Outbuiling into Leashold Studio Flat

flat_broke

Hi,

I'm about to purchase a lovely 3 Bed Semi, with a substantial outbuilding. The plan is to convert the outbuiling into a Studio flat and then sell it as Leashold property. Does anyone know if this is legal? Would the tennants in the outbuiling pay a sepertate council tax? Where do I start?!?!?! Any help would be appreciated

Thanks!

Debt_Free_Chick

The first place to start is with the local planning department. You will almost certainly need planning permission and you first need to find out if it's likely to be granted.

djm1972

It's certainly legal subject to planning permission.

Once you've got the planning permission, the next step would be to find a solicitor specialising in "land and property law" (use those exact keywords in quotes when searching, otherwise you'll be inundated with intellectual property law solicitors which is something completely different!).

The solicitor will then create the new leasehold and do all the necessary registration with the Land Registry ready for you to sell it to the first buyer.

DavidHM

If you want to find a specialist solicitor, you can look here.

It's not a recommendation as to quality but it would help you find a solicitor who specialises (broadly) in the area of work that you want to engage one for, according to their official Law Society recommendation.

In this instance it's probably more targeted than a general web search, although by all means do a search on whomever you find afterwards so you can find out what they're like.

Richard_Webster

The solicitor will then create the new leasehold and do all the necessary registration with the Land Registry ready for you to sell it to the first buyer.

Not quite. He might draw up a draft lease so the paperwork was ready to send out to the eventual buyer's solicitors, but your solicitor wouldn't register anything. When you sell you would grant a new lease to the buyer and his solicitor would register it!

You also need to make sure there are no covenants preventing the proeprty being used as more than one dwelling.

As a conveyancing solicitor I believe the information given in the post to be useful but I accept no liability except to fee-paying clients.