Neighbouring house being convert into two flats

firsttimebuyer15

I live in a victorian terrace and have had planning notice the the neighbour wants to convert their house into two self contained flats. I'm not keen about this for a few reasons such as what the area is lacking is starter homes for families (there are loads of purpose built flats around) but the main concern is noise. There are other terrace houses that been converted in the area so I think the council will approve this.

If an old victorian terrace is converted into flats do regulations stipulate the building must be brought up to modern sound proofing standards? 

Also the planning notice states the class will still be C3. Googling I can see there is a limit of 6 unrelated people living under this class but would this be per flat (so 12) or for the building overall?

Brie

I think possibly the best defence about this is to look at parking.  If there is not adequate parking the council may well turn things down particularly if other conversions has caused problems with this.  This will definitely be an issue if this is house multiple unrelated individuals as potentially each might have a car.   We had a major problem with this in an area that had lots of properties converted for uni students. 

eddddy

firsttimebuyer15 said:

If an old victorian terrace is converted into flats do regulations stipulate the building must be brought up to modern sound proofing standards? 

Yes - the converted flats must meet current building regulations.

I'm no expert on this, but I believe the flats will need soundproofing to limit noise travelling from your house into the flats. So that should also limit noise travelling the other way - into your house.

firsttimebuyer15 said:

Also the planning notice states the class will still be C3. Googling I can see there is a limit of 6 unrelated people living under this class but would this be per flat (so 12) or for the building overall?

C3 is the standard planning class for a dwelling. i.e. A house or a flat. So your house will also be C3.

Why are you suspecting that lots of people will be 'squashed' into the new flats?  As opposed to, for example, the flats being sold to young couples, or maybe to young couples with a baby?

Do other similar flats in the area tend to to have 6 unrelated people living in them?

anselld

Building control varies on their opinion from place to place and person to person, especially on renovation rather than new build.
I converted some flats in 2014.  They were more interested in sound proofing and insulation top to bottom than side to side.  Nothing was required on the existing (brick) walls.  Presumably they were deemed adequate already and there is no reason to think that two flats will make more noise than one dwelling.

To be fair many victorians out-perform new-builds in practice anyway despite supposedly better “controls”.

MultiFuelBurner

I would suggest doubling up on appliances such as washing machines when a single house is split into two may be the biggest cause of noise.

Also young families with young children so again more noise than being a seperate house.

By commenting about noise you could suggest you would like wall noise deadening panels installed should the planning application be successful.

As has been mentioned is their sufficient off road parking or will this add strain to a street where parking is already poor?

Ksw3

When we lived in a converted victorian house they renovated the top flat with additional sound proofing, he really should have got his money back as it did very little. We could tell what time they got up as we could hear them empty the coffee filter into their bin!

However, we didn't really hear the neighbours next door to us so perhaps noise laterally isn't so much of a concern. I guess it depends if you are stair case adjoining and whether they would remain that way. 

user1977

I would expect the building regs requirements to be mainly about insulating the new flats from each other, not about improving sound insulation in the party walls.

dell12

anselld said:

Presumably they were deemed adequate already and there is no reason to think that two flats will make more noise than one dwelling.

I'm not sure I agree. 

Presumably there'll be a kitchen/living room in the flat upstairs which will sit directly next to a bedroom which is always going to be noisier. Previously it would probably have been a bedroom next to another bedroom.

lincroft1710

firsttimebuyer15 said:

I live in a victorian terrace and have had planning notice the the neighbour wants to convert their house into two self contained flats. I'm not keen about this for a few reasons such as what the area is lacking is starter homes for families (there are loads of purpose built flats around) but the main concern is noise. There are other terrace houses that been converted in the area so I think the council will approve this.

Even if your opinion is that the area is lacking in starter homes for families, it is not a valid reason to object to a conversion of an existing building into smaller units.