Loft conversion..

gabyjane

Ok so we looked up in the loft last night after the spiders had fallen out lol and we are not sure whether it is possible to do or not..reason being there are the normal beams but another lot that would make the room too small..does anyone know what i mean by this?! basically i'm thinking if they are there now they are there for a reason so a possible no? any ideas..it is a 2yr old new build town house and the loft is not suitable for storage at the mo?
Thanks

springclean

simple, get a builder in for a quote. he will tell you what is or isn't possible, based on his knowledge. he may say something you had never thought of, or would need building knowledge to know. if he can do something, look at the costs and decide if the size of the extra space is worth what it will cost.

if you don't ask, you don't know..!

Penny_Watcher

If anyone else in your local area has had a loft conversion (you'll either be able to see the Velux style flat to roof line windows or a dormer window) knock on their door and ask for advice and recommendation of their builder.

We found our builder that way - OH knocked on the door of a neighbour 500 yards away and asked about her extension. We used the same builder and also a copy of her architect's plans as a base for our building . We saved loads of money .

Give it a go. Nothing ventured nothing gained.

gabyjane

Hi thanks i have someone coming round tommorow at 6.30pm..he asked r.e roof height and i explained the beams bit so he said he would come and check it out and let us know. This is something for us to look towards saving up for for quite a while away so will see what the figures come inat if it possible!
As for other people well a few houses have them done and im not sure as they are new if they were put in by the builders or the owners now but they are a slightly diff style so best not to get hopes up!

Thanks

gabyjane

Well had builder round and he said yes!! but i guess the saving of the money and getting it done is the easier bit, i have lots of queries on top of it all too!

IF we went ahead (and should have the quote tommorow) there are things like:

Do we have to inform our next door neighbours? is this done by us or in with the builders work or building regs?

Does a house get re valued when it is done and will it affect our mortgage?

Will our council tax band change?

Being shared ownership we need to sort our mortgage next aug as the fixed deal runs out and not sure where we stand with all the above..i guess only they can tell us this though..very unlikely we will ahve saved by then unless we win the lottery but does it make a difference?

Like i said lots of bits that need sorting before we decide!

Katgrit

gabyjane wrote: »

Being shared ownership

I think this will be a MAJOR stumbling block. I have shared ownership and i can tell you straight off that i just wouldn't be allowed to convert my loft. It would be a complete no-go. The company/social landlord/housing association who own the other half get money and subsidies of the government or local authority to provide housing for people in need of housing, who are unable to buy off the open market. They may argue that if you can afford a loft conversrion you aren't in an position of "at need". Although as you're already in your home rather than a potential buyer i cant see how this could become a problem, they cant exactly force you out or anything. They WILL definitely argue that you aren't keeping the house affordable to others "in need of housing". While you may have no intention of ever selling and moving while they own the other half they have every right to get you to keep to this rule. You'll have to read your lease very VERY carefully. I am allowed to do things for the "upkeep and repair" of the house, to KEEP its value, but i am not allowed to do anything which INCREASES the value of the property. I was allowed to get UPVC windows fitted as that was replacement of the old wooden ones, and i'm planning a new kitchen as the old one was getting shabby. I am not however, allowed to build a porch, a brick garage, conservatory etc as this is done solely to INCREASE value. If i chose to buy a further portion of my house, or sell and move on the valuer has to value it WITHOUT accounting for the new posh windows. As they belong to me, and the rest of the house is 50/50!!

I realise that all housing associations etc differ, and some probably wont give a damn what you do to their house so long as they get their money. But a couple down the road from us knocked through a few walls, knocked the hallway out, made it mostly openplan downstairs and put laminate flooring down - giving it a very modern city slicker loft apartment type look. They came to sell, the HA valuer look one look and they got told to put it back to how it was when they bought it. Hence most of money saved for conveyanciing, removal men etc got spent on rebuilding walls, plastering and skirting boards. I'm not saying they'd even find out about your loft but you wouldn't want to have to un-convert it would you? And if you choose to be upfront about your plans I'd be VERY surprised if you could go ahead.

Sorry if this has put a dampner on your plans but its vital you get it checked out.

gabyjane

Hi Katgrit thanks for the reply.

We applied to convert our garage and on ringing them it was an immediate yes..i have to say i was shocked and expected a no but hey..the letter came through and there were some points on it that we had to abide by as such but could of course take the gamble if we wished..things like if the property loses value we may be asked to return it to it's origional state, being a garage we felt that this may be a possibility as some people do use their cars in there!, the fact it was easy enough to return to it's origional state was not the point, it was the fact that we would have paid for it and we have decided it is not going to happen!
Other points were nothing too bad and she said anything we wanted to do would have the same letter sent out, they just like to have any changes on record.
The one we are not sure about it is the conservation area one and the loft man has said the only rule that would affect this is dormer/velux windows, not wanting the dormer ones made that a simple argument and the fact others have them too kind of makes me think that would be ok.

I agree the SO part is the hard bit, i can see exactly what you mean about affordable housing but i guess affordability is a bit of a guessing game as we couldn't afford an open mortgage house when we bought this but could prob push to it now..now we are here and paying what i think is very cheap for a house we find it easier to save for things..lucky i guess but one of those things.

If it is a no then so be it, luckily we don't need the room, i would love it but at the end of the day it is not going to ruin our lives! my friend has one and she has done so much to it without telling the HA anything, i am not sure where she stands with hers when/if she sells but yes the last thing i would want is to return a big project back to the start again.
I am not sure who to speak to about it all really as again a guessing game in regards to value etc, i would imagine a 2 bed turned into a 3 bed is a good thing and would 90% of the time add value (which is not our aim) but if it lost then yeah we are in a mess..how are you supposed to know these things?
Thanks