what to do now?

charmedy2k

Hi guys

I posted on here a little while ago in regards to selling my flat as we're having a baby in April.

Well the idea of moving has been put on the backburner as I had the bright idea of a loft conversion, we have had a few guys in to do quotes and they think that we could get two large bedrooms and a landing up there! thus making us a four bed flat instead of a two great cos hopefully we're talking another £100,000 onto the asking price once it's completed.

The only problem is that now I'm checking with the developer to make sure that we can have the loft converted as was stated when we bought the flat they are telling us that they will not give us permission to do it.

So where exactly do we stand? it does not say in the lease that we cannot have the loft converted and on at least 2 seperate occasions before we completed the developer told us that the loft was ours to do with what we wished.
I'm going to be writing them a very sharp letter tomorrow as I feel that we were misled when we brought the property as that was part of the reason that we paid such a high price for it.
So if anyone has any ideas on what we can do please let me know

thanks

A_Nice_Englishman

A few things to think about.

You will need permission from the freeholder (is that the developer?). You will need planning permission and building regulations approval from the Council.

The 'guys you got in for a quote' will have told you about all this though, if they know what they're doing. If they didn't, I would be worried.

Was it these guys who said it would add £100K to the value? How much did they say the work would cost?

Ask a couple of estate agents to value the flat and ask them what difference they think the proposed alterations would make.

Ask your freeholder whether they will give permission.

Ring the council's planning department and ask therm if planning permission is likely to be granted.

Ask your neighbours how they feel about it? How much would it affect them?

Ask your mortgage lender if they would be happy to lend the extra money.

Once you've got all this information together you'll be in a better position to decide whether the loft conversion is a better idea tham moving to a larger property.

Norma_Desmond

Friends of ours were in this position - it seems that according to their lease the loft space didn't actually belong to them, and was for access only!
Theoretically they weren't allowed to even store the usual boxes of junk up there.
Leasehold properties are a minefield IMHO

space_rider

When I was in the process of buying a house that was 2 years old I was told that any extensions etc had to be agreed with the developer as well as the council.

Debt_Free_Chick

charmedy2k wrote:

hopefully we're talking another £100,000 onto the asking price once it's completed.

Good grief! :eek:

What is the current value of the flat?

We have a four bed detached valued at £400k (sorry, really not bragging here .... there is a point ...). We've just added an extension giving a master bedroom (4m x 5m), plus an ensuite b/room (2m x 2.5m) and an ensuite dressing room, the same size as the bathroom - and a utility room (5m x 2.5m) on the ground floor plus a new garage and downstairs cloaks. The location and view from the new bedroom adds some extra value (believe it or not) and we are looking at adding £50-75k at the value. The build cost was £40k, but we've spent a small fortune (about £15k) in "finishing".

However, the footprint for the house is not one that suggests a five-bedroomed property - even with the addition of the (two storey) extension. So we are going to combine two of the old bedrooms into one and add a further ensuite b/room to the new bedroom. We shall end up with a four bedroom, three bathroom detached house valued at £500k (or thereabouts).

So ..... given that you cannot increase the footprint of a flat, an increase of £100k sounds very, very optimistic to me. We've added (potentially) 25% - but then we've increased the footprint and the number of bathrooms (though, not the number of bedrooms).

I fear you are being given an over-optimistic impression of the increase in value - but it really depends on the current value. If it's currently worth £1m then £100k sounds about right.

In addition, I think you need to consider the appeal of a four bedroomed flat. I would have thought that those who need four bedrooms in a flat would be somewhat limited. Four bedrooms really suggests that a house is required and a flat - whether we like it or not - does not generally appeal to a substantial family (four bedrooms suggests a minimum of five people, assuming no guest room is required).

Finally, you don't seem to be adding a further bathroom. So will you end up with four beds and one bathroom? As I understand it, the bathroom to bedroom ratio is a big factor, especially once you go beyond three bedrooms, when at least two bathrooms are considered to be "essential".

I would have expected two bedrooms to add about 15-20% to the value of a property. So is your flat currently worth £500k?

Debt_Free_Chick

I see you are struggling to sell a 2 bed flat at £245k

I can't see that adding two more bedrooms, with no additional bathroom, would add a further 40% to the value!!!!! :eek:

charmedy2k

Hi guys,

thank you for all your feedback

Yes that's right we were selling at £245k as this was the price we originally paid for the flat when we bought it, it is in a prime location not 2 minutes from the train station and 5 minutes from all the supermarkets you could dream of.
we have had problems selling as there have been at least 3 new developments in the area (Norbury SW London) in the 2 years since we bought the flat with a similar flat of the same size on the top floor going for £275000 in one of the developments. So I don't think we are asking too much.
I know that because we brought our flat new it meant that we paid a premium, but i'm not about to let the £25k deposit we paid go to waste just for the sake of moving, hence why the loft conversion seemed like such a good idea.

We already have 2 bathrooms so we do not feel that it is necessary to add a third and the two bedrooms would make us a two bathroom four bedroom luxury penthouse flat.
I have spoken to 2 estate agents and they both agreed that adding a further 2 bedrooms or 1 bedroom and a playroom would put us in the region of £350,000k. I'm not an estate agent so I don't know whether they are talking crap or not but again based on other similar developments that have sold recently they were asking for substantially more then that.
We are now if we can get the loft conversion done not planning to sell for at least 2-4 years because we will have the extra space we need for the baby
I know that some of you are thinking that £245,000 is a lot for a flat and I totally agree, but then I also have to be realistic and remember that I live in London and the prices are so artificially high it is ridiculous. We are paying the price for what was the only way for us to make that giant step onto the FTB ladder.

My question again was whether we could force the freeholder/developer to give us permission as it does not say in the lease that we cannot do a loft conversion and we were told by the developer on no less then 2 occasions before we brought the flat that we would be able to do so if that was what we wanted.
I am aware that we will have to get permission from the council aswell but I can't see that being a problem.
So please if you can advise me on where we stand with the lease and the freeholder then I would appreciate this.

benood

Is the developer still the freeholder? Once you know who the freeholder is you can start moving forward.

Presume the permission to develop the loft is in writing somewhere and that it is yours to develop - questions for your solicitor perhaps.