De-linking a link-detached house

andy1988

Hi all, I've had a search of the forum and found some interesting questions on link-detached houses, however no one has suggested detaching one (at least that I can find).


I've come across a few link detached houses that I would consider buying, however I would convert the garage to living space on all of them. I would use the space as downstairs WC, access hallway, kitchen/dining room extension.


What I'm considering is: whilst conducting the renovation works it wouldn't be much trouble to detach the joining wall completely from the neighbouring property, yes some interior space would be lost but the house when then truly be a detached house, no links or attachments whatsoever.



Has anyone considered, attempted or successfully made this change? I'm thinking it could increase the property value by more than the cost of building the extra wall.


Thanks,
Andy

eddddy

andy1988 wrote: »

Has anyone considered, attempted or successfully made this change? I'm thinking it could increase the property value by more than the cost of building the extra wall.

Why are you thinking that it would increase the value of the property?

Is it in a road with other identical link detached houses? If so, wouldn't it look a bit odd.

Also, I suspect that you are massively underestimating the complexity and cost of the building work.

Mickygg

You wouldn't just lose some interior space you would lose a lot. You would have to leave enough space for maintenance, so someone easily being able to walk in between.

AnotherJoe

I suspect there will be issues with the neighbours since what was an internal wall becomes external so what perhaps is a single skin wall might need to be two, the roof will need to be fixed on both sides, plus there will likely be supporting structures to the garage roof that span both garages that will need to be managed.

So, given all that, I cant imagine you can do this without their permission and theres nothing in it for them.

I also doubt it would increase the value because all you gain is a detached garage instead of shared, “so what”, or a utility room and entrance hall that isn’t adjacent to a garage, again “so what”.

Also, all that work has a cost, which won’t be trivial, so I doubt any small rise in value there might be would compensate for that.

andy1988

Thank you for all your detailed responses. My dad is a builder so the costs would be materials only. I do believe I may have under estimated the complexity and over estimated the increase in valuation on this.

Detached houses on the same road are fetching an extra £20k but they're also of a different design although similar age. There must be other reasons why the link detached is £20k cheaper. Other linked properties I've looked at have had similar valuation differences, but again the appearance and designs are different. On second thought I don't think simply de-linking them will add significant value, however a somewhat naive buyer may consider a distinct difference between a detached and link detached, whether there is any significant difference in practice is another matter.

If anyone has actually done this and achieved positive results it would be interesting to know.

I wasn't aware a maintenance space was necessary on single storey buildings as access can be had from above, I've also seen quite a few two storey builds with ridiculously narrow spaces between them...30cm or so. However I can see this being a reasonable requirement, further eroding internal space so it is perhaps a bad idea.

Thanks again for your help,
Andy

gettingtheresometime

Also would it be structural safe to do this? Foundations for party walls are different for outer walls due to load stresses etc

Cakeguts

Link detached houses are terraces. They are called link detached because the detached word makes them appear to be detached rather than terraced. A detached house has space all round it. Not everyone wants a house that is joined to next door on both sides.

sevenhills

Cakeguts wrote: »

A detached house has space all round it. Not everyone wants a house that is joined to next door on both sides.

I think its just unfriendly people that don't like neighbours

Cakeguts

sevenhills wrote: »

I think its just unfriendly people that don't like neighbours

Oops must be getting tired. I think what I meant to say was that not everyone wants to pay extra to get the word detached when what they are buying is a terraced house. People want to pay the price for a terraced house not an inflated price based on the name of the type of terrace.

seashore22

Our previous house was a linked detached and I think it's a happy compromise if you can't stretch to a detached house. Not having living space attached to your neighbours living space meant that we had no noise from our neighbours at all. I suppose we were fortunate that no one in our street converted their garages and we had enough space to extend without creating a terracing effect.

Op, unless you create enough space to have a walk way from the from to the back of the house then this will be a waste of time and money and could create issues for you and future owners. A narrow gap which you can't easily access would make maintenance next to impossible. You would be better off adding some extra soundproofing to the internal wall.

ProDave

With a link detached, you have to be very careful converting the linking garage. If the neighbours then fo the same it becomes a semi detached.

The OP's suggestion of detaching it and building your new end wall even just a few inches in from your boundary, means it will be detached, and if the neighbour converts his garage it will remain detached, unless the neughbour trespasses and joins onto your new end wall.

I would detach it by just enough to put up a run of fence panels to make it abundantly clear your end wall is not on the boundary line

It's not so much increasing value, but to avoid the above scenario that would definitely reduce value.