How to get approval from your freeholder or landlord

If you rent, or you own a leasehold flat, you need permission before anything is fixed to the outside of the building. This is not a formality you can skip and sort out later.

The rules make you responsible for getting any permission needed from the property owner, landlord, freeholder, managing agent or relevant authority, before installation. Nothing about the kit being legal to sell changes that. The kit being lawful and you being allowed to fit it to that particular building are two separate questions.

Work out who you are actually asking

People get stuck here more than anywhere else, because the person who collects your money is often not the person who can say yes.

• Renting privately. Ask your landlord. If a letting agent manages the property, they will pass it on, but the decision is the landlord's. If the landlord is themselves a leaseholder in a block, they may then have to ask the freeholder, so allow for two steps.
• Council or housing association tenant. There is usually a formal alteration or improvement request process. Ask for it by name rather than emailing whoever you last spoke to.
• Leasehold flat. Read your lease first, then ask the freeholder or the managing agent. The lease usually says which one, and whether consent can be refused.
• Share of freehold. You are asking the residents' company, which means the other flat owners. That is a meeting or a written round robin, not a quick email.

Read the lease before you write

Look for the clauses on alterations, on the exterior of the building, and on what counts as the demised premises, meaning the part you actually hold. On most flat leases the outside walls, the balcony structure and the railings are not yours even when only you can reach them.

Also look for whether the lease says consent cannot be unreasonably withheld. If it does, that is worth knowing before you ask, because it changes what a refusal has to be based on.

Ask for both things at once

This is the mistake that costs people a month. Permission to put up a panel is not permission to drill a hole through an external wall for the cable, or to have a new outdoor socket fitted. If your cable cannot reach an existing socket on its own, say so in the first message and ask about both together.

What to put in the request

A vague request gets a vague answer or none at all. Give them enough to say yes without having to come back to you.

• Exactly where the panel would go, and a photo of the spot.
• How it would be fixed, using the mounting system supplied with the kit, and that nothing would be substituted for it.
• That the fixing is reversible and non-permanent, and what the wall or railing would look like afterwards if you removed it.
• The weight of the panel and its mounting, from the manufacturer's documentation.
• Whether a hole through the wall or a new outdoor socket is needed, and that a CPS-registered electrician would do any electrical work.
• That the cable will not cross an escape route, a communal walkway or a fire escape.
• That you will notify your distribution network operator, as required.
• A copy of the kit's installation instructions, if you already have it.

Ask for the answer in writing, and keep it. A verbal yes from a managing agent is worth very little two years later when the building changes hands.

Expect these questions back

Managing agents and freeholders are mostly worried about fire, water and liability, in that order. The questions that come back are usually about what the outside wall is made of, whether the building has had any cladding or fire-safety work, whether anything is being fixed into the structure, and who is insured if it comes loose.

If the building has cladding or is under external wall remediation, expect a no, and it is likely to be the right answer. That restriction is in the rules themselves, not something the freeholder invented.

Tell your insurer too

You are responsible for checking whether the installation affects any relevant insurance, including your own and, where it applies, the insurance covering the building. Do this before anything goes up, not after. In a block, the freeholder will often want to see that you have done it.

If nobody replies

Silence is not consent, and fitting it anyway is the worst option available to you. It can put you in breach of your lease or tenancy, and it gives an insurer a reason to decline a claim.

Send a follow up in writing, referring to your first message and its date. If your lease says consent cannot be unreasonably withheld and you are being ignored rather than refused, that is the point to get proper advice about your own lease. This page cannot tell you what your lease says.

Read more

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• Which plug-in solar kits are compliant?
• Plug-in solar and cladding
• How to mount a plug-in solar panel on a balcony