Help To Buy Scotland - Home Improvements without Permission?

N91B

Hi,

New to the forum and looking for some advice. I am in a new build home in Scotland that we purchased with Help To Buy (Scotland) 6 years ago. We have recently been looking to convert our garage, however we know this sort of work is not permittable whilst still owing to HTB. We are wondering what the consequences would be if we obtained planning permission and BW and went ahead with the conversion and it was to be found out that we done so? Has anyone on here done it already? HTB England details it a little bit clearer than Scotland, which is not very clear on how it would be dealt with. Heard/read conflicting things which in some ways would possibly make it worthwhile but don't want to dive into anything. Thanks.

chanz4

its going to increase your value and you will owe them more, better todo it the right way

N91B

chanz4 said:

its going to increase your value and you will owe them more, better todo it the right way

Thanks for getting back to me chanz4. Yes this is one of the things we read. If you get approval it will not be taken into account should the value increase/selling etc. but if you do it without, they will Ofcourse include it, meaning they get a bigger chunk due to the increased value. Our problem is we are most likely to be refused. That said, the higher loss from that point of view is a price we're willing to pay if that is all that would come from it and would see that as fair (as mentioned, just concerned there is other consequences of it we haven't been able to find out yet).

I should mention we do intend to pay the loan percentage back in the future, we are just not in a position to do that right now. Even taking in the quoted cost of the garage work, it is lower than the lowest sum you can pay back (I believe 5%).