What is Appurtenant Property?
When you own a flat, your property rights often extend beyond just the flat itself. 'Appurtenant property' is the legal term for additional areas that belong to and are used with your flat – like garages, parking spaces, gardens, or storage areas. While it might sound complicated, understanding appurtenant property is crucial when extending your lease or buying your freehold.
A Simple Example
Imagine you have a lease for a flat on the first floor of a building. With that flat, you also have:
- A parking space in the building's car park
- A storage room in the basement
- A small private garden area
These additional areas are your "appurtenant property" if they were included in your original lease. Think of them as the "extras" that came with your flat and are legally considered part of it.
Why It Matters to You
Understanding appurtenant property is important because:
- When extending your lease or buying the freehold, you must include appurtenant property
- It affects how much you'll pay to the landlord for your lease extension or to buy the freehold
- You might have rights over areas you didn't realize were legally part of your property
- Even if these areas are covered by separate leases, they're treated as part of your flat
If you don't include appurtenant property in your claim and it is on a separate lease it may be left behind.
What Counts as Appurtenant Property?
The legal definition comes from Section 62(2) of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993. This says a flat includes "any garage, outhouse, garden, yard and appurtenances belonging to, or usually enjoyed with, the flat and let to the tenant with the flat."
However there are nuances to that legal definition and so through case law a three part test was created. This test was formed in the case (Cadogan v McGirk) where they decided that a storage room on a different floor of the building counted as appurtenant property because it passed these three tests:
- "Belong to" your flat
- Be "usually enjoyed with" your flat
- Have been "let with" your flat originally
There is nuance about the location of the property, it should generally be within the "curtilage" (boundary area) of the building containing your flat. However, there can be exceptions if:
- The property was clearly let with your flat originally
- There's evidence of consistent exclusive use
- There are formal agreements in place
Common Complications
Several situations can make identifying appurtenant property tricky:
- Areas let under separate leases
- Informal arrangements (like parking spaces allocated by custom rather than in the lease)
- Shared gardens that have become informally divided
- Storage areas used exclusively but not mentioned in the lease
Valuation Impact
Appurtenant property does impact the price you pay for a lease extension or freehold acquisition. This is because you have to pay the landlord for having to wait longer for that property to return to them. Valuing appurtenant property is far from straightforward due to significantly less market data available and so can be a point of contention in premium negotiations.
