Change of use from pub to dwelling

[wooffy]

Anyone on here done this or have any experience with this?

I've just about finished the house I presently live in and am moving closer to family so on the hunt for a new home. What I have noticed is there are quite a few small pubs for sale that are no longer used. Now as I prefer shall we say different accommodation than the normal houses etc I would love to sink my teeth into converting a pub.
The actual conversion doesn't faze me however the planning aspect is quite worrying as it's something I've never had to deal with before.
I was looking to obtain the planning prior to purchase to enable myself to get a residential mortgage rather than a commercial one.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

There's a reasonable chance it would be granted if it has a little land (ie old beer garden) that can be pushed over to garden/off road parking. First step will be talking to the planners. Good size pubs are often converted to flats.

 

[wooffy]

Of the two I'm looking at, one has parking at the front that can be changed into a garden/parking and the other has a passageway that leads to a rear courtyard which is big enough to drive a car through.

 

[jeds]

Planning authorities vary but most require a minimum period of marketing before they will allow a change of use from commercial to domestic. This can be 6 months but in some cases it's 12 months. You should look into this before making a decision. I wouldn't think there would be any major issues with physical alterations once you've satisfied the above.

 

[brianj42]

A year has passed and you're either down the middle of converting it after a successful change of use, still going through painful appeals, or given up the ghost.

Don't be fooled into thinking that buying a pub and changing to residential is at all easy. More and more councils backed by the Campaign for Real Ale are really making it harder and harder to do. In fact I know 2 people who bought and despite many applications and thousands in consultancy and experts, have got nowhere and sat with a crappy pub they can do nothing with.

Bonkers I know that they will let a non profitable pub just sit and rot rather than bring it back to some life, but that's council mentality, whoever said it was logical.

One thought if you are having problems getting change of use. You can change it to category A1, A2 or A3 without permission. Hence Tesco's are snapping them up left, right & centre, because they don't need planning to turn into a shop.......So an interior design shop, home cinema consultants, architects business, sex shop etc etc......

use your imagination