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Buying and converting your loft as a Southwark Council leaseholder


nick86

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Dear all,


For those of you in Southwark who own a leasehold flat with a loft above it, with Southwark Council as your freeholders and are thinking about buying the loft and converting it, I thought I?d write a summary of how things went for us and who you need to contact, as it can get quite complicated. But the good news is that it is possible and totally worth all the hassle. You just need a lot of patience! And if you can get it done before your baby is born (which we didn?t mange to) even better!


If you don?t already own the loft, you need to apply to the Southwark Council Conveyancing team for both an ?ad hoc purchase? and also a ?permission to alter?, which gives you permission to actually convert your loft once you own it. They are different teams within the council and you should apply to both at the same time as they both take a long time.


You also need to get planning permission, party wall agreement and to actually convert your loft itself (which includes buildings control). We used Absolute Lofts who on the whole were excellent although there were a few problems along the way. You also need to pay legal fees to both purchase the loft and for permission to alter which includes drawing up new lease plans once the loft is finished. We ended up getting a Supplemental lease added to our existing lease.


Here is a rough timeline of the process and you can see that it took about two years from beginning to end:


May 2016 ? Apply for ?permission to alter? and ?ad hoc purchase?


July 2016 ? Southwark council come to check no water tank or other communal things in the loft


August ? October 2016 ? ?comments? needed from housing departments within Southwark Council about the suitability of converting our loft


November 2016 agreed on a price for the loft


December 2016 permission to convert the loft given ? ?consent in principle? which lasts for 12 months


April 2017 Southwark council solicitors still completing paperwork. Planning permission sought and granted. Party wall agreement completed which lasts for 12 months


August 2017 Difficulties with getting a supplemental lease and communicating with Southwark Council?s solicitors


November 2017 ? Completion of loft purchase


December 2017 ? extension of ?consent in principle? given since the purchase of the loft had taken so long


January 2018 ? Loft company begin loft conversion


March 2018 - Loft company finish loft to a plastered finish


April 2018 - Decorating and final completion


May 2018 - Building control certificate given



The East Dulwich forum was helpful for us in making sense of some of these things, so hopefully this will be useful if you are thinking about whether to start this process with Southwark Council.

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  • 7 months later...
This is so useful, thank you! I am looking into a rear extension so wouldn't have the difficulties of purchasing any additional parts of the building so it looks like the bit where you had to get their 'licence to alter' took about 6 months?
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