Buying and converting your loft as a Southwark Council leaseholder

[nick86]

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.

[azmeister]

Hi there - interesting timeline, can't believe it took a year for the loft purchase to complete from the price. Hopefully that's not usual. Were you able to negotiate on the cost of the loft at all?

[madger]

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?

[roadtrip]

I found the timeline shared here really useful when I was buying and converting my loft, so thank you to Nick86 for posting it!

My loft conversion is now complete, and I received building control sign-off some time ago. However, I’m now stuck in a drawn-out back-and-forth with Southwark Council over various additional sign-offs they say are needed. It’s been incredibly frustrating -  very disorganised, and every time I send them everything they request, weeks later they come back with something new. I've asked for one clear and concise several times but it makes no difference. 

Has anyone else been through this with Southwark Council? If so, do you have any tips for getting it over the line? At the moment, I can’t proceed with the lease amendments or update the Land Registry until this is resolved. It's truly maddening!