Buying house, conveyancing history on confusing listed building issue!

[adamski606]

Hi all,

Posting this in hope more than expectation - Google suggests this is a weird / specialist situation and one where expensive experts are paid for advice!

We are buying a house in a rural setting. The house is detached and next door to a listed house. Legal enquiries suggest the house is in the 'curtilage' of the listed building next door. This would mean it is subject to many of the same restrictions. I did not know what curtilage meant, but this can include the area around a building, even if not on the same plot of land as the listed building.

We contact the Conservation Department at the council. They don't know if the house is definitely in the curtilage of the one next door. Our options are to pay an expert to investigate, or to ask the vendors to do this. If the building is deemed as curtilage listed, potentially two major extensions to the property over 30 years have been carried out with no consideration of the relevant requirements, and any future work would be subject to restrictions. If not, it's all fine!

I am minded to push this on the vendors. They should really have known this and if not, they should pay to find out. It's fundamental to the value and use of the property.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? :D

Yes the sellers either do it or you walk away. If those extensions weren't done properly you might have to pull them down.

I lived in a beautiful listed cottage and my god the hoops and the expense the housing association went through just to replace windows and doors!

You’ve already searched the listed building database and seen the original listing, drawings, date of listing?

if not do this.

my house is listed and the curtilage is on the listing database.

you’ve also searched the local planning portal for anything related to ‘your house’ and the listed house?

both free.

You could also ask the owners of the listed house

Thanks for helpful responses!

Agreed, I think we are going to push this to the sellers. It is their property and they need to know this.

Unfortunately the materials on the list entry do not provide clarity on the area and we've not been able to find much out from the planning documents.

Will post the outcome here!