Annex or not an annexe?!

PasturesNew

Skimming through, apart from everything the others have said, the MAJOR issue I see here that is of primary importance (rather than looking at the legal/fraud/dishonest issues) is the following:

If you have somebody living in a studio flat - and others (you?) living in a 2-bed flat ... and especially if you're now planning a loft conversion ... then the BIG ISSUE is: soundproofing and a FIRE ALARM SYSTEM, FIRE PROOFING, FIRE PROOFING EVERY CEILING, FIRE PROOFING EVERY DOOR.

Did I say that loud enough? FIRE PROOFING, FIRE SYSTEMS, FIRE ALARM SYSTEM.

OK, I'll put it in other words: If you do not FIRE PROOF your house PROPERLY and LEGALLY with a random "lodger" downstairs, then in the middle of the night your whole family and the baby and your precious house could be fatally razed to the ground while you all sleep.

Murder .... is your game.

PasturesNew

P.S. And you won't be insured.

Don74

My architect added all the fire regs to his drawings, I have yet to get the doors but the alarm was the first thing installed. The only thing the building regs dept wanted covered was sound insulation between the floors but after hearing Pastures comments I will also look into fire proofing ceilings etc.
As to your comments to what warrants an annex or not: My PP stated to me that if we were to share the Kitchen then it would no longer be an annexe and the lodger would be a lodger. According to the drawings we use the same entrance.
Everybody's comments on what I am doing wrong will all be covered by me pulling down the upstairs Kitchen, apart from not declaring the full rental income.
So I have a new question:
What warrants a Kitchen in the eyes of the council.
Could I keep all the cupboards and just rip out the Oven, can I have a microwave, fridge etc.
You could put a microwave into any room, surely it doesn't make it a kitchen.
This is quite feasable, all I would have to do is put a seperate partition downstairs and we could all share the Kitchen. My wife doesn't want to walk up and down the stairs all day so I need to put some facilites upstairs. I would also have to lower my lodger's rent a little to compensate for this.

macman

I cannot see that the kitchen is relevant. If I install a kitchen in one of my upstairs bedrooms, it does not make my house two separate dwelling units.