Neighbours bathroom juts into the house we want to buy

joannestar12

Id really appreciate some advice please 🥺

We have sold our house and saw a semi detached that we liked in our village. Looking at the floorplan however there was a blacked off section downstairs adjoining the shared wall under the stairs that I couldn't fathom out. During the viewing (done by owner) she told me it was next doors property.

Went home and found a previous advert of next door when it was last on the market. Next door is a tiny house and it looks like downstairs had an extension of the bathroom at some point and it's the bath/shower that abuts in our house.

Would you buy this? Is this weird? From the room it was in it just looked like an alcove and we liked the rest of the house 😞

Also how do I find out whether this extension was done correctly? 

Having never had a semi detached before, what if there was a leak in their bathroom? 

Flugelhorn

how old is the house? sometimes there are some strange wall lines like that - though this sounds as though it was done more recently 

Grumpy_chap

joannestar12 said:

Id really appreciate some advice please 🥺

We have sold our house and saw a semi detached that we liked in our village. Looking at the floorplan however there was a blacked off section downstairs adjoining the shared wall under the stairs that I couldn't fathom out. During the viewing (done by owner) she told me it was next doors property.

Went home and found a previous advert of next door when it was last on the market. Next door is a tiny house and it looks like downstairs had an extension of the bathroom at some point and it's the bath/shower that abuts in our house.

Would you buy this? Is this weird? From the room it was in it just looked like an alcove and we liked the rest of the house 😞

Also how do I find out whether this extension was done correctly? 

Having never had a semi detached before, what if there was a leak in their bathroom? 

It is a little difficult to understand from the text description.  Is it possible to share the floor plan?  Or both floor plans?

Was the house built like that originally, or is it a later change?
Are the other houses in the street the same?

What has been described does not sound common. 
Equally, not all houses have straight and vertical dividing walls between neighbours.  Our house has a different footprint upstairs to downstairs.  Downstairs the dividing wall is a simple straight line.  Upstairs there is a dog-leg in the dividing line.  Essentially, imagine that as a strip of upstairs from front to back.  The front half is split to provide a bathroom for each house.  The rear half is not split and provides an additional bedroom for next door.

Alfrescodave

You say that this room is downstairs, could it be just a wc and not a full bathroom?  Interested to see both floorplans. 

elsien

joannestar12 said:

Id really appreciate some advice please 🥺

We have sold our house and saw a semi detached that we liked in our village. Looking at the floorplan however there was a blacked off section downstairs adjoining the shared wall under the stairs that I couldn't fathom out. During the viewing (done by owner) she told me it was next doors property.

Went home and found a previous advert of next door when it was last on the market. Next door is a tiny house and it looks like downstairs had an extension of the bathroom at some point and it's the bath/shower that abuts in our house.

Would you buy this? Is this weird? From the room it was in it just looked like an alcove and we liked the rest of the house 😞

Also how do I find out whether this extension was done correctly? 

Having never had a semi detached before, what if there was a leak in their bathroom? 

 That can happen anyway. I live in a terrace and next door’s leaking shower fetched all the plaster off the adjoining wall on my side. 

It would be important to check that it’s been done correctly, with both sets of deeds clearly evidencing what is going on.
A neighbour had a bathroom  that went into the house next door’s  floor space because I think originally it was an arrangement that had been informally split when the original owner owned both sides.  When the other house was sold, the new owner took the opportunity of annexing the floor space back again, and it got very costly and messy. 

sammyjammy

I don't think you should be concerned about the fact its a bathroom/cloakroom, because its ground floor its no more impactful on you if there is a leak than any bathroom that is on the shared property line than any other.

ProDave

I have encountered this is old fishermans cottages up here, with exactly what you describe next doors downstairs bathroom taking a bite out of your floor area.  What was more concerning in the one I saw, was the walls between this intruding bathroom and your space were just 4" timber stud walls with plasterboard both sides.

I wonder how the deeds would deal with this as there has to be some sort of flying freehold situation.

MobileSaver

joannestar12 said:

Would you buy this? Is this weird? From the room it was in it just looked like an alcove and we liked the rest of the house

It is not unique but it is unusual and it is weird. 

I cannot think of any benefit to you if you owned this property but can think of several downsides to having part of next door inside your property. 

I wouldn't buy it and I suspect many future buyers would be put off too so bear that in mind regarding the price...

YoungBlueEyes

Can I just clarify - are you saying that it's a flying freehold sort of thing, where the floor plans can be ...a bit wiggly...?  Or is it that next door decided a bigger bathroom would be nice so just came through the wall....? 

Edit - or did the current owner sell the understairs to next door for their extended bathroom, and it was all done properly i.e. solicitors and land reg and deeds and certificates etc?

user1977

Bit odd, but from what little you've told us I wouldn't have any fundamental concerns.

Assuming England or Wales, I presume there's a "flying freehold" involved, but if it's a trivial proportion of the size of the property then it shouldn't be an issue for mortgageability etc.

What do you mean by "done correctly"? Title-wise or otherwise? How old do the works appear to be? Didn't you ask the owner about the background?

EssexHebridean

There isn’t by any chance a corresponding “bite” into next door from the property you are looking at is there? I’ve seen that on a few occasions - where the apparent loss of floor area is in fact reciprocal.