Loft space in top floor flat - one bed to two? Sorry, long.

[Gothichorror]

Our flat is on the top floor (3rd) of a leasehold 1980s block, and is essentially the loft. It runs the length of the building. There are two flats directly below us.

There is a large "loft space" we can walk into through a not full height door. This leads off the existing bedroom. The flat is a big one bed, with what feels like a not very efficient use of space.

We are considering whether it would be possible to turn this loft room plus the existing bedroom into 2 bedrooms. There would be room for a corridor so it would not be an "inner room."

We also wonder if it might be feasible to move the bathroom to this end of the flat too, enabling us to make a large open plan kitchen/living area where currently we have a separate sitting room, hall, kitchen and bathroom.

At this stage I am wondering in which order I should go about things. Whether it would be best to have a detailed plan before approaching the freeholder, for instance? (I am under the impression they can only refuse if unreasonable, but I'm not sure what constitutes unreasonable...) And whether I should get a builder to look first, or an architect?

Any insights into this kind of project would be much appreciated. Thank you for reading this far!

Approach the freeholder first since, if they want to charge you mega £££ for your plan - most freeholders will charge for this sort of change of use especially if the area isn't specifically demised to your flat - it may not make it feasible to go ahead and any money you have spent on plans etc will be wasted.

llll is right i am afraid, they are under no obligation to sell/allow you to do what you want do do. but you can first check your deeds to see whether the space is actually demised to you or not - there is usually a floorplan attached to the lease. you never know it might actually be part of your flat and then you can get a builder to look. you would need to understand whether it would actually be a viable bedroom from a building regs perspective otherwise you will end up with a room you cannot market as an extra bedroom.

I'd check the deeds/lease and have an informal chat with a builder to see if it's feasible and then approach the freeholder.

Having said that the woman who lived above me in my first flat knocked the ceiling out of her top floor flat to make the living room double height without checking with anyone and seemed to get away with it. not that I am recommending that course of action

Thank you all. I've had a look at the lease and there is no floor plan attached.

There is a map with a dotted line through the building showing the edge of the flat. This seems rather out of scale and appears not to show our flat running to the edge of the building, but it's very unclear.

The landlord is a housing trust, as the flats were originally shared ownership. I wonder whether this will make any difference to anything?

The lease says not to make any structural additions or alterations, and not to make non-structural additions/alterations without consent.

It sounds as if the attic area isn't included in the demise which means you would have to buy it from the freeholder (this often happens with lofts, even when on other flat has access to it). Does the loft have anything such as shared water tanks in it? If so, it would be unlikely that you would be allowed to develop it.

I'd also be worried about the fact that the door isn't full height as that suggests there is something structural in the way which could cost a great deal to alter.

Definitely speak to the freeholder first - we're trying to extend at the moment and outer freeholder is also a housing association/trust - we've had a lot of hoops to jump through to get agreement from them.

Thank you. If it were possible - even if it were relatively expensive - it would almost certainly be worthwhile as it would mean we were under no pressure to move.

I think the chances are that it's possible to make it a habitable room, but that it would be more complex and maybe not possible to move plumbing etc.

Even if we could make a non-habitable properly insulated storage room with a full height door it may well be worthwhile as it would make the flat warmer. But again, my own knowledge of the technicalities of these things is limited.