House age

dragonsoup

I've no idea how old my cottage is. The first document in the deeds shows a transfer of ownership in 1866 but it was obviously built before that as it's on a 1850 map of the area - just told the insurer it was early to mid Victorian and they were fine with that.

The surveyor incidental dated it as late Victorian!

Hoploz

davidmcn wrote: »

Some councils' systems go back to the 1980s if you're lucky, I doubt any have 1920s records online.

Oh ok. Mine does go back that far, although detailed documents are only online for about the last 15 years. But it shows planning applications for houses and decisions all the way back.

xylophone

Hi I bought a house and was told it was built in approx 1955 but it's since come to light it could be as old as 1927

You are sure that your property is not a rebuild after bomb damage (like the house next door to mine)?

Mojisola

Pinkz wrote: »

Hi I bought a house and was told it was built in approx 1955 but it's since come to light it could be as old as 1927 and definitely before 1938.

What do the house deeds say?

AlexMac

I wouldn't waste time worrying about this; when renewing my insurance, the application form (from AVIVA) made clear they only expected a best guess to within 10 years; and it probably won't make any difference to them of the premium.

But thinking more positively, I'd prefer a 1920's house to one built soon after the war any time; neither will have great thermal insulation value, but I suspect the pre-war one will be better built.

lincroft1710

Houses were being built in the 1950s which looked exactly like those built in the 1930s

TeaLeaf

You could try looking at the area on Old-Maps dot co dot UK (sorry, can't post links!) which has historic OS maps on. The geographical and time coverage is pretty good for most areas. You won't be able to zoom in solely on your house unless you pay, but the free view will be good enough for you to work out if there's a street or a field there. I used it to check what the land was used for before the house I'm buying was built.

ManuelG

Take a trip to your local archive.

alchemist.1

Have a look at the Title at theLand Registry. It should give you some idea.

MacMickster

If the property has a tiled roof then at 80 to 90 years old the roof my well need to be replaced shortly if it hasn't already been done.

Other than that I can't see a major issue with the age of the property.

With regard to the photographs, the 2 houses next to the one in which I was brought up were destroyed by a bomb in WW2. They were rebuilt and today you couldn't tell the newer houses from the original ones in the street and they would match any pre-war photographs..