Wrong information on searches?

sirmosh

I recently bought a house, both the searches and the vendor stated it was not in a conservation area but after a chat with a neighbour I've discovered it actually is.

I don't know what can really happen about it but I'm a bit peeved because the restrictions mean I've basically bought a listed house when I actually chose this one over another very similar property because that was listed and this wasn't/

G_M

1) how can you blieve the neighbour any more than the searchse? Check with the council yourself!

2) Just because it is in a conservation area does not make it a listed building.

sirmosh

I have checked on the council website and it is in a conservation area, the restrictions in place mean that while it isn't listed it may as well be, the list states you have to stick with painted timber windows even!

Itismehonest

A listed building & one in a conservation area are 2 totally different things. Being in a conservation area does not mean your house is listed.
There are also Conservation Areas (thousands in UK) & Special Areas of Conservation which are totally different things........ as are AONB, SSSI etc.
Which sort are you in?

Richard_Webster

If the search said that the property was not in a Conservation Area then you would have some recompense against the Council or the Search Provider. Contact your solicitors about this.

sirmosh

I'm not sure what type of conservation area it is as everything the council lists about it just says 'conversation area' but the details about it basically list restrictions on the alteration of the property which area very similar to a Grade II listed property it also lists the property as 'locally listed' although I'm not sure if that really means anything.

I've given my solicitor a call and I'll wait to see what they say.

cattie

I live in a conservation area and also lived in another conservation area previously.

It probably depends on councils, but in my area, although they would much prefer you to stick to the old timber framed windows, there are a few styles of pvc windows they will ok, as long as they are as close to the original windows as possible. They are not keen on pvc front doors either and want either the original or a similar front door to be kept.

In saying that, there are a few houses in this area that have gone for the cheapest pvc windows they can find, certainly in no way similar to the originals and also put in pvc front doors at the same time. They have been reported to the conservation officer as I understand it, but no action has been taken.

Anything to do with the front of the property is restricted and permission needs to be sought for practically everything. Satelite dishes can only be installed to the rear of the property, or behind a chimney stack where it can't be viewed from the front.

Roofs have to be redone in approved tiles.

Trees in a conservation area are protected, even those in your own backgarden. But apart from extensions and other planning issues, you are not faced with the same restrictions and limitations as at the front.

phoebe1989seb

Until 2007 we lived in a house in a conservation area on the South Coast. The houses in our road of 20 residences were large detached properties with five or six bedrooms. Some had previously been divided into flats (as had ours some years before we purchased it in 1997) and a few were businesses - nursery school, rest home etc. A few of these properties had replacement UPVC windows (but not doors) and many had repacement tiled roofs.

When we refurbished the house we looked into what was allowed and what required permission and we were surprised to find that very little actually required planning consent specifically as a result of it being a conservation area. For example no permission was required to change doors, windows or roofing materials although alterations to front boundary walls and work to trees did fall under the need for permission to be sought.

That said the majority of the residents inhabiting the houses respected the area and didn't wish to detract from the attractive perspective so when renovating bore this in mind and on the whole did so sympathetically.

We don't like plastic double glazing so wouldn't have considering fitting this anyway and the original porch doors and inner front door were fab so we had no intention of replacing these. When we re-roofed we did use modern imitation slates but that was because the quote for slates was nearly £20k and we ended up spending only around £12k!

If you have no desire to ruin the look of a property by adding ugly windows etc I can't see it being too much of an issue.....

Our current house - purchased a year ago - is in an AONB and like yourself we deliberately chose this property over a Grade II listed house because there would be significantly less restrictions on what we could do.....but this was because the properties in question both required substantial restoration work to even make them habitable by normal standards and we didn't want the hassle of having to jump through hoops before work began rather than because our intentions were to do anything outlandish or out of character with the area.....