Flat Refurbishment Haringey

Flats are 64% of Haringey's homes, so flat refurbishment is the more common of the two refurbishment jobs here. Some are floors of converted Victorian and Edwardian houses, others are in post-war blocks or newer buildings, and 13% of all the borough's homes were built in 2000 or later. Refurbishing one means renewing the rooms inside your front door while working to a lease, a managing agent's rules and neighbours on every side. For landlords, the minimum EPC rules and, where it applies, Haringey's selective licensing scheme add conditions to the same job.

For Haringey, published UK averages put a full flat refurbishment at £33,000 to £48,000 and a basic one, with budget kitchen and bathroom fittings, at £15,000 to £18,000, and London flats usually cost more (Checkatrade and MyJobQuote, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Haringey: we refurbish the flat within the terms of your lease and licence to alter, protect the common parts throughout, and a registered electrician certifies the new consumer unit and circuits.

Leases and licences to alter for a Haringey flat

Refurbishing a flat in Haringey means working inside a lease as well as a building. Flats are 64% of the borough's homes, so the question of who owns the floor joists, the windows and the main walls comes up again and again. Leases normally require a licence to alter from the freeholder for anything structural, and managing agents often want drawings, a method statement and set working hours before a start date is agreed.

In a converted house the freeholder may be the owner of the flat downstairs, which makes the conversation easier but no less formal. In a purpose-built block there is usually a managing agent with standard rules on lift use, deliveries, protection of the common parts and where waste can be left. We read those rules before pricing, because a block that bans skips or limits noisy work to a few hours a day changes both the method and the programme for your Haringey flat.

Housing in Haringey

For Haringey the Council Tax list gives about 114,980 homes; by type 64% flats and 36% houses, by age 35% post-war, 11% interwar and 54% older than 1919.

Floors, sound and leaks in Haringey's converted houses

Floors are the usual sticking point in a Haringey flat. Taking up carpet to lay hard flooring in an upper flat of a converted house can put impact noise straight into the ceiling below, and a lease may forbid it without an acoustic layer. We allow for resilient underlay or a floating floor where the lease or the neighbour calls for it, and we agree the noisy phases with the managing agent up front, so strip-out and chasing happen on known days.

Water is the other shared risk. A new kitchen or bathroom inside the flat footprint connects to a soil stack and supply pipes that serve other homes, and an old joint disturbed during strip-out can leak into the flat below. We isolate and test before and after, fit tanking behind showers, and keep waste runs short. Fire safety in the block, including the flat entrance door and the compartment walls, is a matter for the freeholder or responsible person, so any change there needs their agreement first.

Letting a refurbished flat in Haringey: EPC and selective licensing

If you let the flat, a Haringey refurbishment is also the moment to fix the EPC. Haringey's retrofit guide states it is unlawful to rent out a domestic property rated F or G unless a valid exemption is in place. Since 1 April 2020 landlords cannot let or continue to let a covered property below E without one. In a flat the usual measures are an efficient boiler or electric heating with good controls, secondary glazing to period sashes, and insulation where a floor or roof slope is opened.

Haringey's selective licensing scheme for privately rented homes came into force on 17 November 2022 and runs for 5 years, and an application without a valid EPC has its licence reduced to 1 year. Check whether your address falls in the area the scheme covers. You apply for the licence yourself or through your agent; we leave you the electrical and gas certificates for the licence file, and a new EPC then records the improved rating.

Building control and services inside a Haringey flat

Most of a Haringey flat refurbishment is renewal that needs no planning permission, but some of it is building control work. A new consumer unit and rewire inside the flat are carried out and certified by a registered electrician, and a boiler swap is done and notified by a registered gas engineer. Moving a kitchen into a room that forms part of the escape route, or altering drainage, needs approval from Haringey Council's Building Control Service or a registered building control approver.

If the building is listed, the works themselves are a separate question: anything that affects its character, inside or out, needs listed building consent from Haringey Council, and carrying it out without consent is a criminal offence.

Haringey offers two routes, full plans or a building notice, and work under either can start 48 hours after notice of the start has been given. For applications made after 1 October 2023 you must send a completion notice before the final inspection. In a taller block that counts as a higher-risk building, the Building Safety Regulator is the building control body, so check the building's status with the managing agent before any notifiable work is planned. A rewire or boiler swap by a competent person scheme installer does not need the Regulator's approval.

• Kitchen renewal within the flat footprint, drained to the shared stack
• Rewires inside the flat, signed off at the end by a registered electrician
• Buy-to-let refurbishments between tenancies, with the EICR and gas safety record arranged with the certifying engineers

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 36 statistical areas in Haringey. Counts rounded by the VOA.

When comparing flat refurbishment in Haringey with other work, it helps to read bathroom renovation in Haringey, our Haringey area guide, flat renovations in London, renewing a bathroom inside a leasehold flat, flat refurbishment anywhere in London and Combi, System or Regular Boiler.

Trusted Flat Refurbishment in Haringey

You get one team that deals with the managing agent's paperwork, protects the common parts, works inside the block's hours and renews the flat room by room. We supply the method statement and programme a licence to alter usually needs, alongside your designer's drawings, and price after a site visit so floor build-ups and pipe renewals are named items. The registered electrician and registered gas engineer we bring in certify their work, and you receive those certificates at handover for your lease file or licence application.

• The lease and licence to alter read before a flat is quoted
• Fire doors and compartment lines left as the building's fire strategy needs them
• Neighbours given notice before the noisy stages

Reviewed jobs near Haringey

2 MyBuilder reviews from Wood Green and Hornsey, with each customer's own job title:

• New kitchen install moving plumbing, elecs, flooring, Wood Green, 19 Jan 2022 (5 out of 5)
• New Kitchen Assembly & Others for Interior Designer, Hornsey, 5 Jan 2022 (5 out of 5)

Read all 31 on our reviews page.

Checked by Abdelaaziz Saaid, founder and director of GS Renovation Ltd (Companies House no. 14611254).