Viewing a Grade II Listed Building

scooter_chick

I've seen a house on Rightmove that I like the look of, but it's a Grade II listed building. I don't really know anything about listed buildings, apart from that you can't mess around with them, and therefore maintaining them is potentially very expensive!

If I go to view this, what sort of questions should I be asking? From the photos, it looks like quite alot of the inside has been changed (walls moved etc) - would this have needed special consent that I need to check out, or is it just the exterior?

Any help would be really appreciated, it looks like a great house, but I don't want to end up in some sort of money-eating nightmare!

Thanks!

poppysarah

How old is it? Some are listed just because of their age.
For most the outside is the important thing (but they can also do insane things like list as is so things like plastic gutter/cast iron mix end up as part of the listing which strikes me as bizarre)
Go view and ask them.

You could contact the local council's listed building officer and ask what the listing for it says.

When you buy one - can you ask someone (surveyor?) to check that the current building is as it should be, and six months down the line the Listings officer doesn't come and say "that's not allowed" when it was the previous owners what did it? (If you see what I mean... ;-)

GSXRCarlos

3 types of grading, grade 2 means you can't change the exterior without consent, but can do anything (well almost) to the interior

try this link for more info

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.1373