Buying a house - wrong use class

wiggy1682

Hi All

I am in desperate need of some advise,

We are in the final stages of buying a house - hopefully exchanging today, however we have only just been given some information about the use class of the property.

It was built as a single dwelling house - C3, however it was turned into a child's day nursery - D1 some time ago. For the past ten years however it has been rented out to students but the vendor never applied to change the use class. They are also unable to provide us any evidence to support this. What evidence can I gather to back this up.....? council tax etc...

What are the chances the council could turn round and tell us we cant live there? I believe there is a time frame (4 years for single dwelling or 10 years for mulitple occ) where is not action is taken from the council then they cannot enforce anything. We were also hoping to carry out some works to the property that would require planning permission - how will this affect that?

Any advise would be welcome!

Thank you

davidmcn

Are you buying with a mortgage? If so then there's no chance of you being able to take a view on it, because the lender will insist on the planning being sorted. Wouldn't have thought the planners would have a problem with it. And not relevant to your proposed works.

wiggy1682

Our mortgage has already been approved on it..

Hoploz

This new information will have to be given to the lender by your solicitor (they are duty bound - to protect everybody's interests)

You won't be exchanging today after all, I'm afraid. This will need sorting out one way or another first.

davidmcn

wiggy1682 wrote: »

Our mortgage has already been approved on it..

Yes, but only on the basis that the property has planning consent for residential use.

AdrianC

wiggy1682 wrote: »

Our mortgage has already been approved on it..

And the lender know this about the past change-of-use?

I'm not 100%, though, that D1 necessarily precludes residential use - it's a question of whether D1 has been added to the residential use, or whether D1 has replaced residential use. You really do need to go back through the past paperwork and check with the local authority to be absolutely clear. If it's been added to residential - so the property can be used for residential use or D1 commercial - then the D1 is irrelevant to your use, but might prove useful to a potential future buyer.

wiggy1682

ok, not good....

So is there any evidence I can get hold of to show the council it has been used as multiple occ for over 10 years? By doing this I presume they cannot refuse it being turned back into a single dwelling class. I know this info should be provided by the seller but she is being completely unreasonable

wiggy1682

AdrianC wrote: »

And the lender know this about the past change-of-use?

I'm not 100%, though, that D1 necessarily precludes residential use - it's a question of whether D1 has been added to the residential use, or whether D1 has replaced residential use. You really do need to go back through the past paperwork and check with the local authority to be absolutely clear. If it's been added to residential - so the property can be used for residential use or D1 commercial - then the D1 is irrelevant to your use, but might prove useful to a potential future buyer.

No as we didnt know at the time of applying. How easy is it to check with the council?

AdrianC

Oooh, they CAN refuse PP to convert multiple dwellings back into a single - if, for instance, it's an area in dire need of affordable properties. Perhaps not likely in your case, but...

Hoploz

Regarding the proof of residential use issue, perhaps the tenants have been paying council tax?

The seller really needs to sort this one out. You will have to sit and wait it out.

wiggy1682

AdrianC wrote: »

Oooh, they CAN refuse PP to convert multiple dwellings back into a single - if, for instance, it's an area in dire need of affordable properties. Perhaps not likely in your case, but...

Oh hadn't thought they might want to keep it as mulitple occ, I was only thinking they might want to keep it as a Day nursery, although there is already a day nursery 10 house down the street.

Would the fact that the house has "history" one of the 1st to be built in the city, (Name plaque on the outside) and documented in various article about the local area make a difference in returning its class to what it was originally?