Architect or structural enginner?

Surrey_EA

I would think the vendor ought to be accommodating to further visits, especially if they are trying to sell a property that is a little unusual, and it's been on the market for some time. Explain the situation to the EA so it is clear you are serious, but that you need to do further investigation before you are happy to put forward an offer.

I'm afraid the £120 to the conservation officer is a necessary evil - but it's very little money in the grand scheme of what you could end up spending on a property like this.

phatwa1

Thankyou. So to confirm if I have understand, the best course is to get an architect that specialises in listed/older buildings to discuss, visit and draw up some plans, and then to book the conservation/planning officer from the council to come out and view the property alongside the plans, and then they can make any informal comments about our plans.

If they are okay with the plans, at least informally, then we should then approach some builders/engineers to get some quotes for the required work, which will then use to form the basis of our offer on the property.

Then finally if we are successful in buying the property we submit full plans to the council.

Have I got that right??

Doozergirl

In a word? Yes.

Spending £120 on the visit may save you initially on drawings. Save the drawings for later, but ask the architect to run through proposals on site. Establish whether the principal of the proposals is acceptable before drawings, perhaps.

Architect may not be keen, but it's worth a shot.

Hoploz

I was wondering, are there other similar buildings nearby? If you look online you might be able to find other listed properties which have put in applications for either planning permission or listed building consents. If so then you could consider contacting either the owners or the architects who have drawn up the plans to have a quick chat about how they found the process, and whether the local conservation officer was easy to work with and helpful.

This you could do first, without any expenditure at all.

phatwa1

Thanks!!! I have already contacted an architect, he has flagged some issues but will be doing a site visit next week. Then I will book in the planners, although there is a 2 week lead time.

We have actually been look for older houses for about 2 years and do view the plans online. We just never have been able to dive in before as everything was either too expensive or too far. There is 1 similar house that is quite near where they had 3 staircases - removed one altogether, and moved another to elsewhere in the property. So I was hoping that would be possible here, but it's in a different borough council area so that might be a problem.