Your building has no managing agent or concierge.
Nothing is forbidden, and nothing is arranged
In a managed block there are permitted hours, a lift booking system, an agent to write to and often a deposit held against communal damage. It feels bureaucratic and it means every question has an answer.
A converted house has none of that. There are no written hours, no booking system, and no one whose job it is to say yes. That sounds like freedom and in practice it means every arrangement has to be made person to person.
Work out who the freeholder actually is
Three common situations, and they behave very differently.
- The freeholder lives in one of the flats — easiest, because they are reachable and they care about the hall.
- Share of freehold — the flats jointly own it, so a decision means asking the other leaseholders.
- An absentee or corporate freeholder — often unreachable, which matters only if you need something structural.
What actually needs permission
For an ordinary move, nothing. You have a right of access to your own flat and the communal parts are there to be used.
What needs asking is anything touching the fabric: a hoist bracketed to the building, a window removed, or a communal door taken off its hinges. On a share-of-freehold house that is a conversation with the neighbours rather than an application to anybody.
The thing that replaces the rulebook
Knocking on doors, in good time. Telling the other flats which day it is, roughly when the hall will be busy, and that the bins are being moved and put back.
It sounds almost too simple to write down. It is also the single highest-return thing anyone does before a conversion move, and it prevents nearly every problem these moves actually have.