Please help - shop below flat being turned into restaurant

letithappen

Hi all,

Myself and my fiancee bought a flat two and a half years ago which was above a shop. Unfortunatley the shop closed down last year and a planning application went in to change the business use from a retail unit to a restuarant.

Despite the objections of ourselves and the other residents of our block of flats, it appears that the planning officer has now accepted the change in use and it seems that work is going ahead to turn the premises into a restauarant.

We're devestated that this change is going ahead as we've put our life savings into this flat and we're now not sure of what our options are.

From reading online it sounds like it may now may be difficult to get a morgage on the property and impossible to sell as a result. We're not sure what to do next as we had planned to sell in the near future.

Does anyone have any experience of selling a property above a restaurant? Is our best bet to try and find a buyer who will buy it as a rental property?

Thanks in advance for any advice anyone could give!

anselld

There will be a smaller field of mortgage lenders but it is by no means impossible to mortgage or to sell.  

Nothing more you can do anyway.  Wait and see what happens.  Planning being granted does not mean it will happen and even if it does happen it may not be successful and could revert to something else in future.

Arklight

The risk of buying a flat above a shop should already have been priced into your purchase. It didn't put you off, so it won't put off others off, necessarily. It isn't ideal that it's turning into a restaurant, but that is the risk anyone takes when purchasing above a retail premises.  You still have the right to "quiet enjoyment" of your property.  You are going to be more attractive to investors than private individuals, though. 

It could be worse than a restaurant to be honest. The village where we live has changed a fair bit. What for the last 100 years was a knick knack shop for old ladies, has turned into a late night hipster bar, and the flats above have been vacant ever since. Another part of the high street has been replaced by a KFC. It stinks of stale boiling fat already. I can't imagine what it will be like in the summer, and that's below flats as well.

davidmcn

As above, it's why buying in a building with any sort of commercial use is risky - it's relatively easy for it to change to something more antisocial. Has there been a licensing application for it yet?

[Deleted User]

I guess turning the unit into a restaurant is less bad than leaving it empty.

martindow

I think it depends very much on what sort of restaurant opens there.  There is a big difference between a coffee shop that closes late afternoon and a kebab house open until 3am.

letithappen

davidmcn said:

As above, it's why buying in a building with any sort of commercial use is risky - it's relatively easy for it to change to something more antisocial. Has there been a licensing application for it yet?

No not as yet. We are checking regularly to see if a licensing application is posted.

Our hopes are that it will be more of a cafe than a late night restaurant serving alcohol.

AdrianC

Arklight said:

Another part of the high street has been replaced by a KFC. It stinks of stale boiling fat already.

Assuming that isn't just a knee-jerk melodramatic over-reaction because you don't like the concept... that would be a breach of their planning permission on the kitchen extraction, and very probably a breach of food hygiene regs.

It's also worth remembering that most of the big-brand fast-food chains are franchises, and only as good as the franchisee. Unlucky Fried Kitten claim they're 95% franchised in this country - https://info.kfc.co.uk/development/franchise