Selling a house with two kitchens against the law?!

SG27

Hopefully some experts here can help. My girlfriends parents are selling their aunts house after she died. The house was split into two semi separate flats for the aunt and her husband and another couple to live in. Well they have a buyer who say the house is perfect for them to share with thier disabled son. So alls good there they want to be completing end of April. But now the problem we have is that we have been told that legally the house cannot be sold because it has two kitchens but is one house. I've never heard of this and it sounds very strange to me as I've seen big houses for sale on rightmove with two kitchens! Does anyone know of any law relating to this?

Thanks.

phill99

And who told you? A bloke in a pub?

SG27

phill99 wrote: »

And who told you? A bloke in a pub?

No. The executer of the estate who is a friend of the deceased.

casper_g

I've never heard of any such law. In areas with lots of Orthodox Jewish households having 2 kitchens is relatively common, and there are no problems selling them, AFAIK.

lemontart

me thinks someone is misleading you or misinterpreting something somehow

SG27

The buyers are very keen and have suggested that they could go into the property and remove one of the kitchens, as they would only need one, so that the sale can still go through. But this seems very suspicious to me and allowing potential buyers to do work on a property before exchange doesn't sound like a good idea.

Itismehonest

Are you sure that's exactly what the guy meant?

In theory we have what could be classed as 2 kitchens (one has an oil range cooker & the other an electric) both next to each other & that hasn't been an issue.
What they may be thinking of is that you have a house with an annexe.
This still doesn't stop it being sold but might mean it should be classed as 2 properties for CT purposes.
Do you know when the 2nd kitchen was added?

If the "annexe" can only be entered through the main property the easiest way would be to take out the kitchen fittings, cooker point, sink etc & just treat it as one house.

Edit: No, don't let any potential buyer do it. Once in there you may have real problems!

eddddy

A quick Google search suggests this is a mortgage problem (not a legal problem).

Apparently mortgage lenders worry that if a survey says the property has two kitechens, you may planning to sub-let part of the property.

One link suggests removing the cooker and fridge from one of the kitchens (just during the survey) , and call it a laundry room or utility room - and the problem is solved. The other says the whole 2nd kitchen needs to be ripped out.

Here are the links:
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100809072137AArRLMo
http://www.homemove.co.uk/forums/peculiar-reason-for-declining-a-mortgage-3395.html

Do a google search of 'mortgage two kitchens' to see lots of other info on this.

Welsh_Totster

I had no problem selling the old family home which gad 2 kitchens (as the house had previously been split into 2 flats when I was little, me, mum, dad lived downstairs and gran and gramps lived upstairs) the second kitchen just never got ripped out. Buyers had a mortgage when they bought the house off me and no one mentioned any problems with it let alone being illegal!

Thrugelmir

The fact that the property appears to be 2 separate units may well be the problem.

thorsoak

In the 1970s, we bought a pair of semi-detached farm labourers cottages with one mortgage. There were two kitchens - of a sort, two bathrooms, two staircases/front doors etc - but as we intended to convert to one dwelling, mortgage was given.

More trouble was with Planning Dept (as it was in green belt) who were at pains to point out that once converted into one dwelling, it could not be converted back to two.