Buying House with self contained annex

pinkteapot

We considered a house with an internal annex when we were looking, and I looked into this, including posting on here. It seemed to be the case that even if the annex didn't have it's own CT band currently, it probably should, and there had been cases where the sale of a property triggered an assessment that resulted in the property having two bands, so two council tax bills. Although a 1-bed annexe would probably only be an A or a B, the combined CT bills end up disproportionately higher than those of an equivalent single house the same overall size. 

If it has been, or gets rated for a second CT band, it also seems to be extremely difficult to ever get that removed. (Just taking out a kitchen won't do it). 

We concluded it was all too messy to bother with when we didn't need an annex. There's also the fact that it's harder to get a mortgage on a property with two kitchens which can limit your re-sale market.  

lincroft1710

Mickey666 said:

CIS said:

I've no doubt that's true, but how does the local council ever find out?  Is it a legal requirement for a householder to report that they have an annexe?

No but countered with that the ability to backdate council tax bandings and charges is always there in the background. The council usually find out from planning applications or where information otherwise makes it way to them.

I've read that it basically revolves around a kitchen, possibly because en-suites are so commonplace these days

A kitchen is not required, it's just a good indicator - self-contained does not actually require it to be fully self-contained. There is no direct definition of a self-contained in legislation as it's been left to case law to try and determine it.

So all a bit of a mess then?  Does that mean that single room with a bed, sofa and microwave oven plus a shared bathroom could be 'self-contained' - ie a 'bedsit'?   Surely that could achieved by almost every house in the country.

And given the possibility of such an arrangement being defined as 'self-contained' along with the backdating risk, I guess you're suggesting that anyone with this sort of arrangement should be informing the council and asking for a formal assessment.  Or at the very least, putting some money aside in case of a backdated assessment?

When I was in the VOA (now 15 yrs ago), the requirements for a self contained unit via case law were somewhere to live/sleep, wash, prepare food and its own WC. Also access must not be through a room in the main house. I have banded a single room used for study purposes in a multi occupational commercial building as it did not share any facilities (apart from communal hallways and stairs with any other occupiers). It wasn't used for commercial/business purposes, it could not be linked with any other occupation in the building and it was not exempted by legislation, so it was adjudged a "dwelling" and thus had its own CT band.


Each case should be judged on its merits and a certain amount of common sense should be applied


Most SCUs are picked up from planning permission and building regs approval. But sometimes benefits queries also pick them up.