Buying a property in conservation area, England

JonMitchell

Do you folks reckon an offer should/could be put forward to this property?

i know ultimately it is down to my decision but wonder if it is worth the effort of purchasing this property....

canaldumidi

If the house is what you want and this is the only issue, I'd go ahead.

Ask for (or buy yourself) indemnity insurance.

The absolute worst case is that the council tell you to replace the windows with original ones eg wood frame, but the likelyhood is so remote as to be not worth considering.

Section62

Waunakee said:

Will depend on whether there is an Article 4 directive in place.

The odds of finding a Conservation Area without an Article 4 Direction are very remote.

Waunakee said:

We changed draughty single glazed wooden frames to UVPC double glazing without the need for planning in a conservation area.The only constraint applied by the planning office was that the replacements were of the same design as the originals.All we had to ensure was that the new ones complied with building regs using a FENSA registered contractor.

Surely using uPVC rather than wood and changing from single to double glazing means the windows aren't the same design as the originals?

JonMitchell

canaldumidi said:

If the house is what you want and this is the only issue, I'd go ahead.

Ask for (or buy yourself) indemnity insurance.

The absolute worst case is that the council tell you to replace the windows with original ones eg wood frame, but the likelyhood is so remote as to be not worth considering.

It is more the loft conversion I am more concerned about

user1977

JonMitchell said:

canaldumidi said:

If the house is what you want and this is the only issue, I'd go ahead.

Ask for (or buy yourself) indemnity insurance.

The absolute worst case is that the council tell you to replace the windows with original ones eg wood frame, but the likelyhood is so remote as to be not worth considering.

It is more the loft conversion I am more concerned about

Any idea how old that is? Should be able to make a vaguely educated guess from decor / street view etc - don't the family know?

You mentioned planning for that, but do you know whether it even needed planning permission at the time? Would have required building regulations consent, but any lack of that isn't going to be enforceable unless the works were done very recently, so it comes down to what and your surveyor make of the quality of the conversion and its current condition (like the rest of the house really).

JonMitchell

user1977 said:

JonMitchell said:

canaldumidi said:

If the house is what you want and this is the only issue, I'd go ahead.

Ask for (or buy yourself) indemnity insurance.

The absolute worst case is that the council tell you to replace the windows with original ones eg wood frame, but the likelyhood is so remote as to be not worth considering.

It is more the loft conversion I am more concerned about

Any idea how old that is? Should be able to make a vaguely educated guess from decor / street view etc - don't the family know?

You mentioned planning for that, but do you know whether it even needed planning permission at the time? Would have required building regulations consent, but any lack of that isn't going to be enforceable unless the works were done very recently, so it comes down to what and your surveyor make of the quality of the conversion and its current condition (like the rest of the house really).

Am waiting for the deceased executor to revert on this on when the conversion took place in time.

It is in a conservation area and most other properties that had their loft converted had applied for planning permission, as far as I had searched online.

If surveyor says yes all good, we might hit a problem in future if we do want to sell. As there is the original missing link of planning permission.

getting an indemnity insurance does not cover if the loft collapse.

user1977

JonMitchell said:

user1977 said:

JonMitchell said:

canaldumidi said:

If the house is what you want and this is the only issue, I'd go ahead.

Ask for (or buy yourself) indemnity insurance.

The absolute worst case is that the council tell you to replace the windows with original ones eg wood frame, but the likelyhood is so remote as to be not worth considering.

It is more the loft conversion I am more concerned about

Any idea how old that is? Should be able to make a vaguely educated guess from decor / street view etc - don't the family know?

You mentioned planning for that, but do you know whether it even needed planning permission at the time? Would have required building regulations consent, but any lack of that isn't going to be enforceable unless the works were done very recently, so it comes down to what and your surveyor make of the quality of the conversion and its current condition (like the rest of the house really).

Am waiting for the deceased executor to revert on this on when the conversion took place in time.

It is in a conservation area and most other properties that had their loft converted had applied for planning permission, as far as I had searched online.

If surveyor says yes all good, we might hit a problem in future if we do want to sell. As there is the original missing link of planning permission.

But it isn't a problem if it's too late for enforcement action to be taken. In the same way that the (presumed) lack of consents for the original construction of the house doesn't matter.

getting an indemnity insurance does not cover if the loft collapse.

No, but neither does anything else, other than your surveyor confirming there don't appear to be any problems.

Slinky

Have you looked at the Fensa website to see when the windows were installed? You can just put in the postcode and house number and it will give you the dates.

JonMitchell

Slinky said:

Have you looked at the Fensa website to see when the windows were installed? You can just put in the postcode and house number and it will give you the dates.

Thanks, just did a search and the address for the property did not come up.... the windows must have been installed after April 2002 as on google street view, I could see the windows are single glaze sash windows

Slinky

JonMitchell said:

Slinky said:

Have you looked at the Fensa website to see when the windows were installed? You can just put in the postcode and house number and it will give you the dates.

Thanks, just did a search and the address for the property did not come up.... the windows must have been installed after April 2002 as on google street view, I could see the windows are single glaze sash windows

Sounds as though they were done by a non-Fensa registered installer.