Who's Loft is it Anyway?

[pr2hy]

Hi All

I recently bought a 1st floor flat and there is an unconverted loft space above me. The solicitor who dealt with the purchase, along with the freeholder, do not know who the loft belongs to.

This is the wording in the Lease '..including one half in depth of the joists between the floor of the maisonette hereby demised and the ceiling of the maisonette below and the internal and external walls above the said level TOGETHER WITH the roofs chimney and stacks so far as applicable TOGETHER ALSO WITH the garden and staircase leading to the demised premises all walls or other structures forming a boundary between the demised premises and parts of the property not included in this Lease shall be deemed to be party walls'

I would very much appreciate if somebody could shed some light on this.

Your help is much appreciated

pr2hy

[leaseholdanswers]

Barring an unusual arrangement or layout the description builds a picture of a box, starting at the halfway point of the joists under your floor, includes the internal and external walls from that imaginary line upward, adds the roofs chimney and stacks, and thereby including the loft area.

Unless the landlord has in the lease reserved the area to himself or claims rights over it, say insisting that he can and has used it ( say via an adjoining access not mentioned in your description),or granted rights to others ( who in turn might also assert rights to it) eg for a TV aerial or water tank in most cases, nor placed any restriction in the lease that specifies it is used for say storage only, then its pretty clear its yours. That’s not however to say that others don’t have rights over it which could limit as above what you can do.

As Lawcruncher ( due kudos to him) and I have discussed in similar threads section 62 of the law of Property Act 1925 assists here as the final nail in the coffin. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/15-16/20

I imagine that your description refers to a simple one up one down and therefore I suspect that having checked the lease you will not find too many issues that cannot be dealt with.

[pr2hy]

Thank you for your reply. It is most helpful and yes it looks like this is the case