Apartment Renovation Building Questions Checklist

Find out who owns the building, who manages it, and whether those are the same organisation, then write down how each of them is contacted.

Owners frequently deal only with a managing agent and are surprised to learn that a decision sits somewhere else entirely.

Ask the managing agent or freeholder what process applies to alterations inside a flat, and ask for it in writing rather than relying on a phone conversation.

A written procedure can be shared with everyone working on the project, whereas a remembered conversation tends to be recalled differently by each person.

Ask the freeholder or managing agent directly what their process requires; nothing here can tell you what applies to a particular building.

Read your lease or ownership documents for anything about alterations, noting the passages you do not understand rather than interpreting them yourself.

Ask a suitably qualified legal or property professional to interpret any ownership document rather than relying on your own reading of it.

Ask whether a residents association, board or committee exists and whether its view forms part of the process for alterations.

Where a board is involved the timing of a request usually matters, because it is considered when the board next meets rather than on demand.

Ask what has been permitted in other homes in the building, while treating the answer as background rather than as something that settles your own position.

Precedent in a building is informative but never decisive, and a neighbour's alteration may have been agreed on terms you know nothing about.

Ask how much notice the building requires before work starts and exactly what information has to be supplied with that notice.

Notice periods in shared buildings routinely surprise owners, and discovering one late can hold up work that is otherwise ready to begin.

Confirm notice and information requirements directly with the managing agent or freeholder, since these vary considerably from building to building.

Locate any service cupboard, riser or duct inside or immediately beside the flat, and photograph the outside of it without opening anything.

Risers are the main reason a flat cannot always be rearranged freely, and simply knowing where they are explains several apparent oddities in a layout.

Do not open a service riser or cupboard. Ask the building manager or the relevant qualified trade what it contains and who is responsible for it.

Ask which pipes, cables or ducts passing through the flat serve other homes rather than yours, and where they run.

Anything serving another home changes what may be moved, boxed in or built over, and it is rarely obvious from inside a flat.

Find out where the water supply to the flat can be isolated, and whether isolating it would affect any other home in the building.

Ask the building manager and a qualified plumbing professional how isolation works here, and never operate a shared valve yourself.

Ask what heating and hot water arrangement serves the flat, and whether any part of it is shared with the rest of the building.

A shared arrangement usually limits what can be changed inside a home, and it also decides who you would speak to about any change.

Note where extract ventilation from the kitchen and bathrooms goes, and ask whether it joins a system shared with other homes.

Ask a suitably qualified professional what applies to ventilation shared with other homes before any change to it is planned.

Ask who is responsible for the part of each service inside the flat as opposed to the part outside it, and where that boundary sits.

This boundary decides who repairs what, and it is far better understood before a renovation than during one.

Note what the floor of the flat appears to be built from, marking clearly that you are describing appearance rather than stating construction.

Ask a suitably qualified professional to establish the construction of a floor or ceiling before any change to either is considered.

Ask what the building requires in relation to floor finishes, and whether any restriction applies to hard surfaces in a home above another.

Floor finish restrictions are the single most common source of dispute in apartment renovation, and they are usually written down somewhere.

Confirm any restriction on floor finishes with the freeholder or managing agent, since these vary between buildings and between individual leases.

Speak to the neighbour below about what they currently hear from your home, and write down what they tell you.

This is information nobody else can give you, and it is far easier to obtain before work is proposed than after it has caused a complaint.

Ask what happens to anything fixed to or passing through a ceiling that also forms part of somebody else's floor.

Lighting, fixings and recessed items all raise this question, and the answer depends on the building rather than on the fitting.

Mark on a plan every surface where the flat adjoins another home, whether to the side, above or below.

Owners often think only about the floor and forget that a party wall and a ceiling raise very similar questions.

Ask what would be involved in any work that affects a wall shared with another home, including work that only fixes into it.

Work affecting a shared wall or floor may involve other parties. Ask a suitably qualified professional what applies before anything is planned.

Walk the full route from the street to the front door as though carrying something large, noting every turn, threshold, door and step.

Items that fit through a flat door frequently cannot reach it, and the constraint is usually a stair turn or a lobby door rather than the entrance.

Ask whether the lift may be used for materials and waste, what protection is required and who is responsible for arranging it.

If the lift cannot be used, everything has to come up the stairs, which changes what can realistically be brought into the home at all.

Ask the managing agent what lift use requires here, including protection and permitted times, and confirm before anything is delivered.

Ask where waste can be held and how it leaves the building, given that a container standing at the door is rarely an option.

Waste removal from a flat is usually the hardest logistical problem in the whole project, and it is much better solved before work starts.

Photograph the condition of the common parts before work begins, including the walls, floors, entrance doors and the inside of the lift.

Damage in shared areas is attributed to whoever is working there most recently, and a dated record beforehand is the only sensible protection.

Ask whether deliveries can be accepted when nobody is at home, where they would be left, and who takes responsibility for them.

Communal lobbies are not storage, and an unexpected delivery left in one causes friction out of all proportion to its size.

Ask what protection of common parts is required, who installs it and at what point it has to be taken away again.

Agree in writing who is responsible for protecting the common parts and for reinstating them at the end of the work.

Ask what times noisy work is permitted in the building, how those times are communicated and how they are enforced.

Confirm permitted working times with the managing agent and with the local authority, since building rules and local requirements can differ.

Tell the neighbours on every adjoining side what is planned, including those above and below, before anything begins.

The homes above and below are affected as much as those alongside, and they are the ones owners most often forget to speak to.

Ask how a resident would raise a problem while work is going on, and who they would be expected to contact.

A clear route for complaints keeps issues away from your front door and gets them to somebody able to act.

Note whether anyone in the adjoining homes is there during the day, including anyone working, studying or caring at home.

This changes what counts as reasonable in practice, and knowing it early allows noisy stages to be arranged with more care.

Ask whether the building requires anyone attending to be identified, signed in or accompanied, and who arranges that.

Buildings with controlled entry often have procedures that catch owners out on the first morning of work.

Decide how you will keep neighbours informed as the work moves into its noisier stages, rather than telling them only once at the start.

Goodwill in a shared building is maintained by updates, and it is lost quickly when people feel they were told once and then forgotten.

Note which parts of the home you believe are yours and which form part of the building, marking clearly the ones you are unsure about.

Owners are often surprised by where the boundary falls, particularly around windows, balconies, front doors and the surfaces of party walls.

Ask a suitably qualified property professional to establish what your ownership includes; do not rely on assumption or on what neighbours have done.

Ask what applies to windows, glazing and anything else visible from outside the building, including any change of colour or pattern.

Confirm with the freeholder, the managing agent and the local authority what applies to windows and to the external appearance of the building.

Note anything currently attached to a balcony, terrace or external wall, and ask who is responsible for maintaining each of those items.

Existing attachments are often historic and undocumented, and their status says a great deal about how the building treats such things.

Ask whether any external unit, vent or terminal may be added, and note where such things already appear on the building.

Where equipment can be placed is usually decided by the building rather than by the flat, and it constrains several internal options.

Note where water from a balcony or terrace drains to, and record anything that already ponds, stains or discolours the surface.

Standing water on a balcony can involve parts of the building outside your ownership. Report it to the managing agent and let a qualified professional look at it.

Ask what happens to shared entrance doors, door entry systems and post arrangements while work is going on.

Propped entrance doors and disabled entry systems are the shared-building complaints that escalate fastest.

Draw a plan of the home and mark every surface you believe forms a boundary with a neighbour or with the building itself.

A marked plan turns a vague sense of what is shared into something a professional or a managing agent can respond to directly.

Keep every piece of correspondence with the freeholder, managing agent or board in one place, with dates and the name of who wrote it.

Building processes move slowly and involve several people, and the thread is impossible to reconstruct later from memory.

Write down the questions you have asked, the answers you received and who gave each one, including anything said verbally.

Verbal assurances about what is permitted are common in buildings and are worth converting into something written as soon as possible.

Ask which of the building's requirements have to be evidenced once the work is complete, and to whom that evidence goes.

Ask the managing agent which documents must be provided at the end of the work and who is expected to supply each of them.

Note the things about the building a professional visiting for the first time would need to know, including access, parking and entry arrangements.

A wasted first visit is a common and entirely avoidable outcome in buildings with controlled entry and limited parking.

Record what you have been told about the building insurance arrangements and who would need to be notified about work inside a home.

Ask the building insurer or the managing agent directly what they need to be told about work carried out inside a flat.