Commercial property turn into residential with no planning permission needed.

MrEnglish

chewmylegoff wrote: »

google tells me there are about 500,000 unoccupied houses in this country.

i have no idea how many unoccupied commercial premises there are, but you have already quoted the figure of 250,000 potential conversions as a result of this new legislation.

and an estate agency is a shop. so no.

Depends really, some estate agents or property management firms are more offices than shops.

Got me thinking. Would it be possible for a shop owner to change his shop into an office? Then later down the road change into a residential property?

Same with an old pub or some other commercial property that is not allowed to be changed into residential at the moment, could the owner change it into offices for a while? Then you know make it into flats later?

I know a few old shops that are now offices.

Cleaver

MrEnglish wrote: »

Same with an old pub or some other commercial property that is not allowed to be changed into residential at the moment, could the owner change it into offices for a while? Then you know make it into flats later?

Let's say you own a shop or a pub. I don't think it would be feasible to spend money and time going through planning, consent and building to change in to offices, then planning, consent and building to turn in to residential, and somehow still make a profit at the end of it all. Plus the fact that someone from the council would know what you're up to and wouldn't allow it.

Why would someone go through all this bother? They'd be no money in it.

MrEnglish

Cleaver wrote: »

Let's say you own a shop or a pub. I don't think it would be feasible to spend money and time going through planning, consent and building to change in to offices, then planning, consent and building to turn in to residential, and somehow still make a profit at the end of it all. Plus the fact that someone from the council would know what you're up to and wouldn't allow it.

Why would someone go through all this bother? They'd be no money in it.

Its not that hard to change a shop into an office. Its just a change of status. Not much cosmetically maybe just put a desk and chair in there.

Then this new change it would be very easy to change status into residential and thats when the change cosmetically would come in. But you dont need planning for that after this change.

Cleaver

MrEnglish wrote: »

Its not that hard to change a shop into an office. Its just a change of status. Not much cosmetically maybe just put a desk and chair in there.

Are you serious? You think you can just change the status and stick a desk and a chair in it?

I'm not an expert in this subject, but to change from A1 to A3 useage you'd need full planning application. This would involve existing floor plans and elevations, new floor plans and elevations, full plans of your access etc. (even if these weren't changing), local plans of the neighbourhood, statements from neighbours and a whole host of other forms, drawings and hoops to jump through.

I believe that most people who change status from A1 to A3 employ companies to do it for them, as it requires architects drawings, plans, knowledge of the process etc. It costs thousands just to go through the planning stage, and you still might not get it. It can take 6 to 8 weeks just to put the plans together and far, far longer for the council to go through it all and go back and forth with you for further searches, questions and plans about why you're doing it and what your long term plans are. You'd never go through all this just to move to residential straight afterwards.

Maybe the government will ease all this as well. But are you starting to see that doing all this just to make some flats might not be financially viable?

Doozergirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

It would still need to be desirable/useful though. Random shop wedged between a pub and a kebab shop even at £10k isn't a great place to live.

When i was 19, I'd have thought it was an ideal place to live.

MrEnglish

I was just chatting to a chap who bought an old boarded up shop very cheap. He just wanted an office for his business which he used to run from home. He said it was very easy to change status from a shop to an office.Now he is very excited when I told him after thebudget he will be able to change it into flats without planning permission

Cleaver

MrEnglish wrote: »

I was just chatting to a chap who bought an old boarded up shop very cheap. He just wanted an office for his business which he used to run from home. He said it was very easy to change status from a shop to an office.Now he is very excited when I told him after thebudget he will be able to change it into flats without planning permission

Wow. It's great for this discussion that you have a friend, who has been throug the exact situation we're discussing, that is happy to take calls from you at 6am on a Monday morning. Unfortunately I don't directly know anyone who has been through this process.

So would you mind asking your friend whether he went through the planning process himself or if an external company put it together? And how long it took? And how much it cost? What council was this with? Would be great to hear some real life figures.*

*Obviously if this person doesn't exist, you've got three options. 1) Make stuff up. 2) Be very vague and don't really answer. 3) Just ignore the questions. I'll leave that up to you, but I reckon you'll go for option 2.

MrEnglish

I was chatting to him on facebook last night. I asked him some more questions to answer yours he said it did cost a few grand he got some help with it but fairly straight forward. Its a small town and a small shop that hadnt been used for years. The old owner was pleased to get it off his hands for peanuts.

My friend used to have an office in his house but he has 2 kids and when he had clients come upstairs to the spare bedroom it didnt look too professional. He just does web design and some other online projects. I have seen pictures of his new office and it looks very nice.

vivatifosi

I still think a lot of this, as I mentioned earlier, is about the government getting its own old buildings off its hands. In both local and central government there will be loads of obsolete buildings that people don't want for other applications. They may as well be turned into resi and guess what, they aren't going to make people apply for planning, which means they may potentially get more money for them!

Just look at the number of court buildings being closed as an example. The space can't easily be turned over to another use because the layout is wrong, so may as well be turned over to resi conversion. Also tend to have the benefit of being quite central to the local amenities. Then think unused libraries, smaller doctors surgeries, obsolete community police stations.

Sorry, but the cynic in me thinks that there is more than just an element of helping the government get rid of its old estate here. I already know of several former smaller Inland Revenue offices that are being refurbished and refaced for just that purpose of resi conversion.

lynzpower

But Viva, I worked in disposals of these types of buildings they have been turned into flats all over the country, with no problem, libraries, school houses, old hospitals etc, there is no shortage of demand for these stes and I have never known PP to have been refused and the companty I worked with saw hundreds of buildings going this way. I can think Of about 5 massive sites around near my workplace turned into flats.

Getting the PP isnt hard, I guess its time consuming and relitavly expensive, so it just makes it cheaper for the developers not to have to change use