Can a home lift go in a flat?
Yes, with two conditions. First, the lift has to travel between floors that both belong to the flat — a lift cannot be installed in a communal stairwell or serve other people's homes, so a single-storey flat in a block is served by the building's lift or by a stairlift on the common stairs, not by a home lift. Second, you need the right to alter the property, which for a leaseholder means the lease and the freeholder. Where both hold, the practical installation is no harder than in a house: a self-supporting through-floor lift passes through a floor aperture between your own two levels and stands on a 150mm recess, without a builder-constructed shaft. Our shaftless home lifts guide explains why that structure matters so much in a flat.
Which flats suit a lift?
- Maisonettes — a flat with its own front door and internal staircase over two floors: the most common leasehold lift installation.
- Duplexes and penthouses — two-level apartments in newer blocks, often with generous ceiling heights and a clear stacking position.
- Two-floor conversions — the upper floors of a converted Victorian or Edwardian house sold as one flat, where the stair is steep and narrow and a stairlift struggles.
- Flats with a basement, garden level or loft room — a lift reconnects a level that has become unusable.
- Ground-floor flats with a raised entrance — here the answer is usually a short-rise external platform lift at the entrance rather than a through-floor lift, and it may involve the freeholder's exterior rather than your demise.
Whatever the layout, the two floors need a position where a platform of around 850 × 850mm to 1,000 × 1,250mm can stack directly above itself, with the floor aperture clear of the main structural beams. That is what a survey establishes.
What the lease says: alterations clauses
Nearly every long lease contains an alterations covenant. Typically it forbids structural alterations outright and permits non-structural alterations with the landlord's prior written consent, "such consent not to be unreasonably withheld". Cutting a floor aperture between two floors of your own demise is usually treated as a non-structural alteration when the joists trimmed are within your flat and the lift carries its own load to its base — which a self-supporting lift does. A lift that needed a masonry shaft, a machine room or work to load-bearing walls would be a different conversation, which is why the choice of lift is the first thing to settle. Read the alterations clause before you do anything else, and check whether the floor and ceiling are within your demise or are "structure" retained by the freeholder; many leases define the floor joists as structure, and the licence will then cover the aperture explicitly.
The licence to alter: what the freeholder will ask for
A licence to alter is the formal document in which the freeholder consents to the works and sets the conditions. It is normal, it protects both sides, and the freeholder must act reasonably: where a lease requires consent for improvements, section 19 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 implies that consent cannot be unreasonably withheld, and a disability adaptation with a reversible, non-structural design is the strongest possible case. Expect to be asked for:
- Scaled drawings showing the lift position on both floors and the size of the floor aperture.
- A structural note confirming how the aperture is trimmed and that the lift is self-supporting — the tower carries its running loads to a 150mm recess, not to the joists.
- The lift's conformity: certified to EN 81-41, CE marked under the Machinery Directive, and installed by SafeContractor-accredited engineers (CN8516).
- A method statement covering working hours, dust and noise control, access through common parts and disposal.
- Confirmation of the installer's insurances, and an undertaking to reinstate the floor at the end of the lease or on sale if the freeholder requires it.
We provide this pack as part of the quotation, so the leaseholder is not left assembling documents from several trades. The freeholder's own surveyor and solicitor fees for the licence are normally paid by the leaseholder; ask for a fixed figure up front.
Shared buildings: noise, fire and your neighbours
Three questions come up in blocks that rarely arise in houses. Noise: a platform lift is a slow, quiet machine (0.15 m/s) with its drive inside the tower, and because the structure stands on your own floor rather than being fixed to party walls, transmission to neighbouring flats is minimal. Fire compartmentation: the aperture is between two floors of the same flat, so it does not breach the compartment line between your flat and a neighbour's; the freeholder may still ask for the building's fire risk assessment to be updated, which is a paperwork exercise. Common parts: the lift arrives in sections that fit through a standard doorway and staircase, so there is no crane and no scaffolding on the building's exterior. Installation itself takes 3–5 days.
Funding: the DFG for leaseholders and tenants
The Disabled Facilities Grant is not limited to freehold homeowners. Leaseholders qualify in the same way as any owner-occupier, and tenants — private, housing-association or council — can apply with the landlord's permission to carry out the adaptation. The grant contributes up to £30,000 in England, is mandatory where the works are necessary, appropriate, reasonable and practicable, and is means-tested for adults. Councils require a written, specified quotation, which we provide, and the occupational-therapy assessment establishes necessity. Separately, a lift supplied and fitted for a disabled person's domestic use is normally zero-rated for VAT. See our Disabled Facilities Grant guide for the process and our guide for occupational therapists if a referral is underway.
Reinstating the floor at lease end or on sale
Most licences to alter include a reinstatement clause: the freeholder can require the flat to be returned to its original condition when the lease ends or the flat is assigned. A self-supporting lift answers this directly — it unbolts, and the aperture is closed with new joists and boarding and the ceiling below made good. It is a two-day job for a builder rather than structural demolition, which is why freeholders accept it. In practice, buyers increasingly see a working lift as a feature and the freeholder often agrees to leave it in place. Our guide to removing a through-floor lift describes what reinstatement involves.
Period conversions, listed buildings and conservation areas
Many two-floor flats are in converted Victorian and Edwardian houses, some of them listed or in conservation areas. An internal lift in an unlisted building is normally permitted development and needs no planning permission. In a listed building, internal works need listed building consent from the council in addition to the freeholder's licence — the reversible, shaft-free design is precisely what conservation officers ask for. Our listed buildings guide covers the consent route.
Do I need the freeholder's permission for a home lift in my flat?
Almost always, yes. The lease will require written consent for alterations, and installing without it risks a breach-of-covenant claim and an order to remove the lift. The good news is that consent for a disability adaptation cannot normally be refused unreasonably, and a well-prepared application — drawings, the structural note, EN 81-41 conformity, method statement and a reinstatement undertaking — is granted routinely. Start with the managing agent, who will tell you the freeholder's process and fees.
How long does it take to put a lift in a flat?
Allow longer for the paperwork than the work. A licence to alter typically takes four to eight weeks once the freeholder has the pack, and it can run alongside the lift's roughly nine-week manufacturing lead time. The installation itself is 3–5 days on site, with the lift arriving in sections through the normal entrance. From first enquiry to riding the lift, three to four months is realistic when the lease is straightforward.
Can a tenant have a home lift installed?
Yes, with the landlord's permission. Council and housing-association tenants usually go through the landlord's adaptations team and the Disabled Facilities Grant; private tenants can apply for the grant with the landlord's written agreement. Because the lift is self-supporting and reversible, landlords are more willing to agree than they would be to a permanent structural change, and the property can be returned to its original layout at the end of the tenancy if required.
How Base OnLevel can help
We install OnLevel platform and through-floor lifts across England with our own SafeContractor-accredited engineers (CN8516), and we have prepared licence-to-alter packs for freeholders and managing agents before. Send us the alterations clause from your lease and a floor plan or photos of the two levels, and we will tell you within 48 hours whether a lift is feasible and what the freeholder is likely to ask for. Get in touch or call 01245 968541.
Find a platform lift installer in your area
We install and service OnLevel platform lifts across England, with dedicated local pages for hundreds of towns. Explore the areas we cover — including London, Surrey, Kent, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Essex — or browse the full list of locations across the UK.
Popular towns we cover include Milton Keynes, Coventry, Watford, Bromley, Marylebone, Sutton, Rochdale, Cheshunt, Welwyn Garden City, Sevenoaks, Wellingborough, Beverley and Pontefract.
Recently updated area pages include Sneyd Park, Cuckfield, Lavenham, Huyton, Kineton, Polesworth and Stourport-on-Severn — each with local planning notes, typical property types and the installation details for that area.
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Every property is different, so the surest way to a firm figure is to tell us about your project — the property, the floors you need to serve and what you want to achieve. Send us those details and our SafeContractor-accredited team will prepare a written, no-obligation quotation. Request your quotation on our contact form, or see the areas we cover across the UK.