Converting a garage that is linked to next doors garage...

sprocket2704

Looking to buy a semi detached property that has a garage which is connected to next doors garage.

We are looking to convert the garage to a new room and have a meeting with a planning officer at the local council to explore options (conversion versus doing a bigger extension etc).

My search to find information online led me to this board on a similar matter but not quite answered my query.

I want to know if it's possible to convert the garage. It has a flat roof so in order to make it comply with building regs it will need to have a pitched roof. As the current flat roof is adjoining next doors flat roof for their garage I am not sure what issues this poses.

From what I have read I suspect planning permission and neighbour consent will be required - can anyone confirm this?

Also, in the long term the neighbours could do the same thing - this could result on the houses becoming terraced - or not?

This dilemma is starting to put us off - any experience or considerations that you may have would greatly appreciated.

HUGE thanks in advance!

Strapped

Good grief, if I were your neighbour I would do everything in my power to stop you destroying the value of my home, as probably would the other two houses affected. You would almost certainly not get PP to do so anyway, because of the terracing effect.

pmlindyloo

Last October we did a similar thing. Although our house is detached, our garage joins on to next door's garage. Both garages are flat roofed.

In order not to alter the front aspect we decided to keep about 6 feet depth of the garage for storage and put up an inside wall.

We did not need planning permission to do this but building regulations. We used a building notice and did not have to submit plans.

We did not have to have a pitched roof and therefore the outside of the house was not changed.

We are extremely pleased with the result. We did this to create more room downstairs. It is not a separate room but flows from the small original dining room to create a larger dining area. The inner wall was knocked down to achieve this.

The building inspectors were very thorough and met with our builder at the very beginning (useful to write down exactly what they wanted us to do as they changed inspectors half way through and he wanted something else!)

Because of the insulation the room is smaller than we imagined but it is very warm and also keeps very cool. No heating required in the winter.

We chose to keep the house looking the same outside because we felt it would spoil the look of the close if we didn't. We also wanted some extra storage space. We weren't concerned about losing the garage space as we have a drive and no one uses the garage for a car in our close.

Since you are not sure what you want to do it is a good idea to get someone to look at options.

Thought I would reply to give you another one!

oldcarpenter

It is extremely unlikely you would get planning to pitch a roof over one of the two garages. It might make sense to talk to your neighbour and offer to do both with no cost to him although there is no requirement that it would need a pitched roof, but they look so much better. The thickness of the party wall may need expanding for fire and explosion risks from the other garage, this with insulation will reduce your room size. If your garden has the space then you should consider extending your property that way, if single story with a flat roof giving continued access to your garden.