Architect or structural engineer?

[mixedupmartha]

We're selling our house and looking around for something to buy. Most of the houses we've seen (there's not much on the market here) are 1960's houses in varying states of repair.

Some of the houses require cosmetic/updating work to the front elevation (for example, one has wooden panels which we'd like to remove and replace with rendering).

All of the houses require extending and it's not always easy to see which house would be the more difficult (and therefore costly) to extend.

We have our eye on three houses in close proximity to each other. I would like to book viewings on each house and take a builder with me but I also want advice from either an architect or a structural engineer. Cruscially, they must understand the area reasonable well in order to know what the local council will/will not pass for planning.

Do you reckon I need an architect or SE??

ugh, typo - crucially!

A structural engineer won't be much help with planning and, tbh, an architect would only give you very vague outline of what you could and couldn't do on a look-see visit. I think it's really unlikely you could get one to say categorically: "yes, you could extend in such a way" because, if you bought the house and the plans were then rejected, you might have a basis for a claim against him or her. Unless you want to do something very unusual, couldn't you look on the council website or go to the planning dept and see what other people in the area have been given consent for?

(Also, don't get rid of the weatherboarding - it's a feature of 1960s houses and a shame to pull it away completely. If it's rotten, you could put new boards instead, perhaps in a different type of wood.)