Converting two houses into one, is Planning Permission req.?

[Teamonkey]

Hi,

We have two houses, and are wanting to make them into one, do we need planning permission to do this?

And what other things would we need to take into account, such as services (electric/gas/water) would we have to change the meters etc?

If anyone has done this can you help, as we're at the "seriously considering it" stage and don't quite know where to start.

Many thanks

Teamonkey

 

[jeds]

Planning permission is not required for internal works so you are free to do the knocking through. Technically you do need PP for a change of use so would need it to register the property as one dwelling. I would do the sums on it first though as it may be better for you to just live in the joined property and maintain its dueal status. You would be paying two lots of council tax but the joined property would be more valuable so would be re-rated into a higher band anyway. The key question for me would be what is the difference?

The advantage of keeping the dual status is that you can block it back up into two dwellings later if you want to sell.

 

[Teamonkey]

Thanks for the reply Jeds,

In respect of council tax; both properties fall into Band A £998 per year, so 2 lots in our area is the equivalent of something like Band D or E (more to pay than for the huge Georgian pile we're next door to!).
We have a three bed and a one bed, so would hope it'd be less than that as our properties are much smaller (think Hobbits!).

But I do get your point about de-valuing the properties though. So would have to weigh up a bit extra Council Tax against the potential loss of value in the long term - good advice, thanks.

Will contact our Council Planning Dept to just ask for their advice.

Another thing I thought about was our mortgage; we own one house outright (no mortgage) and do have a mortgage on the other, so we'd need to let the lenders know if we do it too.

Ye gods it gets more scary the more I think about it!

Still asking doesn't harm, so if we do find out what the process would be I'll do a post so other folk can learn from it too.

Teamonkey

 

[Nickam]

I think you will need Planning approval for that. I think the exemption to obtaining Planning in this case only applies if the two properties were built originally as one and were converted to two some time ago, and you are now intending to convert them back into one. Talk to your Local Authority duty Planning Officer,
Cheers,
Nick

 

[Jasonb]

I have a client that joined two 5 bed houses together and she needed PP, has just decided to sell up and again needed PP to split them up.

Another client lived in a small 1 bed cottage then bought the one next door, when she enquired she would have had to upgrade both properties to current B.Regs as things like the stairs were too steep. So kept them as two properties and hid the knock through with this panelling I did for her.

here and here

Jason

 

[jeds]

Thanks for the reply Jeds,

In respect of council tax; both properties fall into Band A £998 per year, so 2 lots in our area is the equivalent of something like Band D or E (more to pay than for the huge Georgian pile we're next door to!).
We have a three bed and a one bed, so would hope it'd be less than that as our properties are much smaller (think Hobbits!).

But I do get your point about de-valuing the properties though. So would have to weigh up a bit extra Council Tax against the potential loss of value in the long term - good advice, thanks.

Will contact our Council Planning Dept to just ask for their advice.

Another thing I thought about was our mortgage; we own one house outright (no mortgage) and do have a mortgage on the other, so we'd need to let the lenders know if we do it too.

Ye gods it gets more scary the more I think about it!

Still asking doesn't harm, so if we do find out what the process would be I'll do a post so other folk can learn from it too.

Teamonkey

I'm erring towards knocking through and using it as one but maintaining dual status. When you come to sell two will always be more valuable than one. I suppose it depends whether you think this would be a long term thing or you might sell within 3 or 4 years?

Only extra thing you might need to look into is the insurance position. Presumably you currently have two policies. Going forward would it be better to have one policy for both or retain two? And then you would have to make sure knocking through did not jeopardise your position in terms of a claim for fire?

 

[spongobongo]

We have two houses, and are wanting to make them into one, do we need planning permission to do this?

HUGE can of worms, this one. The general planning rule is that two houses into one doesn't require permission because no change of use has occurred. But converting the new single family dwelling back into two dwellings at a later date does require permission. This is set out in Section 55(3)(a) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 specifically for the avoidance of doubt.

From memory, there's a landmark House of Lords case on this issue involving the London Borough of Richmond which involved converting five flats into one house. But, for the life of me, I can't find a reference online. If I find it (or any other relevant point) I'll post again.