Asking consent for renovations in share of freehold

[dany174]

We recently bought a flat that needs a lot of renovations (leasehold and share of freehold). One thing we want to do is remove two non load bearing walls. This has been done in other flats in the complex (all the flats are the same).

Has anyone here gone through the process of asking for consent for such alterations to a managing company? They seem to charge me on the amount of time they need to analyse my request so now I don't know if I need to make it as detailed as possible, with drawings, diagrams and maybe a report from a structural engineer, or keep it as simple as possible so to not overload them with information.

I cant seem to find any examples for such a request letter.

Yes I did this. The managing agent said I needed to get agreement from the majority of other flat owners or the head of the flat owners association (which not all buildings will have). So I wrote to all of them including before and after drawings (I did myself - like the layout you get with estate agent details). I think the managing agents did ask for structural report too but there was nothing else. But they didn't charge me for the correspondence or permission- they weren't giving it to me the other home owners were they were just making sure the owners had been consulted and the agents notified.

I’ve got a share of freehold property and just wrote the management company an email when I wanted to carry out some work. They just wrote back with permission.
It was a lot more straightforward than knocking walls down, though.

I think I’d just do a simple letter in the first instance. It might suffice as you’ll only be doing what other people have done. If not, then they’ll send you a list of what they’d like.