Permissions for Flat renovation/ alteration

Naomithinks

Hi All

We own ( with 2 separate mortgages)2 flats that make up
a detached house. We live in the upstairs flat and have the other as a buy to let. They were freehold and had them transferred into shared freehold with 125 years leases. Anyway....
We would like to turn downstairs into a
one bed and then take that room with an extension into our own house ( making ours bigger and the rental
smaller). The reduced rent on the flat would be about 150 a month.
My question is- where do we start?

I presume we’d need planning permission and building regs but what do we do
to smooth it with mortgage companies?
Is this a common thing? 

If you have experience on this,
I’d much appreciate your feedback. 

Thanks 

caprikid1

Are the mortgages with the same provider ? That would make things simpler as they would always own the whole property whatever you did.

eddddy

Naomithinks said:

We own ( with 2 separate mortgages)2 flats that make up
a detached house. We live in the upstairs flat and have the other as a buy to let. They were freehold and had them transferred into shared freehold with 125 years leases.

Your description of the ownership structure is a bit difficult to follow.


Unless you have a very weird setup, there will almost certainly be:

• 2 leasehold flats
• 1 freehold building (which may or may not be owned jointly by multiple people - i.e. 'Shared')

If you own all 3 titles (2 leaseholds plus 1 freehold) there are no other owners to get consent from. But if the freehold is 'Shared' in some way (i.e. jointly owned), you'd need agreement form the other freeholder(s).


You would need the consent of both mortgage lenders. What you're describing could be classed a development project, and mortgage lenders are often not keen on that.

At the very least they will want to send out valuers to check the impact on their security. I guess the flat that your making smaller could become worth a lot less, so they may want you to repay a chunk of your mortgage on that flat to stay within the LTV limit.


Don't underestimate the complexity of complying with building regs. The regs may have been much more relaxed when the house was originally converted. You might have to bring it up to present day building reg standards as part of the conversion.