Granny Annexe in garden - things to consider?

[stormsurfer]

Looking for advice please about the things I need to consider when putting a granny annexe into my garden for my parents to live in. I’m concerned I may miss some essentials in the building, the services to it and also in establishing boundaries between us.

Has anyone got any tips or suggestions? Any problems that you encountered that I should avoid?

If your parents are paying for the annex there may be an issue if the last surviving one needs to go into a care home. Take legal.advice on that.

I have a friend who did this for her Mother it was a great success.
She did build with a spare bedroom so she could have a live in carer if necessary, it sadly became a necessity.
They built it with using it as an Air b&b in mind in the future.

The annexe would be built where there already is a large outbuilding. Because there is already a building it is just replacing and therefore I don’t think I need planning permission

Gosh op, it's really not that straightforward. You definitely can't do it without planning permission. And if it has it's own bathroom/kitchen you'll need to pay separate council tax for it and all sorts.

He should have given some of his share to them if they took care of his parents for a long time. I’m not surprised she’s bitter. It’s funny what money can do to people, morally if you can see someone else has shouldered a physical, mental and financial burden that you didn’t want to and that meant you didn’t have to (maybe even ensuring you have a longer life than them as stress is a killer) then you should be fair and compensate them in some way. Shame on them for not updating their will to reflect their efforts and stress.

Ok thank you for pointing that out. I will look into the regulations. That is why I asked the questions!

Yes you will need planning permission as it is change of use of an existing building.

My mum lives in an annexe in our garden, purpose built 2 bedroom, the annexe company dealt with planning permission (which I agree you’ll likely need due to change of use) and the whole thing was pretty straightforward.

So far it has been a success, mum has a secure home for life and when/if she does need care we can buy it in and supervise it.

My only worry at the moment is what happens if we want to move while mum is still with us. DH and I both accept that, if that was to happen (and it won’t be for 10 years at least, which makes it less likely due to her age), we have a duty to house mum as she used her money to build the annexe. That might mean her coming with us, or buying/renting her somewhere else to live.

It helps that we have a slightly odd relationship, there’s no way she would come over unannounced and I wouldn’t want her to, we live almost the same way as when she was in a different part of town, just bump into each other more often!

I'm an only child. We had one child when my parents first raised the idea of us moving in to live with them - they would take the bottom floor of the house - one bedroom and a living room and create a kitchen in the utility room.

As time went on we had more children and my parents moved to a mobile home in the garden - all agreed with the Council etc.

Things were ok for a few years then my dad died. In the meantime mum had begun to struggle with her mobility due to osteoarthritis so I picked up the caring where dad had left off - cooking, cleaning, helping her dress - I became her full time carer.

As the years went on her health deteriorated and her needs became greater. We had carers through social services who started just a week or so before the first lockdown. At this time life was really easy. I had two daughters living at home so lots of support during the day when DM needed company but one daughter got married as soon as lockdown lifted and the other went to university in the September.

So when life returned to normal for a while I found I was unable to leave the house because she needed me all day.

By the beginning of 2021 It was clear to everyone but me that cognitive capabilities were failing. She was hallucinating, calling me in the middle of the night because she thought it was the afternoon, crying with loneliness even though I was with her most of the day, eating all my meals with her and never leaving the house without someone to keep her company, take her to the toilet, help her with the telephone and sort out the tv when she tried to use the remote to ring someone.

The crisis came when she had horrendous diarrhoea and slipped and fell in her bathroom. She ended up going into hospital with a suspected stroke and they made it clear to me that she had dementia and needed 24 hour care which I could not provide.

The day after she went into hospital I had a breakdown and had amnesia. After I phoned my DH with the same message the 4th time he came home from work and took me to hospital!

Unless you are prepared to put your life on hold and be a full time carer don't do it. Caring creeps up on you and what starts as doing the washing and taking to the GP can easily become so much more. And if you love the person you're caring for like I loved my mum it just makes it harder to say no.

School friend of mine, his grandmothers both lived in flat-lets on the ground floor of a big house (separate flats), they both contributed towards the house being bought but lived separate lives from the family. It worked well but parents couldn’t sell the house whilst they were both still alive. Luckily they both didn’t need care homes.

Another one saying don’t do it

They should buy a house of their own, near you could be handy but definitely not in your garden.

what if your life changes and you want to move? Or you die and your dc are landed with this? Too many variables

I don’t think I’d do it actually, much as I love my mum and stepdad! Thank god my garden isn’t big enough.

Changing an outbuilding to a dwelling definitely needs permission.

How will ownership be spilt? What if you die before them? What if you need to move? How will their assets be calculated if one or both of them need care - will the money given to you count as deprivation of assests? What if they divorce or want to move out? What if one does and the other remarrries? You need to work through every possible combination and order of events.

What's the tax and legal position of them living there? Will they be your co-owners, guests or tenants? The answer to this affects many of the answers to the previous questions. And may determine whether you need to pay extra tax, get landlord certification of utilities etc. How will the money they give you towards the building works affect inheritance tax - are they buying a share of a property, giving a gift, giving a gift with reservation of benefits? Will their share of the property fall under the primary dwelling exemption for a spouse inheriting or not?

@ProfessorBinturong
Thank you, that’s a lot of the type of things I was asking about. Do you know who it is I ask these question to?

Planning permission isn’t just for the erection of the outbuilding OP it’s about its change of use as living accommodation. You also may be liable for council tax which is fine if your parents are paying but once they stop living there you may find yourself in a position where planning have conditioned the building to be used in connection with the main dwelling (your property) so you can’t air b&b or privately rent the space but your also liable for council tax on it as it’s treated as a separate dwelling. It can be very difficult to get the planning conditions removed but equally council tax can charge you a fortune as it’s classed as an empty property and attracts and increases fee. Do your research before you proceed.

@OhBettyCalmDown
Thank you! I will check what the council tax rules are too.

So my parents and me built a bungalow in our garden (2 bed, 2 bath) it’s about 10m from our home and shared facilities.
my grandparents had moved into our home with us; so it was lovely to get them into their own space!!
I sold their house, and that funded the build.
by the time they moved in, we already had carers coming in because it was too much for us to look after them 24/7 so getting up and going to bed was the carers duty. We did everything else.
as their house had been sold, and technically we own the land etc; the council funded care as they had no assets (we paid privately beforehand).
it can work, and did. It was better than the 4 hour drives to see them and make sure they were safe, no it wasn’t easy, but a better life in a “home” than a care home.

also underfloor heating so they can’t grab onto hot radiators!!

Our family dynamics have been irreversibly affected by the care of my dad. Nobody would have guessed that of all his friends - he was the fittest and healthiest in all respects - he would be the first one to succumb when Parkinson's jumped out and grabbed his life away, along with dementia then cancer. 7 years of our lives were taken over by it - all of us not minding one bit, but finally ending in me not being able to stand one member of the family and/or tolerating another. It was relentless and the mental load is cruel. Also, we weren't living together....

If they sold their house and gave you the money at a point when they not only anticipated the need for futire care but were already requiring it, you were extremely lucky it wasn't counted as deprivation of assets. Normally under those circumstances they'd get no funding.

Make sure you get legal advice and specifically check whether any annex or build will trigger a charge under the Community Infrastructure Levy. The horror stories of those caught out are dreadful.

Yep, I'd agree with this.

My Fil is utterly devoted to Mil but even he couldn't cope with her collapsing in her own mess, whilst she had no regard for his health or well-being.

Hi OP, also check capital gains/stamp duty ramifications for when you sell the property.

I think if the annexe has cooking facilities you pay capital gains tax when you sell the property, and if it doesn’t you pay stamp duty when you buy the property. I have an annexe without cooking facilities (holiday accommodation) and was badgered to death when I bought by solicitors saying “we can get the stamp duty back for you if you paid it in error” and when I investigated, this was the reason. This was 10 years ago so may have changed but do check it ouy because whether or not it has kitchen facilities may have this large financial ramification.

They paid for the bungalow to be built with the house sale - I was the facilitator not the beneficiary!

Please be aware that if at any point dementia rears its dreaded head, the person will not remember that they’re supposed to stay in their own accommodation for much of the time, plus will lose all sense of time anyway, and will be banging on your door at 3 am.

Plus, if parents have used their own money to pay for the annexe, and a care home is later needed, then if there are not still sufficient funds for the fees, this will very likely be seen as deprivation of assets - councils are very hot on this - their funds have in effect been used to enhance the value of your home.

I can't comment on the granny annex aspect of this question, but my recently widowed Mum moved in with me and dh when she retired. It was a mutually beneficial financial decision for all of us, as she had a bit of capital but not enough to buy anywhere and we were at the start of our careers with no savings. So she paid the deposit and we paid the mortgage. The house was always in mine and DH's name - something we discussed and agreed with my siblings at the time (this is VITAL).

It was great at first, when Mum was in her active retirement phase. We all got on and had childcare on tap. But by the time she got to her mid seventies, it was definitely getting crowded. Our boys were growing, she was slowing down and we all agreed the arrangement had run its course. Fortunately by then we were in a position to buy somewhere for Mum literally round the corner from us. She has been there ever since and is now very old, frail and forgetful.

She is only able to live in her own home now because we are close by and able to do daily visits, run errands, take her to appointments etc. But I have to say this phase would be awful if we were all still living together - awful for us and probably awful for Mum, who enjoys quietly pottering about her own home in peace, sleeping when she likes, watching telly at 2am - whatever.

From what you have said I think your plan could work well for you and your parents, but it depends on how good your relationship with them is to start with. You have to have a really honest conversation about expectations and boundaries, even about the trivial stuff like popping in to the main house when they've run out of teabags. You also need to think objectively about the different scenarios that might play out as time goes on and age inevitably catches up with them.

Lots of negativity here towards the idea, but I can see huge benefits.

I lost my father at the beginning of this year. He had suffered from increasingly bad dementia for 10 years. My mom was his primary carer but I was heavily involved too. In the last few months I more or less moved into their him in order to help (was happy to do so).

It would have been SO much easier if they had been that much closer.

I have asked my mom if she would consider us getting a property together if her needs significantly increase, as it would make it much easier for me to provide the care I will actively choose to provide. She is reluctant currently (but still quite well, able to drive etc).

I can't help you with the practicalities of the building or legalities, but I can definitely reassure you that for some family situations it is sensible and a good option.

Everyone's relationship with their mom and dad is different. For those of us happy to provide a substantial amount of care and support, having them close at hand makes perfect sense!