Conservation Order

Romepen

I am thinking of making an offer on a property but it has an conservation order and the Estate agent showing me round was very garrulous and quick witted but seems to actually know nothing about what it actually meant. All he seemed to be interested in was the price of the house and how I should be offering the asking amount. The house has been sale for nearly 12 months but it is perfect for me, I fell in love with it immediately but I didn't make that obvious. I can just about afford it after my divorce but where on earth should start with the conservation order? I would like to knock down internal walls and the property has garages on both sides ; I would want to turn 1 of them into a room. 

Any advice? 

user1977

What do you mean by "conservation order"? Do you mean it's a listed building? Or that it's within a conservation area? Or something else?

lincroft1710

The property is probably in a conservation area, and may have a preservation order on it or it may be a Listed Building. Your council's Listed Building's Officer will be able to advise

ProDave

Listing, conservation, preservation etc are likely to bother you if you want to extend, alter, upgrade the property in any way.  You will find any alterations are somewhere between a lot of extra cost and paperwork, to not allowed.

If it really is "perfect" and you just want to buy it and live in it, that may not bother you.

GDB2222

You can search for it on the list of at Historic England, here:

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/map-search

The search should bring up all the different restrictions that apply to individual buildings.

Conservation areas are harder to find, and you may need to check with your local council. As an example, my local council website lists over a dozen conservation areas within the borough:
https://www.barnet.gov.uk/planning-and-building-control/conservation-and-heritage/conservation-areas

As an example, I live in a conservation area, but my house is not listed. So, I cannot alter the external appearance, but I can do what I like inside the house.

Romepen

I don't think it is a listed building but it definitely has a conservation order on it; I know that means I can't change the appearance of it in anyway, although I would like have the loft converted into a study.  

FreeBear

GDB2222 said: Conservation areas are harder to find, and you may need to check with your local council. As an example, my local council website lists over a dozen conservation areas within the borough:

Also have a number of conservation areas around here. Including a 1930s council estate of all things. There are also a number of building that have what the council call "local listed building status". Not sure what that means in terms of internal alterations, or even what enforcement powers the council would have.

GDB2222

Romepen said:

I don't think it is a listed building but it definitely has a conservation order on it; I know that means I can't change the appearance of it in anyway, although I would like have the loft converted into a study.  

If it's a conservation area, there may be restrictions on what you can do, but it doesn't mean you can do nothing at all. Each conservation area will have different rules that apply. You may need to engage a local architect to go round the house with you and give you an idea of what can be done. An initial site visit may be free.

Round here, for example, you can turn a garage into a habitable room, but you need to keep the outside looking like a garage. It looks daft, because you end up with windows in a garage door, but there you are.  Loft extensions are allowed, but there are restrictions on the windows.

peterhjohnson

I used to live ina Conservation area and it made it more difficult to cut down trees, replace windows, etc. I sold without difficulty and the new owners have tarted it up and added an extension to the rear. It's not a deal breaker unless you are certain that what you want to do won't be possible.

sevenhills

Romepen said:

I don't think it is a listed building but it definitely has a conservation order on it; I know that means I can't change the appearance of it in anyway, although I would like have the loft converted into a study.  

There are 81 Conservation Areas in the Leeds district. Is that what you mean, it will be stated in the listing from the estate agent.

Cloth_of_Gold

I live adjacent to a conservation area and many of the houses have had very extensive changes made to their interiors. In quite a number of cases they have been completely gutted and the interiors rebuilt. The exteriors however have had to be left pretty much as they were (some have had extensions built at the side but they had to get permission and they had not to alter the character of the building). As others have said, you need to check with the local council what they will and will not allow.