Build an extention using mine Neighbour's Garage

sujiconstantine

Hi,
I wonder if someone can help... Me and my neighbour have adjoining garages and we are both keen on converting them to rooms. However, both garages are too narrow to convert them into two reasonable size rooms so we are wondering if we can do a double story extension using both garages and one of us will have access to the ground floor and the other to have access to the first floor.


Is it legally possible? will it cause any complications in the future?


Thanks

dimbo61

Sorry total nightmare when either of you come to sell.

Cakeguts

Do either of you have a mortgage?

ACG

Legally I would assume it is possible.
If you have a Mortgage, you may find you struggle.
I am not entirely sure how it would work in practice as you would probably need the garages/rooms to be leasehold.

From a practical perspective, trying to Mortgage a part freehold/part leasehold property (or selling them for that matter) is going to be a nightmare. I suppose you could convert both properties to leasehold but again, if you have a Mortgage i am not sure how that would work.

I would speak to a conveyancing solicitor initially and then to your Mortgage lenders. It might even be worth involving a surveyor to find out the repercussions it may have on the future value of the properties and whether it would affect getting a Mortgage.

Personally, I would move house if you need a bigger property as there are a lot of potential issues.

fairy_lights

I can imagine a lot of future buyers being put off when you come to sell.
Who would be responsible for the roof, or the foundations, or the drains if there's plumbing involved?

xylophone

so we are wondering if we can do a double story extension using both garages and one of us will have access to the ground floor and the other to have access to the first floor.

Would you end up with a "flying freehold" situation?

G_M

xylophone wrote: »

Would you end up with a "flying freehold" situation?

Yes OP would end up with a Flying Freehold.

Google/DuckDuckGo it.

It's legally possible. You'd need a Deed to be Executed that would grant each of you specific rights and responsibilities over the 'shared' area. This would specify, for example, access rights, as well as maintenance liabilities.

The Deed would need to be registered against both your properties.

Many mortgage lenders refuse to lend against properties with Flying Freeholds (or where the FF covers an area greater than x% of the property). So selling could become harder as buyers struggle to find a mortgage.

If either of you have a current mortage, you/they would need your/their lender's consent to set this up (which is likely to be declined as it is a FF - you can but ask).

agrinnall

Is it only the garages that are joined, and is there space behind them? If so could you convert both garages to one room for one property and build a second room the same size behind the garages for the other property? There would still need to be some changes made to who owns what bits of land but crucially there would be no flying freehold.

D_M_E

As well as the points raised above, the garages may have to be knocked down and new load-bearing walls put in place to support the proposed build which may be an added unexpected expense.

lincroft1710

If this changed 2 semi detached houses into 2 terraced houses then planning permission would probably not me granted. In any case it's a nightmare scenario and is definitely not recommended.

vw100

You may even lose value on the home. Best avoided