Buying a Guest House

jayjo_3

I want to buy an 11 bed guest house . and use 3 to let out. one for an office and the rest as residential for my family.
Local authority says its in a conservation area so I cannot change the use. and must use half as guest house.
Can I get round this in any way,?
what would I have to do. and would I get any issues further down the line?

eddddy

You would need planning consent for change of use.

Are you saying that the planning authority are saying that if you applied for planning consent, they'd be unlikely to grant it? Or are they just warning you that you'd need to apply for consent?

When you say 'office', do you mean 'home office' / study? Or do you mean something more commercial, maybe with multiple employees/workers, with frequent visitors, signage outside etc?  Could that have caused confusion?

If you just mean 'a room with a desk and computer for working from home', it might be better to call it a bedroom or a study.


If you need a mortgage, it would need to be a commercial mortgage - it's unlikely that you could buy the property with a residential mortgage.

ProDave

I would just do it.  You are still running a guest house, it's just some of the rooms are occupied by "staff"

But 11 rooms, 3 for letting, one as an office, leaves 7 for family.  That is a big family?  Get them each to pay a token rent and you are letting to them?

user1977

ProDave said:

I would just do it.  You are still running a guest house, it's just some of the rooms are occupied by "staff"

But 11 rooms, 3 for letting, one as an office, leaves 7 for family.  That is a big family?  Get them each to pay a token rent and you are letting to them?

I doubt either of these ruses is likely to get past the planners. Though I'm not sure why the conservation area status is relevant to the use - usually that's just to protect the appearance etc of the area rather than this sort of detail about the use.

eddddy

ProDave said:

I would just do it.  You are still running a guest house, it's just some of the rooms are occupied by "staff"

But 11 rooms, 3 for letting, one as an office, leaves 7 for family.  That is a big family?  Get them each to pay a token rent and you are letting to them?

...assuming you don't need a mortgage (or you're getting a commercial mortgage). A residential mortgage lender almost certainly won't lend on a property which doesn't have consent for use as a dwelling.

ProDave

Yes but the OP intends to carry on running it as a guest house.  So you would need a mortgage happy with that and you insure it as a guest house.  There is nothing stopping the owner and their familly living in the guest house.  The council is not going to come and check how many rooms are being let.

For peace of mind it might be worth seeking out the original PP allowing it to operate as a guest house and see if there is a stipulation in that what is the minimum number of rooms that must be let?  If there is no mention, then you would not be in breach of the planning permission.