Changing integral garage into a room

katies_mum

Please can anyone advise me if I have our garage converted into a sitting room for our daughter will this affect our council tax. My logic is that we will still have the same floor area!! friend next door says it will go up as we have more living space!! Please can anyone advise?

liitleblackcat

Changes to Council Tax banding only happen when there is a general revaluation or if you ask for one. The Valuation service won't do anything until there is a complete revaluation of the whole of the country, but when you apply for planning permission or building regs approval, a note will be put on your Council Tax file to flag up that you have had work done which may change your band.

See http://www.voa.gov.uk/TheFacts/index.htm#improving

I suspect that a full revaluation of the whole country will never happen because there will be too many losers (who will moan like mad) compared with the number of winners (who won't say anything). The government keeps looking at fairer ways to raise local taxes but then doesn't do anything about them because of the number of potential losers.

Devon_Hippo

Hi there. This is my understanding and experience.
If you increase the value of the property enough to move it into the next council tax band, then the rateable value goes up. Nothing to do with living space at all.
What then happens is that the new rateable value gets applied when the property changes hands, not immediately, so you should have no impact.
Remember also that you will increase value in your house with extra reception room, but will decrease value by removal of your garage, so the net value impact could be very slight.
My experience .... I had a 3-bid semi and my attached neighbours put on an significant extension - width of a garage, full length of the house and 3 stories high - and their council tax banded changed, as you could imagine, but they have not been asked to pay the extra amount and will only be due when they sell and payable by the new owners

katies_mum

Thanks for taking the time to reply, only thinking about it at the moment but seems a good idea as its full of junk - cars have been sitting in the path for 12 months and more junk gets put in there weekly. So at the moment its a waste of space that could be useful.

Devon_Hippo

makes Sense to me. My own garage is shrinking ... about 7 foot went as a utility room conversion, then another 5 foot or so for my hot water tank, solar setup and boiler - have to get a smart car now to park in there (and after emptying out all the other junk!)

mrnkar

We done exactly what you thinking of 11 years ago. Garage is now my sons bedroom. We then got a sectional garage put up at bottom of drive. Our council tax band has never changed and even if it did, we would only pay about £100 a year more. Well worth the extra space. Go for it. Karen

katies_mum

Thanks all, just got to get some estimates. I got a price about 3 years ago and it came in at a scary £8500!!! no I`m not joking I think the builder was taking the ****. Can`t see that it would cost anything like that considering I`ve got the shell just need the insides, window, heating etc. Any ideas what the approx cost might be?

Lucky you being able to move your garage, we are limited for space so one it goes we are stuck with cars in the path. Can`t afford to move though so its the only option to get more space (can`t go up as roof apex too low)

amandada

katies_mum wrote: »

Thanks all, just got to get some estimates. I got a price about 3 years ago and it came in at a scary £8500!!! no I`m not joking I think the builder was taking the ****. Can`t see that it would cost anything like that considering I`ve got the shell just need the insides, window, heating etc. Any ideas what the approx cost might be?

Lucky you being able to move your garage, we are limited for space so one it goes we are stuck with cars in the path. Can`t afford to move though so its the only option to get more space (can`t go up as roof apex too low)

We did ours 2 years ago and it did end up costing about £9k all in. We didn't need planning permission obviously, but we did need building warrants etc, and the council were extremely pernickity about disabled access etc.'t eb

We haven't ended up paying more council tax, but it did have to be re-valued by the regional assessor once it was completed.

We're in Scotland, I don't know if that would make a difference?

katies_mum

Crikey £9k, I thought the estimate we had was well over priced... maybe I was wrong.... think the first thing to do is get some uptodate estimates and then take it from there.

I want to do so much to the house, may be best to knock it down and start again.

webwalker

I knew a rather eccentric old gent who did the opposite, he put garage doors on his living room and used it as a garage, the local council sent someone around to see him and he told them quite bluntly that it was his living room and if he wanted to keep a car in it it was up to him and none of their business.

amandada

katies_mum wrote: »

Crikey £9k, I thought the estimate we had was well over priced... maybe I was wrong.... think the first thing to do is get some uptodate estimates and then take it from there.

I want to do so much to the house, may be best to knock it down and start again.

I've included the architect's fees, building warrants applications, lighting (which was pretty complex), flooring, decorating etc