Experience of Knocking Two Houses into One

m1kjm

The situation is that I have recently bought the house next door and I intend to knock through to create one home. I own both houses outright.

Once one of the kitchens has been completely removed and the doorway knocked through, I will request council tax re-banding from the VOA, hopefully going from 2 Bs to a D. The man at the VOA I spoke to confirmed it would probably be re-banded as a D. I'm wondering will this merging of the council tax be sufficient to prevent CGT liability on the new half in future? Accordingly I assume I don’t need to ask the Land Registry to merge the two properties into one record because I would prefer to keep them as two separate records in case I need to split the two properties again, for instance I believe that two smaller houses would realise more than one big one.

I don’t need PP, just BR, although I would need PP to split the property again.

I’ve had one set of gas and electric meters removed so that I will only incur one lot of standing charges. I’m keeping the two combi boilers, two fuse boards and two water meters.

I’m keeping both flights of stairs because it would be a major building project to remove one set due to the current configuration. I know this makes the home quirky but then it would potentially make it easier to sell as two separate homes again in future.

Another quirky feature is going to be the 26 inch difference in floor level so I'll have to step down three steps into the 'new' half of the house. But I intend to try to make the whole space flow together.

There’s so much to think about which means I’m wondering if anyone else has done the same thing and if there’s anything I haven’t considered yet.

Btw I’ll explain why I’m doing this if I need to if anyone’s thinking ‘Just move to a bigger house!’

caprikid1

Ironically one of the biggest problem my brother had putting 2 flats back to a house was the TV licensing !.

DT12

Your name's not John Darwin is it?!

rosyw

I've knocked 2 into 1, can't remember all the ins & outs with council tax etc, it was along time ago! We had water & electricity changed to one supply (no gas). It takes a lot of planning, depending on the size of house you end up with, we turned one kitchen into a utility, kept both staircases due to massive expense of taking one out and re configuring, the main thing to work out is exactly what you want to use the extra rooms for, we knocked 2 of the 4 reception rooms into one huge living room, what had been the living room became the dining room and the other became a study/music room.
One thing to remember is that if you ever sell whoever buys the place may want to change it back into 2 houses, and although PP isn't needed to convert it to 1, it WILL be needed to change it back, as the people that bought my old place found out!
The biggest problem with knocking 2 into one is making it feel as if it was meant to be 1, not 2 halves of the same property if you get my meaning. Lucky with mine as it had started life as 1 so it was just put back as near as possible to the original.
Good luck and have fun!

moneyistooshorttomention

Must admit I often thought that if I'd bought one-half of a semi-detached that I would have been on the lookout for the chance (and money!) to buy the other half at some point and do the same thing. Buying an end terrace in the first place and having "next door" come up would have also had me wondering...

But then...part of my daydreaming of buying next door back when I was in a terrace house was because of the advantages I foresaw in knocking a doorway through into next door and having A Significant Other in the other half, but from the outside we would just be neighbours (at least whilst either of us was still employment age) and we would have "our own space" each.

Translated into being in a detached house and I'd still like to buy the immediate neighbours houses if I could (ie to make sure I didn't have any immediate neighbours and I DID have a much bigger plot - as I would demolish their houses to have a bigger garden). Decision in principle already made for sure to buy one of those houses if chance arises.

Do tell your reasons for doing this....

m1kjm

DT12 wrote: »

Your name's not John Darwin is it?!

No, but now you come to mention it I would like to sink one of those spiral cellars as my secret room.

rosyw wrote: »

I've knocked 2 into 1, can't remember all the ins & outs with council tax etc, it was along time ago! We had water & electricity changed to one supply (no gas). It takes a lot of planning, depending on the size of house you end up with, we turned one kitchen into a utility, kept both staircases due to massive expense of taking one out and re configuring, the main thing to work out is exactly what you want to use the extra rooms for, we knocked 2 of the 4 reception rooms into one huge living room, what had been the living room became the dining room and the other became a study/music room.
One thing to remember is that if you ever sell whoever buys the place may want to change it back into 2 houses, and although PP isn't needed to convert it to 1, it WILL be needed to change it back, as the people that bought my old place found out!
The biggest problem with knocking 2 into one is making it feel as if it was meant to be 1, not 2 halves of the same property if you get my meaning. Lucky with mine as it had started life as 1 so it was just put back as near as possible to the original.
Good luck and have fun!

If you've got any tips on how to make the two houses flow together I'm all ears. For example, I'm looking on ebay for similar light fittings and curtains.

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Must admit I often thought that if I'd bought one-half of a semi-detached that I would have been on the lookout for the chance (and money!) to buy the other half at some point and do the same thing. Buying an end terrace in the first place and having "next door" come up would have also had me wondering...

But then...part of my daydreaming of buying next door back when I was in a terrace house was because of the advantages I foresaw in knocking a doorway through into next door and having A Significant Other in the other half, but from the outside we would just be neighbours (at least whilst either of us was still employment age) and we would have "our own space" each.

Translated into being in a detached house and I'd still like to buy the immediate neighbours houses if I could (ie to make sure I didn't have any immediate neighbours and I DID have a much bigger plot - as I would demolish their houses to have a bigger garden). Decision in principle already made for sure to buy one of those houses if chance arises.

Do tell your reasons for doing this....

I knew someone would want to know why!

Here goes:

You're right that my house is an end terrace and I've always dreamed of knocking through.

I really like my house and I like the area it's in. I'm within walking distance of the city centre, shops, post office, banks, work etc, and I've always lived this side of the city.

I've got off-street parking which is unusual around here and essential for me.

In this neighbourhood it's either average sized houses or big money houses, nothing in-between.

The house next door has always been tenanted and it's the kind of house that would always be tenanted. I wanted to buy it so that I wouldn't have to live next door to anyone inconsiderate. After so many years of being tenanted it needs some tlc and I didn't want to hear that tlc through the walls. The guy on the far side is really quiet.

I desperately need more space and I'd prefer the hassle of renovations to the hassle of moving.

My house is stuffed to the rafters and it's in no state to be marketed and sold. This way, I can renovate next door and then move some of my stuff across giving me space to renovate the first house.

I think house prices are going to go up and it'll be a good investment so it should work for me financially as well as personally.

I thought if I didn't go for it I'd regret it but if I I'm not happy I can always sell it again.

rosyw

When it comes to making it feel like one house instead of two you need to carefully plan the layout so it flows from room to room, knocking just one doorway through probably won't do that. Matching curtains/light fittings etc. would come way down my list The most important thing to do is to stop thinking of it as "next door" otherwise you'll never get your head around it A lot will depend on where the stairs are, in the middle or each end? which rooms can be easily knocked into one? don't think of having more rooms, but having more room in those you have, not so much upstairs, extra bedrooms are handy, but a nice big living room and a good sized kitchen diner will make a big difference. Knock the first doorway through and live in it for a while to get a feel of where you want things, did ours over several years, there's no rush!

Johnandabby

Creating one dwelling from two will trigger a 'material change of use' under Part L of the Bldg Regs. Depending on the insulation standard within the properties, you may need to install new floor, wall and roof insulation as part of the works, as well as upgrading any single glazing to double or secondary glazing. You would also need to make sure that the retained heating, hot water, ventilation & lighting systems meet current regulations. You would then have to get an EPC for the new combined dwelling.

Unfortunately not as easy as just knocking a door between the two, as a number of my clients have found in the past! If the property is relatively new (say within the last 25 yrs), then upgrades could be minimal, but you need to check how this could affect your budget for the work.

Have you also checked the floor levels of the two properties, are they on a slope/hill? It always works better when there is no step between the two, makes it feel more like one property.

stef73

I know of someone who did this they basically ended up living in the old house and only using next door for sleeping in. They had a formal dining room and posh lounge in the new half which were never used Except for christmas.

eddddy

I would definitely convert them in a way that made it easy to convert back into two houses, for when you decide to sell up.

From a financial perspective, two smaller units are almost always more valuable than one large unit. (Which is why developers convert big houses into flats.)

Kbabs76

I live in a semi-detached home and am currently in the process of buying the house next door (other half of the house). In time I intend to turn the 2 house into 1 and therefore will eventually sell as 1 property.

In order to raise some funds though, the short term plan is to rent out the house next door before combining the two. Am I liable for CGT when I sell the property (as mentioned above). If so, is the CGT between the period in which I rented it out only?