Empty shop below flat being turned into pizza takeaway!!!

greektony

ARGHHHHHHH. Right I am really pee'd off today. Basically, I have made an offer on a flat above an empty shop (maybe should have seen this coming) and had all the valuations and survey done. Had my mortgage agreement from the Abbey arrive today and noticed it stated it was above a takeaway. I started to get a little worried so had a look on google and yes, a planning application has been made by KDL Pizzas LTD !!!!

I have found a pdf online about it and it says that the last date for representations is the 7th March. Not sure exactly what this means but is there anyway I can try and stop this happening? I was told by the EA that the previous shop had been a video shop so I assumed the next shop could be anything but a restaurant/takeaway! I am really upset now as the flat itself is really really nice compared to anything else available on the market but now has this massive downer attached to it downstairs!

Does anyone have any suggestions as they would be greatly appreciated!

thesaint

If living above a take-away is a definite no,walk away, even if it is turned down they could appeal and have their application accepted(After you have completed).

greektony

this is kind of what i am thinking thesaint. Does anyone have any experience of living above somewhere like this?

olly300

Don't buy it if you can't stand a pizza shop.

Even if the application is turned down now you always have the risk that the shop will be used for something that will cause you lots of disturbance i.e. a taxi company or fast food joint and it can't be resold easily.

greektony

Thanks for the advice guys, they seller accepted an offer of £179,500 before any of this happened, if I do decide to go ahead, it would be on the condition of the seller accepting a lower price.......... anyone know what a reasonable re-offer would be? Although I am thinking the sensible thing would be to back out now.

Jeewhizz

IIRC, takeaways are the hardest to get council permission for, and as such, they would take your views quite seriously. I'd call the planning officer, and have a chat. He's on your side!

emg

I rented a flat above a pizza shop once. It was on a main road so already quite noisy but the only other issue was parking as the takeaway place used to park several scooters and cars outside on the road so there were never any spaces.

thesaint

Jeewhizz wrote:

IIRC, takeaways are the hardest to get council permission for, and as such, they would take your views quite seriously. I'd call the planning officer, and have a chat. He's on your side!

The problem is that this process takes weeks, and the seller is not going to wait for an outcome of the council(which can be overturned on appeal).

CB1979_2

also bare in mind that alot of the pizza places are open from midday - midnight (earliest finishing time) there's a couple round my way that are open til 2am!

Phirefly

greektony wrote:

anyone know what a reasonable re-offer would be?

It might help to think back to when you first saw the ad for the flat and imagine you knew then what you know now. What would you have offered? Would you still have viewed? I suppose you always knew it wouldn't be an empty shop forever and would have had to be prepared for a worst-case scenario, and thats what its turned out to be.

On that reckoning, your offer of £179,500 should have been made bearing in mind any worst case scenario regarding the future of the empty shop. Its unfortunate that that scenario has come to be.

We viewed a house we LOVED but were lucky that the vendor was upfront enough to inform us the attached property next door had received planning permission to become a fast food joint so we ran a mile.

Personally I'd sack it off. Its a buyers market and there'll be something better down the line. Good Luck

CB1979_2

oh forgot to say that about 10 years ago my brother's place was above a delicatessen and closed by 4pm everyday, so everything was fine.

until the deli turned into a fast food place, and then when it came to sell it, no place would give a mortgage on it as it had only just opened up and apparantly a lot of these kinds of places catch fire in the 1st year.

in the end he had to take a £30k hit as the buyer was paying with cash!