Shared ownership hose..anyone done any big changes to their house?

gabyjane

Ok before i begin i have mentioned this before and don't want any 'it's not your house' 'it's not worth it' 'think of the money you will lose' blah blah..i will give my reasons after!

Right..we have a 2 bed semi detatched house which we LOVE, well i do anyway dh i'm sure loves it but not to the same extent as me(in that he doesn't go on and on about it lol)!! It is a town house with garage underneath but no access from the house. We have had chats about numerous things and the biggest being converting the loft to make 3 rooms but tbh it is just talk as although we could possibly do it, it is a huge job and not neccesary at this time. I was talking to my friends husband at the weekend and he said he would seriously consider moving just for the sake of a garage and really envied us, i was saying it is a lovely big size but we just put rubbish in there..the only things we need are dh and dd's bike and the tumble dryer! SO we had a look down there and talked about making 2 rooms (well i did dh just nodded!) and it is easily big enough to segregate the front bit off so that if you open the garage door as normal you would have a big space for bikes and bits etc and then the rest would be the other room which we would have to make accesable from the lounge which is above..now this is where the big bit comes in as it means obviously making a big hole in the lounge and putting stairs down so wondered if anyone had done anything similar or anything generally construction wise?

PROS

• I see it as adding another room (I would like it as an office/spare room-tried to convince dh as his own tv room for peace!)
• I see it as not losing the garage as such as there is still room for storage
• I see it as easily being changed back into a garage but there will still be stairs in the lounge which could be a + point
• It makes the lounge bigger as the pc could then go down there!

CONS

• No room for a car!

Opinions please...

freakyogre

Just be careful Daniel doesn't fall down the hole.

MEOOOOOOOOOOOOOW.



Oh, and just to try and be sensible as I may get told off. As i've said, I see what you mean about gaining space, but will you? Even though the computer desk etc. will be downstairs (good luck moving that btw!) you'll still have to have access to below so will have stairs/ladder/firemans pole (if you get a pole, can I come and test it?) in that space.

Could it be a security issue? I'm not thinking you're just going to bung a cardboard partition up and have done with it, but just thinking if anyone gets into your garage, they have easier access to your house (and cat).

Won't it be cold? :think:

gabyjane

Well Ogre thanks for your reply!

Ok yes the space from the desk will be gone as it will be stairs (no pole im afraid although i'm sure i could sell it dh that way!) but it will look more spacey! The desk yes weighs a small ton so that could be fun but would mean i would have a good excuse for buying another!!

It could be more of a security issue but we are thinking of putting in a pretty decent wall so when you opened up the garage it would have to be a wall knocked through to get in, personally id'e go through the front or back door if i was a burglar but yeah i can see what you mean.

Cold it probably would be and the lighting would need to be good but all possibilities..would have a heater down there i guess prob not proper radiators depends on how much/easy they are...im also thinking with the front part cut off by the wall most of the cold will be stopped as i think it is the garage door letting in most of it!

Thanks for your reply x

Greenwellies_2

Having spent lots doing my SO property up (windows, kitchen, bathroom, plastering, roof repairs, electrics......)
I was STUNG by the HA when it came to buying the remaining 50%, they wanted 50% of the market value and took nothing into consideration with regard to the work we'd done.

I'd say see if you could spend the money stepping up before you do any work.

GW

p.s.
You might need planning permission for the work / changing the use of the room

gabyjane

Hi thanks for the reply. We are not interested in loss's of money if selling etc this is our house at the end of the day for a long time to come so not worried too much BUT yes if we decide to buy more and they penalise us for it then we will be annoyed i guess! Do you mean they didn't take into account the work you had done? if so does this mean when it was valued it was the same or less..im thinking hopefully it should increase the value yet if we wanted to buy more after this wouldn't be such a good thing?..my friends had hers years and made so much on it doing it up even in this climate and not bought anymore than the origional %..if she was lucky enough to sell it she would have enough equity for a deposit on another property which would be fine by me but seeing as like i said we dont want to move it is irrelevant!

suze_g

I don't think they penalise you as such, just that their percentage share may be higher if you add value. for example if you adding a room put say £10k on it in value then the HA wuld benefit from that increase, when you came to have it valued to staircase up or to sell.

gabyjane

I see what you mean, thanks! Tbh i look at it this way..we would only ever move to buy prob an outright property i.e not SO, this would enable us to get a deposit and that would be it..People prob think i'm mad but it's not all about money at the end of the day it is living in our own house and enjoying it!

Is there no one else on here that has SO and has done work to their house?