Dodgy landlord Converted a 2 bed flat to a 3 bed flat

[MrJason33]

Hi people,

We live in a house that was split into 2 flats (long B4 us). Our flat is the Grd floor one, a private landlord owns the upstairs one. On both leases the flats, since their creation have been allocated as 2 bed flats! We are considering buying the lease/freehold and our suryeyor told us that on him inspecting upstairs, the landlord has split the lounge with a wall to create a 3rd bedroom with no permission from the council, planning permits, the existing freeholder or consulting us (for noise, safety etc) as leaseholders of the downstairs flat.
If hes not told the council is the work legal? Is his build ins legal if they don't know? can we appeal the work? Can we get him to undo the work if we buy the freehold as it states its a 2 bed only.
Thanks

 

[xdave]

The landlord would not need planning permission to split an existing room unless the building is listed. They may have required building regs depending on how the split was made, but more cases than not they would also not be relevant. Whether they were under any obligation to consult with the freeholder or you as an adjacent leasholder depends entirely on their contracts. There is no overall legal requirement to do so unless they have agreed to privately.

I doubt you have any more chance of getting the landlord to undo the work than you do of getting me to change the wallpaper in my living room. Why would you even want to?