Should I buy house with a garage under a coach house?

1865TP

I’m a first time buyer and have found a detached home that would be ideal for what I need.

The house has a garage, however it is detached from the house and has a coach house above it.

I’ve been warned by family members that I should steer clear as I likely wouldn’t own the garage (it’d be leased from the coach house) and this could potentially cause problems down the line. Things like:

1) The coach house owner could limit what I do with the garage (my plan was to use it as an office)

2) The coach house situation may make the property harder to sell when I come to doing so in a few years time


I’m just wondering if anyone has experience of a similar situation and if this may cause more problems than it’s worth! 

user1977

The freeholder can't impose more limitations than are already in the lease. And the house will (almost certainly) have restrictions as well. You can see what those are before you get too far into the transaction. Putting the garage out of use as a garage may also have planning implications (as would any physical changes you might want to make).

eddddy

The garage will almost certainly be leasehold - it will either be leased from the coach house owner, or from the freeholder of the whole development.

The lease will tell you what you can and can't use the garage for - but it's very likely to be only for parking a car.

Often, the garage won't have electricity - and no scope to install a charge point for an electric car.

Do you mean you want to convert the garage to an office? You'd need to get the freeholder's consent for that.

1865TP

Thanks both. 

The garage does already have electricity running to it, which was installed by the previous owner. 

It’s being promoted by the estate agent that it’s a space that could be used for an office, which I was thinking was a good idea as I work from home a lot. 

Section62

1865TP said:

1) The coach house owner could limit what I do with the garage (my plan was to use it as an office)

The complexities of building and selling properties with the garage/coach house combination means developers generally only do it where the planners require a minimum number of parking spaces per dwelling and that providing parking in this form is economically advantageous in terms of density of development (i.e. squeezing in a few extra properties that generate more profit than the garage/coach house hassle will cost).

If the planners do want a minimum number of parking spaces the planning consent will usually be conditioned to require them to be maintained as parking spaces and not converted for other uses.

So although (as user1977 says) the coach house owner wouldn't be able to impose new limitations on what you can do, what you can do is quite likely to be limited by the planning consent - particularly in terms of converting the space to make it into a usable office.

So check the planning consent as well as the lease to find out what you can and cannot do.  And also note eddddy's point about electricity.

propertyrental

1) check if the garage is leasehold

2) check who the freeholder is.

3) if you would also be buying the freehold, check the lease for the coach house

4) if the garage is leasehold, read the lease!

all the above can be done easily before you go too far (indeed, before you even make an offer) and cheaply.

https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

edit: is the electricity supplied from the house you are buying? From the coach house? Independantly?

ThisIsWeird

All the ones I have come across have had the following in common; the garages are owned by the property above - the Freeholder - and leased to each of the other homeowners. The FH's responsibility usually includes having to insure them all, and to ensure no breaches of the lease; it is not for them to decide which Lease restrictions can be flexed or modified, and there would likely be consequences if they did. Each LH usually contributes a small annual sum towards this insurance, and to any communal maintenance and electricity charges.

The Lease will likely be very restrictive. They often won't permit power other than for lighting, outlaw the storage of fuel, forbid carrying out car repairs, things like that. They very often don't allow the garage to be used for anything other than for garaging a vehicle - not even for storage of household items and furniture. Anything that breaches the terms of the Lease will also likely ditto the insurance policy, so expect conscientious/aware FHs to be pretty tight on this. (Other FH's might not appreciate the consequences, so might leave themselves at risk if they allow breaches of the lease for 'kind' reasons).

I suspect your EA has been playing fast with their description. But, ask your solicitor to read the Lease - or ideally just check it out yourself first if this will affect your decision to pursue the property. Typically a few pounds from the LR.

propertyrental

ThisIsWeird said:

...

I suspect your EA has been playing fast with their description. But, ask your solicitor to read the Lease.

or read the lease yourself to save wasting time and legal costs on a property you might decide not to buy!

ThisIsWeird

propertyrental said:

ThisIsWeird said:

...

I suspect your EA has been playing fast with their description. But, ask your solicitor to read the Lease.

or read the lease yourself to save wasting time and legal costs on a property you might decide not to buy!

Amended...

1865TP

Thanks for your help all.

An update to this - the current owner says that the garage belongs to the property and isn't leased.

He says that the owner prior to him also owned the coach house above the garage (which has since been sold), so installed electricity to the garage as it was all his anyway.

Is there any way I can verify what he's telling me?

As a first time buyer, this all seems quite messy and complicated!

eddddy

1865TP said:

An update to this - the current owner says that the garage belongs to the property and isn't leased.

That sounds like a misunderstanding by somebody.

Maybe it's better to ask the question like this: "Is the garage leasehold?". (And it's 99.9% certain that it will be leasehold - unless it's some kind of dodgy botch.)

(Also, is the house you're looking at Leasehold or Freehold?)

1865TP said:

He says that the owner prior to him also owned the coach house above the garage (which has since been sold), so installed electricity to the garage as it was all his anyway.

I guess that's possible (but it has a slight flavour of somebody saying the first thing that they could think of).

And if it's true, does that mean the garage electrics are coming from the coach house? So the coach house owner has to pay for any electricity you use in the garage?



It might help to have more info. Is this a newish development, built by a 'proper' developer?

Or is it some kind of semi-amateur conversion of something like farm buildings, or workshops, or something similar?

Or something else?