If you are making alterations to a leasehold unit or a freehold unit that is part of a management company you will inevitably be asked to provide a new lease plan showing the property post alterations.

This will form part of the Licence to Alter that the freeholder/freehold company executes which sanctions your proposed alterations. The Licence to Alter becomes appended to your lease and is the new permitted layout giving you the confidence that you can sell your property with the benefit of proper consent and a new lease plan to show that your alterations were properly approved.

Naturally there are guidance notes on drawing up lease plans as the Land Registry needs to plot the demise floor plans onto the Ordnance Survey map. If they are unable to do so they will reject your plans.

When instructing an architect or technician to prepare plans the following guidance must be adhered to:

• The plan will be to a suitable scale for A3 or A4 printing.and will be to scale. The scale used will be stated. The surveyor/draftsperson will adopt an appropriate scale as we understand that any scale can be used as long as the plan states the scale and the plan is big enough to be useable.
• The scale will be noted on the plan for example "Scale : 1:300, 1:400 at A4" or whatever the scale is. A "scale bar" is optional, this will only be provided by special request. (A scale bar is the sort of thing you find on road maps, which you can put a ruler against to check the measurements against a scale).
• The plan will have north direction orientation and a north point indicator. The plan will show sufficient detail to enable the land in the lease (including any garage, bin store or garden ground) to be identified on the Ordnance Survey map and, where appropriate, the landlord's title plan. The plan will show the property in its general location - by showing roads, road junctions or other landmarks.
• If the footprint of the whole building is the same as the footprint at ground floor level shown on the OS plan, then only 1 plan needs to be provided. However, where the demise is of several floors, and the footprint varies from one level to another, each floor level needs to be drawn. Different floor levels must be identified both on the plan as well as in the description of the land in the lease.
• Undefined boundaries will be shown, where necessary, by reference to measurements. Add measurements in metric where they are being used.
• The demise plan will be outlined in red together with other identification (colouring, edging or hatching) as necessary with a defined key.
• Where there are colour references stated in the lease/deed then we need to be so advised to ensure that any colouring is consistent.
• A plan must not be marked the plan "for identification only" else it will be rejected.
  For further information please refer to HM Land Registry Practice Guide 40 (PDF)