Leasehold
What should you do if the rooms you walked through are not on the lease plan?
Tell your solicitor. The plan and the lease say what you are buying. The survey describes the building it was shown. A cupboard taken from a common hall, or a bit of roof space with no demise, can look like yours and still not be. HM Land Registry’s register is where the lease is recorded. The surveyor does not correct the plan.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
This happens with loft cupboards, knocked-through coal stores and slices of landing. The surveyor can say “there is a door here”. They cannot say the title includes it. If works created the space, building regulations may also be missing. That is a second solicitor’s question, not a rating.
Do not pay for the extra room in the price until the solicitor says it is demised. There is no survey formula for that. A rating on the door is about the door. A room the surveyor walked through can still sit outside the demise. The lease plan, not the floor they paced, is the legal question.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which spaces did you inspect that might not be in a typical flat demise?
- Could you tell common parts from the flat?
- Are you leaving the plan to the solicitor?
What are the typical next steps?
- Compare the lease plan with what you walked, with the solicitor.
- Do not knock further holes until the demise is clear.
- If the survey rated a defect in a space you do not own, do not volunteer to repair the freeholder’s building without understanding the lease.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
Is a verbal “everyone uses that cupboard” enough?
No. Use is not title. Ask the solicitor.
Does share of freehold fix a missing demise?
It may make a deed of variation easier to discuss. It does not, by itself, redraw the plan. GOV.UK discusses varying a lease. It is not automatic.