Planning permission (change of use) consensus

cashidiot

I am wondering if anyone has any recent experience of gaining planning permission for the change of use of a property?

I have recently applied for change of use of a property which is currently registered as commercial back to its former state as a residential property. Previously the property was residential and quite a few of the buildings on the street are in fact residential.

What are my chances of gaining change to two number apartments upstairs and downstairs?

BigAl94

Common sense would suggest this shouldn't be a problem

Mistral001

Have a word with the Planners. They will talk to people who are just thinking about doing something with their property that could involve getting planning permission. Also you can apply for outline planning permission if you do not want to get full permission just at the minute.

kmcl1

Have a look on the NIHE website, a house converted to apartments is classed as a House in Multiple Occupation (if more than two unrelated persons are living there) . This requires registration from NIHE and there is a guide on the NIHE website which explains the (quite prescriptive) standards required.

Mollyb

Actually kmcl1 I think you might be mistaken there. A house of multiple occupation is one where more than 2 unrelated residents share cooking and bathroom accommodation. So, for example, a student house.
A dwelling that is split into 2 or more self contained units would be classed as an apartment block and therefore wouldn't require registration with the NIHE.


Also I can't see there being a problem from a Planning or Building Control point of view but as Mistral mentioned, the Planners or Building Control would be more than happy to have a chat with you about requirements and applications.

BJV

Very interested to find out how you get on and how easy or difficult it is. We are in the last few days ( god I hope ) of completing on a building. One of the floors has in the past been used as a self contained two bed flat but is now back to full commercial. We don't need to use the whole building so where thinking of perhaps changing it back.

Old_Git

cashidiot wrote: »

I am wondering if anyone has any recent experience of gaining planning permission for the change of use of a property?

I have recently applied for change of use of a property which is currently registered as commercial back to its former state as a residential property. Previously the property was residential and quite a few of the buildings on the street are in fact residential.

What are my chances of gaining change to two number apartments upstairs and downstairs?

your stumbling block may be converting it into two residential properties rather than one .Have you of road parking for two properties .
I used to own a property in BT7 .My advice was it couldn't be divided as parking would be an issue .I sold it to someone who made it HMO .

Tansy_1980

It might be best checking with NIHE re HMO registration anyway - the building is looked at as a "house" as a whole. If the plan is to split this into 2 units of accommodation it is likely that you will create a HMO (unless there is only one person in each of these units) and you can't get permission for a HMO in certain parts of NI anymore due to saturation (Stranmillis & Holylands, for example). While you may still get planning permission, you may not be able to rent out the units as HMOs which will restrict the number of tenants you can have across the building as a whole and possible restrict the amount of rent you'll get.

A new HMO bill is planned to be introduced in September so the classification may change.

kmcl1

Molly, as Tansy said above a house converted to flats/ apartments is still a Hmo under the current definition, in the rest of the UK, if it has been converted to current building regulations standards it is exempt from registration, but this is not the case in NI.