License to Alter

ASL Chartered Surveyors & Valuers

License to Alter Surveyors

RICS Accredited Chartered Surveyors

A Licence to Alter (LTA) is formal written consent required by leaseholders before making structural or significant alterations to a leasehold property. Most leases contain clauses that restrict changes without the freeholder’s approval, making an LTA a legal necessity.

Whether you’re a leaseholder planning renovations or a freeholder safeguarding your property, our expert team of chartered surveyors streamline the process, ensuring your compliance, clarity, and smooth approvals.

What is a Licence to Alter?

A Licence to Alter is formal consent from the freeholder, allowing leaseholders to make structural or significant modifications to their property. Many leases contain clauses restricting alterations without approval, making an LTA a key legal requirement.

Without a License to Alter, leaseholders can risk legal disputes, reinstatement costs, and potential lease breaches. Freeholders benefit by ensuring any works meet lease conditions, maintain the building’s integrity, and do not negatively impact other occupants.

What is a Retrospective License to Alter?

A Retrospective Licence to Alter is formal consent granted by the freeholder after unauthorised alterations have already been carried out by a leaseholder. An application for retrospective consent may be required to avoid legal disputes, lease breaches, or potential reinstatement demands.

This process involves a survey assessment of completed works to ensure they comply with the lease terms, building regulations, and do not negatively impact the building or other leaseholders.

Typical Works Requiring a License to Alter Include

Structural Alterations: removing internal walls, loft conversions, adding doors, windows, or skylights.
Flooring & Acoustics: replacing carpets with hard flooring, installing underfloor heating, or adding soundproofing.
Kitchen & Bathroom Changes: relocating kitchens or bathrooms, altering plumbing, drainage, or gas connections.
Electrical & Mechanical Works: installing or upgrading heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC), or electrical systems.
External & Common Area Alterations: changing doors, windows, balconies, or affecting shared spaces.
Fire Safety & Compliance: removing fire doors, altering alarm systems, or making changes impacting fire safety.

Why You Need a Chartered Surveyor for a Licence to Alter

Obtaining a Licence to Alter isn’t just a legal formality, it ensures that any alterations comply with lease terms and protect the interests of both leaseholders and freeholders.

ASL’s team of chartered surveyors play a crucial role in streamlining this process, reducing risks, and ensuring compliance.

Lease Compliance & Risk Assessment: we review the lease to identify restrictions, ensuring planned works meet legal and structural requirements.
Pre & Post Work Surveys: a professional survey prevents disputes by documenting the property’s condition before and after works.
Negotiation & Mediation: we act as a bridge between leaseholders, freeholders, and managing agents, ensuring a smooth approval process.
Technical Oversight: our expertise helps assess the impact of structural, plumbing, or acoustic changes on the wider building.
Dispute Resolution: if issues arise, we provide expert advice to avoid costly legal conflicts.

Our Licence to Alter Services

Our Licence to Alter services provide expert guidance through surveys, negotiations, and compliance, helping leaseholders and freeholders navigate the process efficiently while avoiding disputes, delays, costly mistakes, and risks.

Our Key License for Alteration Services

Pre-Application Advice: before starting any work, we assess the lease, identify restrictions, and advise on the likelihood of approval. This early-stage guidance prevents unnecessary delays and ensures that your application is well-prepared.
Licence to Alter Surveys: we conduct detailed pre- and post-work condition surveys to document the property’s state before alterations begin. This protects leaseholders from unjust reinstatement demands and helps freeholders ensure works do not negatively impact the building.
Negotiation & Liaison: acting as an independent expert, we facilitate communication between leaseholders, freeholders, property managers, and legal teams. We handle negotiations to secure approvals while ensuring both parties’ interests are considered.
Technical Review & Impact: assessment For structural, plumbing, acoustic, or fire safety changes, we assess the technical feasibility of the proposed alterations. This ensures compliance with building regulations and lease conditions while mitigating risks to neighbouring properties.
Monitoring & Compliance Inspections: if required, we oversee works in progress, ensuring that modifications adhere to the approved plans. This is particularly useful for freeholders who want assurance that alterations won’t affect the building’s integrity.
Final Inspection & Sign-Off: upon completion, we carry out a final compliance check, confirming that works meet the agreed specifications and ensuring leaseholders receive formal sign-off from the freeholder.

Clients We Can Support

Our Licence to Alter services cater to a range of clients involved in the leasehold alteration process, including leaseholders, freeholders, property managers, and solicitors, which ensure a clear, compliant, and efficient process that protects all parties involved.

Leaseholders & Property Owners

If you’re a leaseholder planning structural alterations, you’ll need the freeholder’s consent before starting work. We help:

Freeholders & Landlords

As a freeholder, you must ensure that any alterations meet lease conditions and do not negatively impact the building or other occupants. We provide:

Property Managers & Managing Agents

Property managers and managing agents often oversee multiple leasehold properties and need expert support to handle alteration requests efficiently. We assist with:

Solicitors & Legal Professionals

We work with solicitors and legal teams who require expert input for LTA applications, dispute resolution, and lease compliance. Our services include:

ASL RICS Chartered Surveyors

Choosing the right Chartered Surveyor for your Licence to Alter process is essential to ensure a clear, efficient, and fully compliant process from start to finish.

Clients trust our team of Chartered Surveyors at ASL for our experience in dealing with licence to alter applications, lease agreements, and property law, ensuring that all alterations align with the lease terms and legal requirements.

Whether it’s structural modifications, plumbing changes, or acoustic improvements, our professional guidance protects leaseholders and freeholders alike. Contact us today for expert advice and a hassle-free experience.

Why Choose ASL Chartered Surveyors and Valuers?

Expertise & RICS Certification

Our accreditation, extensive experience, in-depth knowledge of the commercial property market, ensures you receive the highest service with every valuation.

Comprehensive & Transparent Reports

We deliver clear and concise reports providing a complete picture of your commercial property’s condition, value, or life cycle cost analysis.

Accurate & Reliable

ASL deliver comprehensive and precise valuations backed by thorough research and commercial market analysis.

Client-Centric Approach

Your satisfaction is our priority, and we are dedicated to tailoring our valuations to your unique requirements, and answering any questions throughout the valuation process.

Hear From Our Customers

I got ASL to provide a valuation on a property I was purchasing and following their advice I was made aware of a number of repairs which resulted in a lower valuation than the agreed purchase price. I was able to negotiate a new purchase price saving £12,000. The service was quick, efficient and friendly.

Cannot fault the service received from Nick at ASL Surveyors. He ensured that the whole process was quick, efficient and stress free. I had my report back within a few days so I honestly couldn’t recommend him and this company enough. Thank you!!

I used ASL for my recent home purchase. Complete transparency and efficient communication was achieved throughout. I received my full report in a timely fashion and couldn’t recommend the company more to anyone looking to use their services.

We recently agreed a private sale on a bungalow in Gateacre, as there was no agent involved, we were advised to at least get a Home Survey. Gabriella arranged this quickly and we received the report a couple of days after the survey was done. It was really detailed but explained perfectly and the scoring system allowed us to understand it better. We had a couple of questions which James answered on a phone call a few days after. Excellent service throughout, thanks to all involved.

As a firm we highly recommend ASL Chartered Surveyors, rely on their service and we will continue to do so in the future. We have used ASL Chartered Surveyors for our housing disrepair clientele and they always deliver in accordance with the protocol. We are confident in the service ASL Chartered Surveyors provides, and we have always found them to be reliable, approachable and professional – they never hesitate to assist us and indeed our clients with any queries we may have collectively throughout the process.

I can’t fault the service we received and have had a really positive experience with the company. The guys carried out an extensive search on our property and provided a thorough report. On moving in we noticed a couple of issues that we wanted some more information on and contacted them to advise. Mal and Danny came straight out to do another check and were extremely friendly and helpful and gave us some useful tips on how to solve the issues. The service has been very professional and they are clearly a very reputable company to make a second visit and reassure us.

Contact Us

Contact ASL Chartered Surveyors and Valuers to discuss how we can assist with your license to alter today.

Registered Number: 11863420
VAT Number: GB 317813894

Quick Links

Social Media

Advice & Case Studies

Case Study