Main image - Golden Lane Maisonette - Archmongers architects - Photo credit - French + Tye
Meaning ‘little house’ in French, a maisonette in most parts of the UK traditionally refers to a self-contained flat arranged over two floors with an internal staircase and its own entrance off the street.
In Scotland, it typically describes a two-storey flat accessed from an internal communal hallway.
The term maisonette often creates confusion because it can have a different meaning depending on where you are in the world.
In modern-day housing developments, maisonette flats are often marketed as duplex apartments. If they form the top two floors of a building, they may be simply described as the penthouse or duplex penthouse.
In the UK, maisonettes were historically purpose built by Georgian and Victorian developers as part of terraced street housing developments. Buildings would typically contain a commercial unit, be it a shop or pub, at ground floor level and a flat above, each with its own entrance off the street.
Throughout the post-war years, maisonettes were incorporated into residential blocks to increase housing density and provide much-needed family accommodation. As well as being located at ground-floor level, they were often stacked at higher levels and accessed via external walkways. The Grade 2 listed Golden Lane Estate in the City of London contains some of the best examples of post-war maisonette housing in the UK.
During the second half of the twentieth century, many Georgian and Victorian townhouses were subdivided into self-contained flats by private landlords. If the property had a lower ground floor, the bottom two floors were often converted into a maisonette, utilising the original lower ground level service entrance at the front of the building as the main entrance to the flat. In expensive cities such as London and Edinburgh, where space is at a premium, ground floor maisonette conversions are highly sought-after properties.
The advantages of maisonettes versus flats include:
Other than the cost of purchase, there are no real drawbacks to owning a maisonette rather than a flat. Below are some disadvantages of maisonettes versus houses:
Maisonettes, especially those in Victorian properties, offer a lot of potential for extension.
Upper maisonettes often benefit from direct access to the attic space, which can be simply converted into a loft room or developed with the addition of a rear dormer extension to maximise potential. Similarly, a rear extension, basement extension or garden room can be added to garden maisonettes.
Before renovating or extending a flat or maisonette, it’s important to consider the following.
1 Planning permission
Maisonettes do not enjoy permitted development rights. Proposals to extend will be subject to local planning policy and require full planning permission. This normally means you can’t build as far under local planning policy, and you will need to wait for planning consent before starting work on site.
2 Freeholder consent
Structural and other material alterations typically require freeholder consent. If your property is leasehold, you will need to contact the registered freeholder and apply for a licence to alter before starting the building work onsite. If your property is share of a freehold, you will still need consent from the other property owners before starting work. This may be in the form of a licence to alter agreement or another written permission. The terms of your lease will determine what is required.
3 Ownership
The freeholder owns the structure of the building, including the external walls, roof, floors and any communal areas.
In a Victorian house conversion, the loft space is usually owned by the freeholder. If you want to extend into the roof, it is likely you will need to purchase the additional space from the freeholder and revise your lease to account for the changes to your property’s demise. The works would also require a licence to alter, as noted above.
4 Party wall
If your proposals require consent under the Party Wall Act, you will need to notify the other flat owners directly affected by the work, as well as the property owners in adjoining buildings, before starting the building work. With regards to freeholder consent, it is recommended that party wall provisions are included in the licence to alter agreement to ensure all necessary consents are accounted for.
5 Services
While flats and maisonettes operate independently, they share incoming utility services and drainage. If you are proposing to change the layout of your property or create additional rooms, you’ll need to consider how the new spaces connect into existing services. For example, kitchens and bathrooms in upper floor properties will need to be located next to existing drainage stacks, as scope to form new vertical connections will be restricted by the property, or properties, below.
If you are thinking about undertaking extensive renovation works to a flat or maisonette, it’s important to seek professional advice before you begin.
What are maisonettes?
Traditionally, maisonettes are flats over two floors with a separate entrance door off the street. In post-war housing blocks, upper maisonettes are often accessed from external walkways via communal stair and lift cores.
In Scotland, maisonettes typically refer to two-storey flats accessed off an internal communal hallway.
In the US, the term is sometimes used in urban areas to describe one- to three-storey apartments with their own street entrance.
What is the difference between a flat and maisonette?
A flat is simply an apartment over a single level. A maisonette is an apartment over two floors, typically with its own entrance off the street.
What is the difference between a maisonette and duplex?
The term maisonette is often used to describe two-storey flats in older buildings, say a ground and lower ground level flat in a Victorian townhouse conversion.
Duplex is a general term frequently used by developers and agents to describe two-storey flats in modern housing developments. Duplex flats are usually accessed from internal communal parts of the larger building.
What is the difference between a leasehold and share of freehold maisonette?
A leasehold maisonette (or flat) means you own the lease of your property while the freeholder owns the building and the land it sits on. In this arrangement, the freeholder is responsible for managing the maintenance of the building.
A share of freehold maisonette (or flat) means you and the other property owners own a share of the building and land along with the lease of your individual property. Here, you manage the upkeep of the building with the other property owners in the building.
Do I need freeholder consent to extend my maisonette if it is share of the freehold?
Yes. You still require freeholder consent, even if you co-own the freehold, to carryout material changes to your property. The terms of your lease will determine whether you will need to agree a licence to alter or another written permission.
About the author: Aron Coates is an architect with over two decades of experience, encompassing projects ranging from the restoration of historic buildings to the design of contemporary homes.
The information provided in this article is intended for general guidance and educational purposes only. At Designs in Detail, we advise you appoint a skilled residential architect to provide specific expert advice for your project.
