House advertised but c2 dwelling

wah007

Hello,

I need some advice please. I have had an offer accepted on a house and have instructed solicitors. The survey has been booked and will take place in 3 days.

The house has been advertised by the EA as being a detached family home. It is a 4 bedroom house and has parking spaces at the front for up to 2-3 cars and has dropped kerbs for the full length of the house and it's on a corner plot. The house has a bathroom on the first floor and a shower room next door to it which have commercial style push down taps. It also has commercial style mains powered smoke sensors in the ceilings and a fire alarm panel in the landing on ground floor.

I've been checking the planning applications for the house on the council's website and it says "Change of use from dwelling (C3) to a residential care home (C2)" which was approved in 2010.

We will be using it as a family home. Will this cause any issues when buying?

Thanks

Davesnave

I'm no expert, but I think to go from C2 to C3 will need planning permission, just as it did in 2010 to go the other way.

I would speak with the council to get their view before committing to spend on a survey.

ProDave

If it was previously a single dwelling it would take a really pig headed council to refuse a return to that use, and if they did an appeal should sort it.

A bigger issue would be council tax. It is probably on commercial rates at the moment and would need re valuing for council tax. Try and search out historic listings of the property so you can find the council tax band it used to be in, so you can appeal if they try and put it in a higher band this time.

Robin9

Be aware re Utilities - there are threads on the Energy Board about these premises being on a Business Tariff rather than Domestic

wah007

Thanks everyone.

I've checked the council tax band on the Direct Gov website and it's showing as being on band D which is the same as other similar properties on the road.

I'm calling the council regarding this now.

When we went to view we were told to book a viewing in the daytime as the electricity supply had been stopped. It's an empty house.

Ozzuk

Are you paying cash or mortgage? If mortgage, you may find its classed as commercial - that will limit your lender option and increase LTV/costs considerably. You'll want permission changed before buying really.

I bought a non-residential house on commercial mortgage and gained planning afterwards (then switched mortgages) but its a gamble.

davidmcn

Ozzuk wrote: »

Are you paying cash or mortgage? If mortgage, you may find its classed as commercial - that will limit your lender option and increase LTV/costs considerably. You'll want permission changed before buying really.

I think no matter how you're paying, you'd want the use changed first (unless you're competing against buyers who are happy with it) - so either get seller to do that before you progress any further, or you make the contract conditional on the seller (or you) obtaining consent for the change of use.

wah007

We're paying by cash from the sale of our current house which will cover the purchase fully.

I spoke to the council and they checked their records (planning and building regs) and said that planning was approved in 2010 and contractors were hired to do some work for it to be used as a care home. This included dropping the kerbs for the full length of the house at the front for parking for up to 3 cars. They said the estate agent shouldn't have advertised it as a family home.

I've checked the building layout, the before and after layout is the same. The only things that the vendor has done is have planning permission approved to change it's use class to a care home and add concussive taps, fire alarm panel, smoke detectors, fire exit signs, dropped kerbs.

CIS

wah007 wrote: »

We're paying by cash from the sale of our current house which will cover the purchase fully.

I spoke to the council and they checked their records (planning and building regs) and said that planning was approved in 2010 and contractors were hired to do some work for it to be used as a care home. This included dropping the kerbs for the full length of the house at the front for parking for up to 3 cars. They said the estate agent shouldn't have advertised it as a family home.

I've checked the building layout, the before and after layout is the same. The only things that the vendor has done is have planning permission approved to change it's use class to a care home and add concussive taps, fire alarm panel, smoke detectors, fire exit signs, dropped kerbs.

I would have thought that the application in itself is nothing other than permission to change the use, it doesn't say it has been or has to be changed. It's like getting permission to build an extension, many no longer go ahead once permission has been granted and thus doesn't mean the extension is treated as having been built regardless.

A care home would be banded for council tax purposes anyway unless it was only for short stay use (whether a property is in the council tax list or the non-domestic list is the valuation office's decision anyway and not the council - it's dependent on the use of the building rather than just what it was given planning for). If the council feel it's not being used as required under planning rules then that is an entirely separate matter to the council tax side.

wah007

That's what I was thinking.

The building was already extended in 2006 when the current owner bought the house, and then in 2010 they had planning permission to change its use to C2 care home. After change of use had been approved they didn't alter the building in any way it seems, all they did was have more dropped kerbs put in and get higher boundary fences fitted, and fire alarms, smoke detectors, fire alarm panel and fire exit signs, concussive taps fitted. All this was a requirement to change its use into a care home.

Slinky

Have you tried sticking the postal address into Google and finding out whether that brings up the name of a care home?

ETA it's always worth doing this anyway on a property you're interested in, it's amazing what can pop up!