What is a lease plan?

Lease plan is layout of premises (commercial or residential premises), which you may signing for short or long-term lease.

Before you sign new lease or renew existing lease you and your solicitor needs layout, location map and Ordinance Survey map. This know as lease plan.

Lease plans is a very important document for your lease because it provides you correct location, internal and external layout of your premises along with shared areas etc.

A lease plan must include following features:

       External Layout of the Premises (scale 1:100)

            Internal Layout of the Premises (scale 1:00)

                  Location Plan (scale 1:500)

                        Ordinance Survey Map (scale 1:1250)

  The Lease Plan must Mark Following Areas Clearly:

        The area you taking lease of (marked in red)

            The communal areas e.g. shared access, garden etc (marked in blue/brown)

                  Forecourt area lease and communal area (marked in blue/brown)

                          Parking spaces, if you have any parking space (marked in red)

                               Any other terms & conditions must be written or shown on the map.

What is a Land Registry compliant lease plan?

Any new lease or renewing existing lease lasting seven years or longer must be registered with the Land Registry and have a compliant lease plan. The lease plan is essentially a drawing that identifies a leasehold demise within a property – or in other words, a scaled metric drawing depicting exactly what area of land is included in the lease.There are a number of reasons why you might need to obtain a lease plan, but the most prevalent are:

  1. A lease of seven years or more is being granted
  2. Land forming part of a registered title or that has been previously unregistered is being sold
  3. A section of land being split into two or more parts and sold

What does Land Registry compliant mean?

Since 2002, it has become the law for lease plans to be compliant with guidelines set out by the Land Registry, largely for consistency purposes. To be compliant with the Land Registry guidelines, a lease plan must:

  • Be drawn to scale (preferred scales of 1/1250 – 1/500 for urban properties and 1/2500 for rural properties) Specific section may be at a smaller scale for clarity.
  • Clearly indicate its orientation (e.g. depict a north point)
  • Not be marked as ‘for identification only’ or any other disclaimers
  • Have sufficient detail to be identified on the Ordnance Survey map
  • Be clearly identifiable with regards to location (i.e. it must show roads, road junctions or other landmarks around the land)
  • Include any land associated with the property, such as the garage, garden.
  • Show buildings in their correct position as well as drives or pathways if they form part of property boundaries
  • Clearly indicate the separate parts of the property, such as the house, parking, dustbin space, etc.
  • Identify any varying floor levels (where required)
  • Pull out any intricate boundaries on a larger scale or inset plan
  • Show measurements that correspond to scaled measurements (as much as possible)

In addition, specific presentation criteria is taken into account, including edging of a sufficient thickness to not obscure any other detail on the plan and measurements in metric units to two decimal places only.