Property being sold at auction with a house on under commercial

LimeGreenPine

We (me/husband) have seen a property we like selling at auction. It is classed as a "commerical" property as it was a former farm but it still has the house (not sure if its livible as yet) and some agricultural buildings and a couple of acres of land. It is freehold but being sold as commercial. We dont understand the differences? Will we be able to live in the house if we bought it because it exists? Or will it be a "change of use"? Or planning? Or what? I contacted the local council planning but they were less than helpful. I dont know how to find out the information we need. We have never bought at auction before and it may take all our assets/savings to buy this place and if we cant live on it we will be pretty much homeless and pennyless. Can anyone signpost us to where we need to find the info we need? Thanks in advance.

anselld

If it is fully commercial you woud need change of use planning permission to change to residential.

However, if it already has a "house" which was lived in it may be mixed use.

Whichever it is, it will not be mortgageable with a normal residential mortgage.

There may also be restrictions such as agricultural occupancy on who can reside in the house.

Is there no planning history for the property on the Council planning website?

user1977

Are you planning to buy with cash rather require a mortgage?

If you need the certainty of being able to get planning for change of use, an auction purchase isn't for you. 

london21

LimeGreenPine said:

We (me/husband) have seen a property we like selling at auction. It is classed as a "commerical" property as it was a former farm but it still has the house (not sure if its livible as yet) and some agricultural buildings and a couple of acres of land. It is freehold but being sold as commercial. We dont understand the differences? Will we be able to live in the house if we bought it because it exists? Or will it be a "change of use"? Or planning? Or what? I contacted the local council planning but they were less than helpful. I dont know how to find out the information we need. We have never bought at auction before and it may take all our assets/savings to buy this place and if we cant live on it we will be pretty much homeless and pennyless. Can anyone signpost us to where we need to find the info we need? Thanks in advance.

Read all the terms and condition and special condition for auction property. I could not get a mortgage with my auction purchase. 

eddddy

It's a good idea to gather informal opinions from here and elsewhere. But given the complexities, you should probably pay a solicitor to read the legal pack and advise you, before you bid.  You might also want to pay a planning consultant for their opinion.


It might be that the professional opinion turns out to be something like - "it's a good probability that you'd get planning consent for change of use, but it can't be guaranteed".  But you'd have to buy the property and apply for consent to find out for sure.