Converting loft in a share of freehold flat

[mashpot]

Hello, we're hoping to convert the loft in our first floor flat this year, we share the freehold with the ground floor flat. Has anyone else done this, or could anyone offer advice about whether we need to get permission etc? Any problems I haven't considered?!
TIA

Are you certain that you own the loft fully? It's quite possible that the flat below owns a share or a right to enter because of the roof upkeep?

Have a look at the terms of the lease you share with the downstairs flat. It may state (like ours does) that you need their permission to convert the roof space.

If yours is a Victorian property you might need to replace beams with new steel ones that would span the width of the house.

As you have a flat, you will need planning permission to create a loft extension. You will need to get party wall consent from your downstairs neighbours and neighbours either side of your building if it is attached to another building. As others have said you may not have rights over the loft space even if you are the only people able to access it - your co-freeholder could ask for a payment to agree to the work if the loft is not demised to you.

We didn't have to serve a parrty wall notice to our upstair's flat owner for our rear extension. We only sought their permission as common freeholders. Even then, they would have had to come up with a valid reason to turn us down apparently. One builder did mention some type of formal agreement and potential payment to share value added, but this was not necessary.

Don't know if the same applies to loft

Thanks for the advice. I dug out the lease and the loft doesn't seem to be mentioned at all so I guess I need to get a solicitor to look at it and before spending money on that sound out downstairs to see if they have any objections. May be a more tricky path than I thought/hoped...

We are in top floor flat a flat (absentee freeholder) hoping to do a loft extension. My husband rang the lease advisory service (see their website) and got good, free advice. The upshot is we can go ahead, subject to the usual planning permission, lack of objection from neighbours etc. Unlike solicitors their advice is free! It's a govt funded body.

We are also share of freeholders (top floor flat) hoping to do a loft conversion this year. We had an addendum to our lease when it was extended (the lease) last year to demise the roof and the loft space as ours.

In retrospect we were lucky, because I suppose downstairs neighbours could have "sold" it to us as it were. I understand that we will need their consent to go ahead, along with party wall agreements and planning permission.

I did check with our solicitor when the addendum was written and it does seem like there would have to be a very good reason that we couldn't convert i.e the building would become unsafe etc. It wasn't overly expensive to extend our lease and add a clause into it for the loft perhaps 2k if not less, I had heard horror stories of lease extensions, perhaps if your lease isn't very long you could could do both at the same time.

I think doing a loft can be beneficial to downstairs neighbours in the long term, as it is another floor that you aren't walking around directly above them! Got to be nice right?