Buying House with change of use application/planning permission pending. Any advice?

Jecca238

Hi everyone,

Hopefully someone will be able to provide some advice on what our options are with regards to buying a house with a change of use and planning permission pending.

The application is for change of use of the shop area to a residential living room with alterations to front elevation. This is pending at the moment.The ideal scenario for us would be if this is approved as the whole property would be classed as residential then and we wouldn't have to worry about the mortgage implications or business rates yet.

However we would still like the option of possibly using the shop area in the future. I currently operate a cake decorating business from home and don't need a shop at the moment (no business rates as my kitchen/dining area is used and there's shared domestic uses). However in the future this is an avenue we'd potentially like to go down.

If change of use if approved and planning permission for the change to the front elevation is granted and we decide to purchase, would we be obliged to follow through with the plans for the changes to the frontage? We'd like to keep the frontage as it is currently so we have the option of using as a shop in the future.

The applications have been put through as as one application - "..
Change of Use of shop area to residential living room together with alterations to front elevation."

The seller has been struggling to sell the property as it's combined commercial and residential so decided to sell it as one or the other which is why the applications are in. If he doesn't sell in the meantime he will take the property off the market, follow through with the plans, then put it back on the market as a full residential family home, at a higher price I would expect.

Sorry for the long post! Any advice would be much appeciated though as we love the place but not sure what our exact options are and obviously we want to get the best deal we can.
- Jecca

Richard_Webster

Merely getting a planning permission to change a use does not legally change it - you have to implement the permission. If you don't implement it then you can carry on with the existing lawful use.

If you are getting a residential mortgage then if I was advising the lender I would say that the residential use would have to be implemented and the changes to the property made to qualify for such a mortgage.

The work may have to be done before completion to satisfy a lender so I would check that out.

Once the change has been implemented then that becomes the lawful use and planning permission would be required to use the ground floor again as shop.

lincroft1710

Remember if pp is granted for change of use to residential and the change implemented, depending on the location, the planners may not want the property to revert to part commercial.