Mortgage terms and conditions and home improvements

Kitler_2

Help please ... is there anyone out there who can tell me if I have to have permission from the mortgage lender to make improvements to my home? Can't find the Mortgage terms and conditions.

In 2003 I had patio doors installed in the kitchen and a partition wall moved by approx 3 ft. This wall separates the kitchen and living area and makes the living area a little more spacious (it was poky and dingy).

I also changed the old kitchen door into a window as I had no use for it due to having patio doors opening onto the garden.

Someone on a different forum says that I should have asked permission to have this work done as it may be in breach of the mortgage conditions and they could reposess.

Help... am scared:eek:

BitterAndTwisted

Don't be daft. You could be in breach of your mortgage of your "improvements" radically decrease the value of the property. None of the things you have described could be put into that category by a mile.

Kitler_2

Also ...... Do I need to serve notice to convert a door to a window in a semi detached property? I may have breached party wall act by converting the back door to a window... it ajoins the neighbours house. The window company did not seem to think this a problem at the time because there were no structural alterations being done ... it was a straight forward swap from door to full length window.

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.

G_M

Kitler wrote: »

Also ...... Do I need to serve notice to convert a door to a window in a semi detached property? I may have breached party wall act by converting the back door to a window... it ajoins the neighbours house. The window company did not seem to think this a problem at the time because there were no structural alterations being done ... it was a straight forward swap from door to full length window.

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.

Do you the mortgage lender again? No.

Planning Permission may be needed though.
And Building Regs.
And the neighbour if it's a Party Wall.

BitterAndTwisted

If you did need to apply for consent it would be from your Local Authority's planning department. Doesn't sound like a planning issue to me so why don't you ask them?

Kitler_2

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Don't be daft. You could be in breach of your mortgage of your "improvements" radically decrease the value of the property. None of the things you have described could be put into that category by a mile.

Oh thanks for that B&T .. someone purporting to be a solicitor on a different forum is scaring the pants off me ...

Am worried about the possible party wall breach though ... not sure if it counts as a party wall... would need a surveyor to look at it and tell me.:eek:

Kitler_2

G_M wrote: »

Do you the mortgage lender again? No.

Planning Permission may be needed though.
And Building Regs.
And the neighbour if it's a Party Wall.

Thanks GM

All I can say is ... oh dear. I didnt do any of the above. It was a FENSA registered Company ... as I said no structural changes to the opening just a straight forward swap.

Problem is determining if it's a party wall .. it's not at all clear. If it is a party wall then I'm up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

I understand that I can get retrospective approval from building regs etc. but not party wall agreement.

I am likely to be sued for this.:eek:

tyllwyd

I thought a party wall was usually the wall that runs along the length of your house and divides you from your neighbour. Is that the wall you've changed?

Why are you worried about getting sued? Has your neighbour complained?

Unless the change has caused structural problems, I can't see what there is to worry about. At the worst you could put the door back instead of the window, but I can't see that would achieve anything.

G_M

A Party Wall Agreement is something to put in place before work is done - the aim being to avoid disputes over damage to jointly shared walls etc.

Once the work is finished there is no need for Party Wall Agreement. And no one can 'sue' you or otherwise for having failed to put the PWA in place.

They can of course sue you if you caused damage to their property or shared property. Did you? If not, stop worrying about the neighbour.

Planning and Building Regs is something else of course. Unlikely you'd need Planning Permission unless it's a Listed building. But Building Regs are there to ensure, amongst other things, safety. eg if you removed/changed some structural element.

Your options are
1) do nothing. Unlikely the council will find out/do anything. Hope/assume the work was safe and to a good standard
2) do nothing as above - you might get questions if/when you sell from your buyer "where is the Building Regs Certificate?". You can buy an indemnity insurance to give the buyer in case the council enforce anything on him.
3) Ask the council Planning Dept about PP and BRs. They may say " No problem, you don't need either". They may say "Here's a BRs certificate please pay us £120 for it". They may say "We need to inspect. Oops, it''s dangerous, you have to do xyz"
4) but note, once you tell the council, you can never get the indemnity insurance!

Kitler_2

Thanks for these replies everyone ... makes me feel a bit more reassured.

The background to all of this is that a neighbour dispute has reared it's ugly head.... not because of the door to window alteration.... well not yet anyway.

Trying to be as short and concise as possible here ... because as you all may well know these things are usually long and complicated.

In essence, my neighbour and I have semi detached properties. There is an easement on the Title Deeds that grants me a ROW across her garden.

She has submitted plans for a 2 storey development to the rear of her house that would involve building over the ROW.

I have registered some objections to this with the planning dept (as I am entitled to do). I told her, in a calm and friendly way, at the time she showed the plans to me, that I was not happy with her butting up within 2 feet of one of my living room windows and that it would interfere with the entry to my ROW. I told her I would raise these objections when I received official notification of the application.

Last week she asked to discuss the issue with me and was clearly v angry when I told her that I had indeed registered my objections. I suggested she might consider modifying her plans in some way so that we would both be happy... she refused.... and told me she could develop her property as she wanted.

She then proceeded to threaten me with things such as... "our relationship will be affected" ... if you don't let me go ahead with this and, "You don't want this to become a dispute because you wont be able to sell your house should you need to".

I have noticed that, some time ago, she had put a new padlock on one of her gates and had not given me a key... so I had asked her for this about 6 weeks ago. I reminded her again that she needed to give me a key to the gate because she hadn't done so. I also asked her to keep her dog in the house or restrained in some fashion so that I could use the ROW without fear of danger and intimidation .

The dog is unpredictable and in 2008 he bit me while crossing the ROW ... I was receiving chemotherapy at the time!! I ended up in hospital for antibiotic treatment because I had no immunity. Call me mad ... but I did not complain to her about this (I was too ill at the time). But since this time I have been wary about using the ROW and have always had to check that the dog was not in the garden before doing so.

My request for her to restrain the dog obviously riled her and this is where the "door to window" business comes into play. She told me that I should not have changed my door to a window. She wouldn't say why exactly but I strongly suspected she had a "trump card" up her sleeve and this has begun to bother me a great deal. She then threatened to restrict my access by erecting a fence over her land that would allow me only enough room to pass with just a shopping bag. I had had enough and told her that this was getting us nowhere. She must do what she though was right and within the bounds of the law... I went home.

3 days later I returned from work to find that she had carried out her threat. I now have to pass through three gates to access the street. Trouble is .... she has clearly erected this partly on my land (according to the documented boundaries on the Land Registry plan). She now stores her dustbins directly outside my window (the one that she alleges I should not have changed from a door)..... all this because I have raised objection to her development plans and asked that she allows me to use the ROW without being threatened or indeed bitten by her dog.

My solicitor (he is a personal friend) has been round to take a look and says I have very strong grounds for "substantial interference" and "trespass". The ROW cannot be used for storage of her bins .. or anything else for that matter... it is a footpath for ingress and egress. She has left me with the smallest of opening so that I have to manoeuvre and pass through almost sideways on. This is a deliberate obstruction and an act of malice as it serves her absolutely no practical benefit whatsoever, other than to cause upset and distress. I can only access the new gate from one direction (my garden). If I came in the opposite way I would not be able to unlock the combination because it is situated on the opposite side of the gate and it is impossible to get to.

Oh my ... just realised that I have vented my spleen... sorry about that.

I am trying to second guess her I suppose ... and wondering what her next move will be. Her comments about the conversion of the door to window have been bothering me a great deal and I began to worry that I might have breached the party wall act. My friend (solicitor) has assured me that this is not a party wall - Phew!!! but I remain a bit concerned about building regs and whether I should have informed the mortgage lender about the changes I was planning to make.

It's reassuring that there are some options of remedy available to me .... so I am eternally grateful to GM and others who have suggested ways to approach this.

Any other thoughts on the matter of building regs much appreciated... the legal side is a whole new ball game.

This woman has an agenda , which I have been mindful of for some years... and that is, she intends in some way (by adverse possession probably) to extinguish the ROW. She has asked on more than 2 occasions for me to sell it to her. I have politely declined. I have kept things on an amicable level for 10 years... I have rarely used the ROW but have made a point of doing so on occasions so that it shows I have no intention to abandon it. I have started to use the ROW at least twice a week now ..."the gloves are off"... so to speak.

Again many thanks for your responses.

Doozergirl

Let me catch up, is this genuinely another forum or just your neighbour?

A party wall is a wall that the two of you share that forms part of, or directly alongside of, the boundary. If you had a window on your party wall, it would be looking directly into her house from yours, or directly into her garden from an extension - if that were the case, by the sound of her she'd have already kicked off.

Building regulations for changing a door into a window is purely between you and the council. Really, if the door already had a damp proof etc installed then the bricking up isn't really a concern of Building Control. The window would be and that would be fine with your FENSA certificate. Even f it did require BRs, they will never ever take any action. Never. Your mortgage company will be entirely disinterested. I can't even begin to tell you what we've done to houses without consulting mortgage companies!

As for the ROW, the woman is going way too far but it's nice if you can make agreements before it goes to planning. The ROW can be re-routed within the deeds quite easily so that your path starts at a new point on the boundary. She knows you have a ROW, you can both accommodate a new route to the exit. Do you have legal cover with your home insurance? That is exactly what it is for. (her dog is still allowed to roam her land though; you only have right of way, not ownership of it - it's just like livestock and public footpaths in fields etc)

If you are going to lodge an opposition to a neighbour on the grounds of their extension, I'd really recommend calling into the Planning Department and having a quick chat with the officers to ensure that your objection is grounded first. The ROW objection is valid, the distance may not be - under those circumstances you really need to suck it up as it goes with the territory. If you extend as well, you'll be even again. Most LAs will make someone available - either at prescribed times during the week or by appointment.

Permitted development would allow most people to extend 3m past the original back of a semi detached house without permission, regardless of the position of your downstairs windows. Double storeys will automatically require proper Planning Permission but upstairs windows are less important than downstairs so it's the downstairs distancing that makes the difference. Most LAs dislike extensions that go further than an angle of 45 degrees of the neighbour's nearest downstairs window - but you still need to take into account that 3m allowance as they aren't going to come back from that.

How big is it exactly?