Singing Pig

Whilst the seperate supplies themselves are of no interest to the planning department, if you can find any other evidence (such as a sworn statement from a long term neighbour) that the house has previously been used as 2 or more households then it will certainly help your case.

Building regs will apply in full force unfortunately unless you are selling a unit which has existed entirely in it's existing form for the required time period. 

Dear BTS  (and others)

further to my previous mail....it turns out that the next door neighbour is chief conservation officer for the neighbouring borough and is a complete pain in the ars*.  He has already been difficult with the party wall agreements and has made it clear that he intends to object to the submitted planning application.  In particular he does not like the steps running down from the upper ground floor at the back of the house - ie the return - to the (shared) rear garden as he claims he will be overlooked.

 my questions are.

1. How much sway will his objections have with the planning dept ? (I feel the overlooking is a borderline issue)

2. Is it worth appealing, if the decsion goes the wrong way?

3. Has anyone had similar experience and found a neat solution when splitting a house , but giving both flats garden access. ?

Thanx

Chris 

Hi I've just joined this is a really good site ! Mine is the same subject . I'm in the process of looking at houses's with my mother , we want to purchase a house between us and convert it into two flats so that we will be totally seperate . We will purchase a house that is in good order and hope to put a kitchen upstairs into one of the bedrooms and then afterwards convert the loft into a living room. Obviously it will all have to be done properly and legally but we are not converting with the view to sell its with the idea for us to live in it together as seperate flats.

Has anyone any idea how much this will cost us to do and how long it will take and what permission we will need to get and how long this could take. Is it a viable idea ?

cazz

If you're doing it to live in yourself, and are planning to keep hold of the place for the next 10 years; do it 'informally' ie. on the sly - but keep lots of evidence of when you did it.  There are plenty of reasons against doing it this way, not least your mortgage lender, but it's down to how certain you are that you can keep up with the mortgage and stay below the radar.

If you want to go the legal route, you'll need planning permission, building regs approval, all the work I detailed in my earlier post, and suitable finance.

I know which option I'd plump for in your position.
 

Hi,

Just found this site on a search...

I've converted my house into two flats.. I'm at the final stages now, awating my final walk round for building regs and my sound proof test..

 Not sure if I'd suggest it to the faint hearted..  I've done most of the work myself and it's took about two years .. bit by bit..

Some of the things you need to think about to do this work are:-

1. You'll need planning permission, if you try and do it on the sly, (as some have suggested) you'll not be able to let it out, will have insurance problems, and could seriously devalue the house, not to mention be at risk of prosicution at some point.

2. the new Building regs require allot of sound proofing, and require an independant test to check it complies with the regulations - I've got suspended ceilings with acoutic brackets, two layers of plaster boards, sealed witgh acoustic sealant, then upstairs is sealed and another layer of board is put over the existing boards.

3. You'll need approx £700 for planning with an architect, then £600 for building regs dependant on size

4. once it's all done you'll need to sort out a lease hold - I'm looking into this now.. as it causes problems with your existing mortgage once it's changed over..

 It's been a big learning curve but can increase the value of the property for a quick turn around if you do it right...

Water Supply

There is an exisiting supply to the house that we are dividing.  Is there any way to split into 2 (ie one for the flat, one for the maisonette), without digging in new water pipes

 We probably wont use any more water than 1 big house -

any thoughts welcome.

Technically you are supposed to dig in a new main, however if your pressure is good enough - bearing in mind you need two boilers, two kitchens with washing machine and dishwasher, extra bathrooms etc - then legally speaking you can get away with it.  Solicitors searches will detect that there is water at the property, so no problem there, and the water authority are rather impotent when it comes to enforcement, preferring to leave it to the future householder to litigate if neccessary.

You really do need to get the pressure checked though - even though you are using the same floor area, flats use just as much water as your average family home.

Hi

I've just completed a purchase on a 3 bed 4 reception terrace victorian house, the plan is to convert into flats and put a loft conversion in possibly with a roof terrace or a julliet balcony on the kitchen to be uptairs at the back of the house its to be a flat upstairs and the garden flat downstairs. Does anyone have any up to date costs for architect I have found one but I think his quote is high. I have had different builders saying differant things , the house will have all new incuding windows and doors . Does anyone have an idea of costs and does anyone know anything about a roof terrace

cazz