Sloping ceilings may add character to a top-floor flat, but if you’re acquiring a lease extension or seeking collective enfranchisement, make sure the valuation takes into account the reduction in useable floorspace …
To achieve the best possible deal for my leaseholder clients, I’m determined to explore and bring to bear every relevant detail that might result in a lower settlement.
In a recent lease extension case, my client’s maisonette was set behind a steep-sloping roof on the upper floors of a tall town house. On a re-inspection along with the landlord’s valuer, to re-measure the property to agree the gross internal floor area (GIA), I noticed that the landlord’s valuer was measuring the floorspace from skirting board to skirting board. Despite my gentle protests, they continued to do so, taking no account of the sloping ceilings.
I took my own measurements at a height of 1.5 metres. This is a confusing issue if one slavishly adopts the RICS Code of Measuring Practice, but in the ensuing negotiations I argued adamantly and successfully that my measurements better represented the property’s usable space.
Just before the case was due to be heard in the FtT (First-tier Tribunal), the landlord’s valuer collapsed, accepting the logic against actual comparable sales with equally pronounced raked ceilings, together with the resulting reduction in adjusted rate per square foot that made up my evidence as to long lease value.
Taking all issues into account, we settled at just over half of the landlord’s starting offer: a saving of 46.5 per cent, or more than £1 million, for my client. Over a quarter of this – £268,700 – resulted from my insistence that the floor area should exclude areas where the ceiling is lower than 1.5 metres.