Cellar conversion and cellar ownership

Jeb1980

Good evening all,

I have 2 questions that I hope someone could help with really:

1) Has anyone here ever converted a cellar to a habitable room?

2) does anyone know anything about ownership rights for subterranean cellars within a property's boundary?

Essentially my wife and I are looking to buy an older house which has a cellar which would make a great addition to the living space of the house so I was wondering what experiences people had and if there were any recommendations if we go ahead and buy?

The second question relates to an obviously bricked up doorway in the cellar that appears, looking through an air brick, to go to another space or cellar beyond. Fair enough, but it appears to go out under our garden. Does anyone know anything about property rights to this other cellar? We were planning on doing some landscaping too and don't particularly want to drop into a cellar and can our neighbours own a cellar under our property?

Many thanks in advance for any help or advice.

ic

Go on the landregistry.gov.uk website and download the documents for the house. This will tell you whether the property is freehold or leasehold, and if there are any covenants. If its freehold chances are you'll be able to do whatever you want, leasehold will be the same, but you may need to tell the freeholder first.

I understand cellar conversions can be expensive - because of all the tanking required to ensure they stay water proof.

Jeb1980

ic wrote: »

Go on the landregistry.gov.uk website and download the documents for the house. This will tell you whether the property is freehold or leasehold, and if there are any covenants. If its freehold chances are you'll be able to do whatever you want, leasehold will be the same, but you may need to tell the freeholder first.

I understand cellar conversions can be expensive - because of all the tanking required to ensure they stay water proof.

Thanks for the response IC, I had a quick look at the land registry and I will order the documents since it's only £6, however they will only show me the boundary of the property. My question relates to what lies beneath the boundary of a property. Can a neighbouring property 'own' a cellar that lies within the boundary of a property?

Happy with the costs involved I was just wondering if anyone had any pointers for things they. Wished they had done before going ahead with the work

macman

What sort of property is this and what makes you think that the neighbours may own it? Does the cellar or the other room run beyond the boundary? Why not ask the current owners or their agent's?
Sounds like it might be an old coal hole, if so there would be an access shute from the garden area.

Jeb1980

macman wrote: »

What sort of property is this and what makes you think that the neighbours may own it? Does the cellar or the other room run beyond the boundary? Why not ask the current owners or their agent's?
Sounds like it might be an old coal hole, if so there would be an access shute from the garden area.

Hi Macman, it's a semi detatched house in a very old area so it wouldn't surprise me if there was an even older building on the site before it was built.
The entrance is bricked up with modern concrete blocks with an air brick in. I don't know whether a neighbour owns it but it is odd that is is sealed off but goes out the back of the property into the garden. I can't tell if it runs beyond the property boundary unfortunately.

There is another blocked off doorway which definitely goes to next doors cellar (not the other semi detatched but a property beyond an alley which is part of the freehold of the property we are looking at) which sits underneath the freehold of the house we are looking at, I just found out that this situation is called a creeping freehold, as opposed to a flying freehold above ground.

Haven't asked vendors or agents yet because I wanted to speak to them forewarned and forearmed.

It would be useful if it was just a small coal chute because that would give access from the garden for the conversion and would also provide a permanent secondary exit for building/fire regs plus some natural light.