Converting a house to 2 flats

Pompeyfan

Basically what do I need to consider? and has anyoe a rough idea how much money I'd need to do it?

My situation is I'm 51 years old, and housebound, my only income is PiP and some money I was left last year which I use for living expenses, but I do own my 4 bed house in a nice area. I had thought of selling and moving to a bungalow as I want something on one floor with no stairs, but with not being able to go out moving is a daunting thought, plus I like living here as its quiet and near the countryside but with good trasnport links, so I thought about converting my house into 2 flats and either selling one or renting it out.

My grandfather built the house originally, and when he designed it, it was done so the upstairs could be made into a flat (with stairs going up to what is currently a landing window), and the roof space was enforced so an extra room can go in the roof space. This would give an upstairs flat of either one or two bedrooms, a kitchen, large lounge and bathroom (currently a wet room) and large reception area where the stairs are atm, and a downstairs flat for me with a large lounge, bedroom, toilet, wetroom (where the stairs currently are), small lounge and kitchen with conservatory. There is a front garden and plenty of off-road parking and a large garden with rear access froma private track, which I thought aboout dividing in two so whomever has the upstairs flat can also have half the garden (the half accesed by the track or a path round the house through my bit of garden) if I sell or share the whole garden if I rent.

From what I can see, the work involved would be turning a bedroom into a kitchen upstairs, putting in a front door and stairs outside, and maybe converting the current wetroom which is a toilet, sink and shower to a normal bathroom, as well as plenty of sound proofing, then downstairs having the stairs taken out and a new floor/ceiling, and have a wetroom built where the stairs currently are. I would also use this an opportunity to decortate and have a new kitchen myself.

Thoughts?

Cheers

eddddy

Probably the first stage would getting "pre-application advice" from your local planning authority. They would give you an indication of whether you're likely to get planning consent.

Take a look at their website for details. Some prefer you to write, others prefer a meeting.

Many councils would charge you a few hundred pounds for pre-application advice for a project like this.

Then maybe budget for a few thousand pounds to get full planning consent (including all the professional fees).

Take a look at planning applications for similar conversions on your local planning authority's website, to see the amount of info they expect with an application.

Cakeguts

A lot of money and planning permission.

AlexMac

That would cost £70-90k plus a fair amount or planning, organisation and project management, so a major consideration is whether you feel up to that, plus the disruption while work goes on. So a year or two out of your life and potential stress if you aren't used to dealing with builders.

The other consideration is whether you would increase value after costs, or potentailly devalue the property. Round here, a family house is worth more than a coiple of flats in comparable floorspace.

So get a couple of estate agents in to value the house as is, then comment on value once converted. I know you love the area, but you need to think creatively and logically.

Good luck!

Pompeyfan

Cheers all for the replies

AlexMac wrote: »

That would cost £70-90k plus a fair amount or planning, organisation and project management, so a major consideration is whether you feel up to that, plus the disruption while work goes on. So a year or two out of your life and potential stress if you aren't used to dealing with builders.

The other consideration is whether you would increase value after costs, or potentailly devalue the property. Round here, a family house is worth more than a coiple of flats in comparable floorspace.

So get a couple of estate agents in to value the house as is, then comment on value once converted. I know you love the area, but you need to think creatively and logically.

Good luck!

Yes is a lot of money and a lot to consider, I'm too bothered about the time as I have nothing else to do, and am used to dealing with builders as before I was ill I used to manage a builders office and was a trainee estimator (although not for anything this size), but am very out of touch with it all now as it was over 25 years ago.

The house is valued at around £260k, so if a flat was worth half that, and I could get everything done for >£90k so leaving me about <£40k left over I'd be happy.

Doozergirl

If you're going to let upstairs, then you might be better of annexing it rather than a full conversion. Your flat will almost certainly be made uninhabitable during a full conversion, as you have to meet full conversion regulations for both dwellings. It sounds like you don't have the luxury of moving upstairs while downstairs is worked on.

This will certainly involve fire and sound proofing completely between apartments and may well include upgrading the insulation to the property and probably changing windows to comply with thermal and escape regulations.

Annexing upstairs may prove cheaper and provide you with an ongoing income, if you can cope with tenants upstairs.

teneighty

As others have suggested I would advise that your first step would be to investigate your chances of getting planning permission.

It is difficult to get permission to convert nice family homes into flats these days. It will depend on your Council's planning policy for your area. Most council's now publish their planning policies on their websites, they can make quite challenging reading, but certainly worth a go.

Doozer's idea of an annexe is a good one. I had a friend who converted part of their house into a small self contained "annexe" and took in lodgers for the main house. It worked very well for them and was very lucrative.

lincroft1710

If you convert the first floor to a flat and sell it and the buyers tend to move about the place like a herd of rhinoceros and ignore your complaints there's nothing you can do.

If you rent the flat out and something fails your tenants will be banging on your front door demanding the problem is rectified immediately.

A bungalow or over 50s ground floor flat seems a better option.

A 4 bed detached valued at £260K would indicate you're in a very reasonably priced area

Hoploz

The annexe option sounds a good short term measure, even just renting rooms out to lodgers would raise some funds, then get a cleaner and you wouldn't have to go upstairs

To fully convert you're going to come up against all sorts of problems doing the work. Even if it was done properly originally, standards will have changed and it'll all have to be upgraded to need current building regs.

In the long term I think selling up and moving on is the best idea. My mum has mobility problems. She explored all the conversions like stair lifts and wet rooms but decided to move to a ground floor modern flat and she is really happy there. No maintenance and garden (she has a little terrace for tubs and a chair) and there's always someone else to worry about things like dustbins, outside lights or whatever, she can just forget it all.