Converting 2 flats back to 1 house

da_rule

I think you should head over to the Land Registry website and buy the title documents (they cost about £3 each). There may be 3 of them. 2 lease titles for the flats and a freehold title for the ground.

I'm interested in the fact that the mortgage company have agreed to mortgage two titles (maybe even 3 if the freehold is separate) under the same mortgage.

There are some things you need to know from the seller:
1) Was it always two flats? Your post seems to suggest that you think that it was one house that has been converted, why do you think this?
2) If it was converted, when did this happen and what planning permission was obtained?

As has been said, most councils seem to have a search facility where you can search for planning permissions (whether granted or denied) by address.

If it was one house and split into two without consent, you could then argue that you are reverting it back to what it should be. It's a bit ropey but might be worth a shot with the council.

Robsia2

Thanks for the search tip Apparently planning permission to convert to two flats was granted in 1974.

da_rule

I just noticed your comment about seeing a mortgage broker. So it's fair to say that you don't have a mortgage yet then?

Even if it is being sold as 'one property' if it is registered at the Land Registry as separate titles it will actually be 2-3 transactions. If you are buying the freehold too then you could get the Land Registry to merge the titles into one when you complete the sale. This may complicate things with the mortgage.

You will need to check that you are buying the freehold title as well (if there is a separate one).

davidmcn

Leaving aside the planning question, I doubt you'd get a standard residential mortgage while they're physically set up as two flats (and even if you did, you'd need the lender's consent for the "unconversion" work). You may need more specialist finance for property development.

m1kjm

I've converted 2 houses into 1, and was told by my council that you don't need PP to do that, but you would need PP to convert 1 house into 2 dwellings.

Let me know if there's anything else I can help you with.

The best bit has been getting one set of meters removed so that I don't have to pay two lots of standing charges. The meter readers still tip up to read the non-existent meters and don't believe it when I say they're not there any more :rotfl:

Robsia2

We do have a mortgage agreed in principle but that was just for a standard residential mortgage - we're still looking at houses. We hadn't seen this property at the time the mortgage was agreed so a further chat seems necessary if we like it well enough once we've viewed it. We do have a couple of other properties to look at though, so it might not happen. But it would be a lovely big house at a cracker of a buying price. I'm just turning over the possibilities and trying to factor in costs we might not have considered.

m1kjm - thanks for confirming that. I wish I could get the word from my council withut having to pay a fortune for the privilege.

Doozergirl

You need to read the Local Development Plan for your local authority if you don't want to pay for pre-app advice. It will be available online. In many places it will be PD, in others it needs planning permission and will be fiercely resisited if there is an identified need for further housing - areas of London, particularly.

Some councils are between plans, some have conflicting plans. It isn't always striaghtforward. As an example, Kensington & Chelsea's plan is conflicting. They will turn down an application down outright but an appeal to the secretary of state may be successful because of what is written in their own plan.

da_rule

What local authority is responsible for the property? Someone on the forum might have some knowledge of their planning rules and be able to offer some more specific advice.

m1kjm

Robsia2 wrote: »

I wish I could get the word from my council without having to pay a fortune for the privilege.

I just popped into the council office and asked to speak to someone about it.

You would need to speak to the council anyway eg sorting out the one postal address, a potential six month council tax free period on an empty property during the building work, re-banding and merging the two council tax accounts in liaison with the VOA.

Rambosmum

Robsia2 wrote: »

We do have a mortgage agreed in principle but that was just for a standard residential mortgage - .

Getting a mortgage will be a problem. We have just had to give up buying a similar property (three flats in one house) as it was considered unmortgageable by 2 lenders (the ones our mortgage adviser felt would be most lend) with either BTL or a residential mortgage.