Changing a Building from Commercial to Residential - anyone managed to do it?

[barking]

We have seen a barn we would love to buy, but it has B1 commercial planning consent with it.
We would want to work partly from home so we would be proposing residential/commercial from B1 to C3?
Just wondering if anyone has had any experience of this and how did you manage to do it?
thanks

bump

We changed our hotel from commercial to residential but It's different for each area so I would speak to the local planning dept and get some advice. Good luck!

thanks bubblerock - you have given me hope. i' ve been trying to get hold of the case officer all of last week and have had no reply. my dh doesn't want to go for it unless he is 100% certain about changing the use.
did you have to apply for change of use as you were buying it or after?
i have this very vague idea that all 5 of us can live in a caravan and renovate it and hold down 2 jobs
doing up houses is rather like childbirth - one forgets how bloomin painful it all is!

We were living in the hotel and it is notoriously difficult to change use here in Blackpool as they are worried about hotels being changed into HMO's.
We had to do drawings of the Hotel (I did them myself) and submit plans before and after. The planning officer rang to tell me that it would be declined unless I made a few more alterations to the plan (we had to have less bedrooms basically to make it look more like a huge family home) We did this and submitted the plans and it went through.

I would guess that the factors for your barn and planning would be - what type of buildings surround it, has permission been denied before, environmental search (is it suitable for domestic use?) I would definately chat to the council and test the water.

Sounds like an exciting venture!!

Is it listed? Very hard if it's listed. If not, check the terms. It may be that it is only commercial because there is a caveat in the deeds that it may only be used X days a year or something weird.

We managed it in our residential recording studio by making part of the business accomodation, but we have a restriction which says people can only stay for a max of 28 days (although how the hell the council would know is beyond me!)

I would just make the point Barking that there may be a very good reason why it only has B1 consent at the moment, because presumably residential consent would be much more lucrative? Bear in mind also that they can't take into account your own circumstances in coming to a planning decision on this. So I definitely wouldn't risk buying it before applying for change of use. (I'm not a planner btw - don't want to mislead you - but I do work closely with planners in my line of work). Do keep trying to speak to your LPA.

If you can't get hold of the case officer, you could put in a formal pre-planning enquiry, which is free. They'd then have to deal with it and would probably invite you to a meeting.

barking, not an expert by any means but I did try and do this once and it fell through for a totally different reason in the end.

It usually depends on the council's policies for that particular area - for example, if the area was classified as an employment area, then they wouldn't want to change it to residential if it would result in loss of employment. If you are planning to work there, then you could argue that employment will continue there and not be lost.

Another condition they apply sometimes is that it has to be advertised as available (ie. for sale or to let) as commercial for a minimum period (sometimes 2 years) first and then if it has been proved that it is not in demand as a commercial property, then they will allow change of use.

You can usually get hold of a copy of your council's planning policy online - if you haven't done so already, study it in detail (usually very heavy going!) and see what policies apply. Ours has a map with each building/street coloured according to the polices that apply to that area.

Hope that makes some sense and good luck!

thanks bubblerock - there is one house opposite which i think grows flowers for the local nursery. it is B1 which i think comes under business/light commercial industrial.
my dh teaches drawing at the uni and we both have an illustration company so we would be using part of the barn as a studio. we do have 3 boys and the present plans consist of 2 office spaces, kitchen, wc and upstairs as 2 mezzanine storage areas. i have managed to check with planning department about its planning history and no other applications have been submitted which surprises me as its in such a lovely area and its had 3 owners in the past 5 years. oh and it has no running water. oh what am i thinking of.....
whomovedmychocolate - on a positive note no, its not listed -do you mean you had to make it business accomodation for clients to stay or yourselves? i saw another barn recently that had a condition that is was for holdiday use only, but there was no clause about the amount of days you stayed there as long as it wasn't your main residence??? i despair all i want to do is live somewhere quiet and away from my mad neighbours.
my dh runs drawing classes in the holidays. you are making me think of possible ways around it. the accomodation is very small but there is a field so the children will be happy. i was thinking of those wooden cabins that can go up in a day - we could all live there and do the barn up over the next 5 years (until the planning runs out).
its really good to hear it can be done

Barking - you wouldn't have to do it up within 5 years (or 3 years now, I think). All you need to do is start to implement the permission within that time. eg if you're building a house you just need to dig a couple of foundation trenches.

i changed a house from a multiple occupancy drugs den to a house! it was hell!

i would just get someone from planning out to have a look round
we found planning and building regs men really helpful and free!