Buying house next door??

a_confused_mum

This is not happening but a thought and wondered if it is possible. {not sure if it's in right place sorry if that's the case}

We have an end of 'terrace [of 3 houses] house. It's a 3 bed. We have planning permission to extend up and out to make it a 5 bed with a garage and an extra room which would be a dining room. With the current 'credit crunch' etc it has not been possible to start the building due to lack of funds.

My 'hypothetical' question would be, the house next door would be up for sale. It is a 2 bed house. Is it possible to buy the house next door and then knock through so we would get our 5 bed from the 2 houses [forget about doing extension].

1) is is possible to do that so the 2 houses would become 1 and how would that work with the numbering of the houses as 1 number would dissappear.
2) If we decided to sell years later how would that affect it? would we have to sell as 2 houses etc by putting up the wall again??

I am not technical minded so you have to bear with me

Thanks in advance

Trune

obviously you'd need planning permission, the one issue really is some councils have issue about reducing the number of properties in an area.

PasturesNew

The value of the larger house would be less than the two individual houses. On top of that there is the time/cost/mess to even start to do it. The easiest way would be to keep them separate, pay two lots of council tax and everything ... and just bang a conservatory on the back joining them (believe it or not I saw an actual developer do this on one of the TV property shows because the houses were listed and they couldn't change how they looked/were built or laid out.

Edit: Or another one I saw literally just had one doorway through to the mirror-image house in the hallway. Kept both houses as they were.

neverdespairgirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

The value of the larger house would be less than the two individual houses. On top of that there is the time/cost/mess to even start to do it. The easiest way would be to keep them separate, pay two lots of council tax and everything ... and just bang a conservatory on the back joining them (believe it or not I saw an actual developer do this on one of the TV property shows because the houses were listed and they couldn't change how they looked/were built or laid out.

Edit: Or another one I saw literally just had one doorway through to the mirror-image house in the hallway. Kept both houses as they were.

My parents did that. They originally bought a 4 bed end of terrace cottage in a village in Kent in 1985. The original (1490s) part of the house was a combined living room / dining room downstairs, and 2 bedrooms upstairs, and a converted attic room. There was also a 1930s extension (fortunately, a good one which fitted in) which had a kitchen downstairs and a bathroom, loo, and 4th bedroom upstairs.

Then, in 1991, they bought the mid-terrace next door. It was almost certainly an in-fill building from about 1650, as the whole house is only about 11-12 feet wide. That has 2 bedrooms upstairs, and a living room and bathroom downstairs.

They knocked through from the 1930s kitchen in the main house into the narrow kitchen in the smaller house, and made that a breakfast room, attached to the kitchen.

Apparently, it's now worth more as a 6 bed, 2 bathroom house with sitting room / dining room combined, living room, and breakfast room than it would be as 2 separate houses.

At the front, there are still 2 front doors. The railings between them have been taken away, as have the fences in the garden at the back.

planning_officer

Trune wrote: »

obviously you'd need planning permission, the one issue really is some councils have issue about reducing the number of properties in an area.

Not true actually! Section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 defines 'development' - for which planning permission is required. However, it specifically clarifies that converting two houses into one is not 'development' - therefore you won't need planning permission. If in the future you want to convert it back to two dwellings, then planning permission would be required, as Section 55 clarifies that converting one house into two is development.

If you keep a kitchen in each property, then for Council Tax purposes you would end up paying it twice (you might get a discount on one house if it's classified as a 'second home'), however if you just have one kitchen, then it should also be classified as one dwelling for Council Tax purposes, therefore only requiring one set of Council Tax. So, to clarify - you won't need planning permission.

Old_Git

if you keep two kitchens and thus two houses two council tax ect , then surely when you sold you would have to pay tax on one house .

scousethife

I know someone who has done this, what he has created is a very unique house that he is truggling to sell (although every one is at the mo)

He has a 5 bed 2 bath house that is competing against 5 bed detached where as his is a mid terraced.

a_confused_mum

ooooh thanks all for your replies. The house next door is not actually up for sale but it was a thought if it does ever go up. the kitchens in both houses are small so i think to do it would keep 1 as a kitchen and the other as a utility room.

thanks

PasturesNew

What surprised me is that it might be cheaper to buy the house next door than to build your extension on land you already have.

I'd have always thought an extension was cheaper.

a_confused_mum

PasturesNew wrote: »

What surprised me is that it might be cheaper to buy the house next door than to build your extension on land you already have.

I'd have always thought an extension was cheaper.

we had a quote for £40,000 and another just in the £39,000. I think at the mo with the market like it is, next doors 2 bed minimum £80,000 + maybe more, ours [3 bed} is roughly £130???/ i am no E.A so have no clue anyway

neverdespairgirl

planning_officer wrote: »

Not true actually! Section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 defines 'development' - for which planning permission is required. However, it specifically clarifies that converting two houses into one is not 'development' - therefore you won't need planning permission.

Although in, say, my parents' case, they did need listed buildings consent.