What are Section 62 Rights?
Section 62 of the Law of Property Act 1925 is a rule in law that effectively means that whenever land is sold, everything that already “goes with” that land — footpaths, pipes, parking spots, garden access, and other day-to-day rights — automatically travels with it even if the lease says nothing about them. The reason it exists is that historically transfers of land were huge documents as lawyers had to spell out every chimney, gutter and right of way.
When extending a lease which is a purchase of land by default you would be granted Section 62 rights (or the right to use everything that goes with the land). Landlords however will often try to exclude Section 62 rights as they are worried that they might accidentally be giving you things they didn't want to.
A Simple Example
Imagine that in your flat there is an empty space in the basement which the landlord has always let you keep a bicycle in. If you were to extend a lease you would have actually created a legal right to continue to use this store room and the landlord would not be able to tell you to stop using it – it would have become an easement. This is why landlords are so often worried about it as they might be unable to now rebuild that basement into something else as you have a right to store your bicycle in it.
Why It Matters to You
Whilst this might seem like an academic point – unless you carefully read every single line of your current lease, then carefully think through absolutely every action you take in and around your property it is easy to miss an informal right you have. So it is important to not let your landlord exclude Section 62 rights when extending your lease. The reason it matters is that:
- Keeps what you’ve got. All paths, gardens, utilities, lofts, basements, parking, sheds and bike stores you use get included as easements in your new lease.
- It is your legal right. A landlord can’t simply exclude Section 62 rights; LRHUDA 1993 only permits very limited changes to the existing lease.
- Can add value. Long-standing “informal” uses can crystallise into marketable legal rights (parking spaces or lofts are a common example)
What Section 62 Rights could apply to me?
Due to the nature of Section 62 rights they are very broad, but a few high level categories are:
- Access routes (front, rear, even shortcut paths).
- Shared facilities (bin stores, gardens, roof terraces).
- Services (cables, drains, water pipes, telephone, fibre internet).
- Any space you routinely occupy like (sheds, cupboards, parking bays).
In general if it is something that you consistently use as part of your ownership of the flat they are likely Section 62 rights if they are not specificlaly included or excluded in your existing lease.
What happens if landlords insist?
It is very common for landlord-solicitors to insist that Section 62 rights are excluded. This can be for many reasons, but one of them is that many market-standard lease-extension templates all exclude Section 62 rights. Negotiation of the terms of the new lease is a normal part of any extension, but if a landlord refuses to include Section 62 rights the dispute has to be escalated to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber). There are only a handful of published decisions, yet they all point the same way: for leaseholders to keep Section 62 rights.
- Flat 23 Kings Court Mansions, SW6 – FTT ref LON/00AN/OLR/2018/0316 (decision 17 Jan 2019).
The landlord’s draft new lease contained a clause “excluding the effect of section 62 LPA 1925”. At the hearing the landlord’s counsel abandoned the clause and the tribunal approved the lease without the exclusion, confirming it would have been impermissible because the tenant must not emerge with fewer rights than before. - 32 Cranleigh Road, Bournemouth – FTT ref CHI/00HN/OLR/2019/0265 (decision 21 May 2021).
The tenant sought express wording for a telephone/data line; the tribunal refused, pointing out that “Section 62 Law of Property Act 1925 comes into play, such that all rights pertinent to the property are included in the demise.” The decision underlines that, where the lease is being renewed on identical terms, Section 62 already preserves the easement and a landlord cannot justify cutting it back. - Flat 1 Riverside House (Tarmohamed v WX Investments) – FTT ref LON/00AC/OLR/2023/0229 (decision 19 Sep 2023).
The leaseholder had always used an allocated parking bay, but the original lease only granted “first-come-first-served” parking. The tribunal held the omission was a defect and, citing long use and Section 62, ordered the new lease to grant an exclusive parking easement, noting that it would be unreasonable for the landlord to deny a right that Section 62 would otherwise imply.
These decisions illustrate the tribunal’s consistent approach: unless the landlord can demonstrate a genuine conflict with an existing third-party right, any blanket exclusion of Section 62 is likely to be struck out, and long-enjoyed informal privileges will be carried forward—sometimes elevated to full legal easements—under the statutory lease extension.
Future Changes
None of the proposed or pending leasehold reform acts have any proposals to alter how Section 62 rights interact with lease extensions. The reason for this is that whilst it can be a pain for leaseholders, the law is currently the same for a lease extension as with all other property transactions.
