It defines terms like party structure and owner.

Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 20 is the service charge consultation regime. It limits what a freeholder can recover from leaseholders for major works unless they have consulted properly.

The threshold is not in the Act itself. Regulation 6 of the Service Charges (Consultation Requirements) (England) Regulations 2003 sets it at an amount which results in the relevant contribution of any tenant being more than £250. That is your own contribution, not the total cost of the project, which is why a large building's roof works can cross it easily.

If your freeholder is proposing major works to the building while you are renovating inside your flat, those are two separate financial exposures running at the same time, and the consultation regime governs one of them and not the other.

What happens if you alter without consent

Altering in breach of the lease has consequences on two timescales.

Immediately, the landlord can seek an injunction, and forfeiture of the lease is the ultimate remedy, though substantial procedural protections surround it.

Practically, it surfaces at sale. The buyer's solicitor asks for the licence, there isn't one, and the sale stalls while retrospective consent is negotiated with a freeholder who now holds every card. Retrospective consent is usually available and rarely cheap.

The same is true of building regulations. A flat with unauthorised structural work and no completion certificate is a conveyancing problem, and section 35 of the Building Act 1984 no longer carries a time limit on prosecution. Our guide to regularising alterations after the event covers the retrospective route.

Practicalities specific to flats

Four things that make a flat renovation different from a house, beyond the legal position.

Access and hours. Communal entrances, lifts, stair protection and building management rules on working hours all constrain the programme. Many buildings restrict trades to weekday daytime hours only.

Neighbours above and below. Work to floors and ceilings affects other people's homes directly. Sound insulation is both a regulatory and a relationship question.

Services running through. Soil stacks, risers and communal heating frequently pass through individual flats, and they are usually not yours to move.

Getting materials in and waste out. No driveway, no skip position, sometimes no lift. This is a real cost and it rarely appears in a published price. Our guide to what skip hire and waste removal costs covers the London permit position.

How Beams helps

The leasehold consents are the ones with no statutory clock, which means they are the ones most likely to be left until last and most likely to hold everything up.

So on a leasehold flat we read the lease before the design is fixed, establish the extent of your demise and which covenant applies, start the licence application in parallel with planning rather than after it, and make sure the party wall position is assessed separately from the freeholder position.

That is part of what Beams puts in the contract: one agreed price, payments released against milestones, and 12 months on the workmanship.

Common questions

Do I need my freeholder's permission to renovate my flat?
For anything the lease requires consent for, yes. Internal non-structural work is often outside the consent requirement, but the lease decides and general rules mislead.

Can my freeholder refuse?
If the alterations covenant is qualified or fully qualified, section 19(2) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 means consent must not be unreasonably withheld for improvements. If it is absolute, they can decline to engage at all.

Do flats have permitted development rights?
No. Flats and maisonettes have no Part 1 permitted development rights, so external alterations need a planning application.

What is the £250 threshold I keep reading about?
It is the service charge consultation threshold under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, set by regulation at an amount making any one leaseholder's contribution more than £250. It concerns what your freeholder can charge you for works to the building, not your own renovation.

Can I get consent after the work is done?
Often, but from a weak position, and usually at a price. It is the single most avoidable expense in leasehold renovation.

Where this information comes from

Consent not to be unreasonably withheld for improvements, and the landlord's right to properly incurred expenses: Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, section 19(2)

Administration charges payable only to the extent reasonable, and the First-tier Tribunal route: Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, Schedule 11

Absolute covenants and the practical consequence: Leasehold Advisory Service guidance on alterations and home improvements

Service charge consultation and the £250 threshold: Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, section 20, and regulation 6 of the Service Charges (Consultation Requirements) (England) Regulations 2003

Party structures including floors between flats, and the definition of owner: Party Wall etc. Act 1996, section 20

Permitted development rights not applying to flats: Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, Schedule 2, Part 1

Building regulations enforcement without a time limit: Building Act 1984, section 35, as amended by the Building Safety Act 2022

We have not set out the section 20 consultation stages or their periods, because we could not verify them from the Schedules to the 2003 Regulations. Leasehold law is fact-specific and your lease decides most of it. This page describes England and is a starting point rather than advice on your own lease.