Licence to Alter: A Practical Guide

A licence to alter is the landlord's formal written consent to works a lease would otherwise prohibit. Most London leases contain alteration covenants: absolute covenants forbid certain works outright, while qualified covenants permit them with consent. For qualified covenants affecting improvements, the law generally implies that consent cannot be unreasonably withheld.

The works that typically trigger the requirement are structural changes, layout alterations, new bathrooms or kitchens where services are relocated, flooring changes in flats, and anything touching the building's structure, common parts or services. Decorative work usually falls outside the covenant - but the lease wording decides, not custom.

Checking the lease before design work starts is the cheapest step in the whole process. Designing a scheme the lease cannot accommodate, then redesigning it after the landlord's surveyor reviews it, costs far more than reading the alterations clause first.

For freeholders and management companies, the licence process is the mechanism that keeps one flat's renovation from becoming the building's problem. The review should ask: does the structure carry the change, are services and compartmentation preserved, and is there a clear record of what was altered for future reference?

Reasonableness matters legally: where the covenant is qualified, refusing consent needs defensible technical grounds, and conditions must relate to the works. A well-reasoned surveyor's report is what separates a lawful refusal or condition from an arguable one.

Records pay off years later. Licences, approved drawings and completion confirmations form part of the building's alteration history - increasingly important for fire safety evidence and, on taller buildings, Building Safety Act golden-thread expectations.

Leaseholders: read the alterations covenant before appointing a designer, apply early with complete information, and budget for the landlord's reasonable costs. Treat the landlord's conditions as the price of certainty - a completed licence file protects your resale as much as the landlord's reversion.

Landlords and managing agents: respond promptly, review technically rather than reflexively, and keep the completed licence with the building's records. Where several applications arrive each year, a standard information checklist shortens every one of them.

We act on both sides: preparing applications and supporting design teams for leaseholders, and reviewing proposals, drafting technical conditions and inspecting completed works for landlords and agents across London.