LPE1 management pack vs a property report

What the LPE1 is and how you get it

When you buy a leasehold flat, much of what matters is not in the public record and not visible on a viewing. It sits with whoever runs the building: the landlord, a management company or a managing agent. The Law Society's LPE1 leasehold property enquiries form is the standard way of extracting it. The seller's conveyancer usually requests it once an offer is accepted, the managers complete it and charge for the pack, and your conveyancer reviews the answers.

What it asks

The form identifies who does what (who collects the service charge, who arranges and collects the buildings insurance, who maintains the building) and then asks about the money. Service charges and their accounts. Ground rent. The reserve fund, which the form defines as “a fund which allows the build-up of monies to pay for repair and replacement of major items or to equalise cyclical expenditure.” Major works and consultations under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, the process landlords must follow before certain large works. And whether any steps have been taken towards enfranchisement, a lease extension or the right to manage.

Read it for direction of travel as much as for the current figures. A service charge that has climbed every year, a reserve fund that is close to empty and a Section 20 notice for a new roof together describe a bill that will land on whoever owns the flat next.

What it does not tell you

The LPE1 does not set out the lease, as its length and its clauses come from the lease itself, which your conveyancer reads. And it says nothing about the ground the building stands on, its flood exposure or the area around it. For a flat, those risks reach you indirectly: ground movement affects the building's structure, which the landlord normally maintains and insures, and which the leaseholders pay for through the service charge. A ground or flood flag on a flat is therefore not a reason to commission your own foundations survey. It is a set of questions for the managing agent.

• Has there ever been a subsidence or flood claim on the building, and what was done?
• What does the buildings insurance schedule cover, and is there a raised excess for subsidence or flood?
• Which trees stand close to the building, and who owns them?
• When were the roof and structure last inspected, and is the reserve fund sized for what was found?

Alterations: a flat is not a house in planning law

The national permitted development order defines a dwellinghouse so that it “does not include a building containing one or more flats, or a flat contained within such a building.” Householder permitted development rights therefore do not apply to flats. Work that needs planning permission needs it in the ordinary way, and many leases separately require the landlord's consent. If the flat has been altered, ask for both.

Where a property report fits

You see the LPE1 after your offer has been accepted, when you have already started paying for legal work. A pre-offer property report runs before that. It screens the address for flood risk, ground stability, radon and coal mining from national datasets, so you know which of the questions above matter for this building before you commit. £24.99 Complete adds the tenure recorded at the last sale, planning designations and the wider area picture. Our leasehold flat guide covers the rest of the checklist.