Buying loft space from Lambeth council

[amyxo]

Has anyone purchased redundant space from Lambeth council? We have an attic space that is only accessible from our flat and want to buy it. Did they make you a reasonable offer for the valuation? Thanks

[MrsPicklesonSmythe]

What type of property are you in?

[amyxo]

a 3 story block of flats, we are one of two flats on the top floor (8 flats all up)

[MrsPicklesonSmythe]

Ok, I have recently bought a local authority flat from a different London borough and in our lease it says that we are welcome to use the space for storage but they won't sell it to us with the property and it cannot be converted in any way. Not sure if that's any help. You should t need to buy it to use it.

[Spickle]

MrsPickleson is correct. Most top floor flat owners can utilise the loft space for storage, but the roof comes under the building itself so cannot be "sold" to you as this is the freeholders ownership as part of the roof structure and is insured within the block insurance.

[amyxo]

Thanks for your replies, its being used for storage at the moment we want to convert it. The council is the owner and we've confirmed that we can buy it under this if we accept their valuation offer:
housingmanagement.lambeth.gov.uk/site-search/text-content/sale-of-redundant-space-1965

[MrsPicklesonSmythe]

You may be able to purchase it but it's unlikely you'd be able to convert the space. Be very careful before you commit to anything.

[Spickle]

That looks promising amyxo!

[amyxo]

The planning permission for the conversion has been approved thankfully. Just hoping they won't hit us with a 100k valuation.

[Toni145]

Hi amyx,

How long it took you to get an answer back from Lambeth. I still for a response I am in same situation any advice ?

[Roxanne1987]

Hi Amyxo I'm also intrigued to know the outcome. I'm in Lambeth and just started maternity leave, I'm due to give birth any day now :) I would really like to do a loft extension in the next year to accommodate the baby as he gets bigger but my main query is how much Lambeth would sell the space for. I asked for an indication but they refused to say. Have you had a response from them yet?

[lalalonglegs]

amyxo - Lambeth has given you planning consent but the planning department is completely separate from the department that deals with its properties. Have you had consent from the freeholder (ie whichever branch of Lambeth deals with this) to convert the loft space? If not, I would urge you to investigate to make sure that the conversion will be permitted.

[Isabelle415]

We went through this process unsuccessfully with Lambeth. First, let me just say that the utter incompetence of Lambeth was on show 24/7 throughout. The entire process took nearly 2.5 years with mistake after mistake made by Lambeth. It was a very long, drawn out frustrating process, complicated by the utter lack of professionalism demonstrated at every step by the Council.

Long story short, they made an offe on our loft, rescinded it, reoffend and doubled the asking price from £40K to £75K. We live in the top floor of a converted Victorian and the purchase price plus the cost of conversion would had netted out in a net gain of zero for us in terms of value adds to the flat. Although I understand why Lambeth were being greedy, the space remains empty, Lambeth have lost out on £40K and we are left with no extra space. There were no winners in this situation.

[PersianCatLady]

£75,000 for some unused loft space - wow that is a lot of money.

Unless that includes definite PP then it is a big gamble

[Binkybix]

Not done this but have also generally found dealing with Lambeth frustrating on various counts! I’m intrigued where everyone lives :)