Commercial part of property

Skateyj

I'm really hoping some of you will be able to give me advice. 

I have had an offer accepted on a property which consists of a 3 bedroomed house with a tiny one up, one down cottage (literally just two empty rooms with no stairs!) attached which was used as a doctor's surgery. The council say that this element is still classed as a commercial property. 

I have a house to sell which is on a buy to let mortgage and if it sells soon, I could buy the new house with the equity, also the large deposit I already have and a £25,000 personal loan but I feel this is really risky as I'll be maxed out.

I cannot get a residential mortgage because of the commercial element but I have been offered a bridging loan for the obvious obscene % interest. I'm also having trouble getting a structural survey because of this commercial element. 

Do you think I would be able to ask the vendors to apply for change of use if I agree to pay the £500 it would cost? I could then have a residential mortgage and also have money from the sale of my current buy to let to upgrade the new house.

I'm getting a little bogged down with figuring out the best course of action to not lose the house.

Thank you in advance! 

jonnydeppiwish!

Have you been to a specialist broker? What sort of deposit do you have?

Probably best to post this in the mortgages forum where the mortgage advisors will see it 👍 

Skateyj

Thanks, I've also posted this on the mortgage thread. 

The property I would like to buy is £180,000
I have £45,000 deposit
I have £120,000 equity give or take

I've asked a few mortgage brokers who have said they can't help because of the commercial element. 

Thanks  

user1977

If it was merely a question of getting planning then it would be relatively straightforward (conclude a contract conditional on getting planning, then you apply for it, then complete if and when you get permission) - but I presume any lender would also want works carried out so the property appears to be a single residential property. So I suspect you'd have to buy with funding from elsewhere and do the work before you can (re)mortgage with a standard residential mortgage.

Are you worried about "losing" the house because you know there are other buyers with the cash and prepared to take the risk (or not requiring to get planning)?

eddddy

Skateyj said:

Do you think I would be able to ask the vendors to apply for change of use if I agree to pay the £500 it would cost? 

FWIW, you can apply for planning consent yourself - you don't have to ask the vendor to do it.

A doctor's surgery is probably class E, so converting it to residential should be a permitted development - so you're very likely to get consent. But the process might still take 8 weeks.


As mentioned above, the risk would be if you get planning consent for change of use, and then the seller decides to sell to somebody else - maybe for more money, because the property has become more desirable because of your planning consent.

You can protect yourself to a lesser or greater extent - with something like a lockout agreement or a conditional contract with the seller - but negotiating that is likely to add at least a week or two to the timescale - and will probably incur more legal fees.