How straightforward is it to buy the house next door and knock through?

[NeopreneMermaid]

We live in a semi and have been considering extending (awkward) or moving (too sentimental - DS born here) and the house next door has come up for sale.

We could afford it at a stretch (probably) but has anyone any experience of converting two semis into a single detached? What's planning permission like?

I don't doubt conversion will be a pita but is it worth it?

You contact the local council and explain that you're making two dwellings into one.

They get confused and excited, but ultimately they come round and revalue the single dwelling for council tax.

When we were told that we had to pay for 2 properties I said that one was not occupied then. They changed their minds.

It may depend on where you live.

That's what I'm hoping VBisme but wondering why Olivia said they don't reevaluate. But it also sounds like some councils can block the unification entirely.

@VBisme

You contact the local council and explain that you're making two dwellings into one.

They get confused and excited, but ultimately they come round and revalue the single dwelling for council tax.

When we were told that we had to pay for 2 properties I said that one was not occupied then. They changed their minds.

It may depend on where you live.

Yes that's what I meant - had to prove it wasn't 2 properties so we weren't charged for the new property
But although we have made the other property bigger they can't put the charge up I don't think until the house changes ownership

@nemno

And when you stop using gas and water on one side you can stop paying the standing charges too.

And yes to that too.

@OliviaYouCannotBSeriousMumsnet

Yes that's what I meant - had to prove it wasn't 2 properties so we weren't charged for the new property
But although we have made the other property bigger they can't put the charge up I don't think until the house changes ownership

AFAIK this is the same if you add e.g. a duplex extension to your house too.

worries now that she has her facts wrong

If you've knocked two houses into one and are only paying your original council tax then I think you should double check with your local council.

We asked for the two properties to be reassessed as one, but obviously that would be more expensive than the first house alone.

Thank you for this useful info.

Good luck NeopreneMermaid

can you watch this?

not sure if that will work, but if you can watch that on the rte player from the UK it might give you ideas. I seem to remember thinking that what they did really worked (watched this about a year ago, LOVE this programme) and I was sceptical.

Here' the gallery of before and after photos here but it doesn't really give you the idea of the layout so if you can watch the show itself do because that gives you the idea of how well it worked

You would definitely need to contact your planning officer - it may contravene your local area plan, particularly if you're in an area where there is a perceived need for three -bed family houses, as you'd be taking one away from the area.

Raising thanks for the links and PMs; will have to try the links when I'm not on my phone as they're not working for me now.

Results of this morning's investigations/call-rounds of various council departments and mortgage provider:

• I don't need planning permission (unless I want to put a shed up presumably ).

-I would of course need to do a building regs application.

• Utilities, etc: I'd need to contact individual suppliers for advice.
• Council tax: got an estimate that the 2 band-D properties would combine to be band f-g.
• Mortgage: current lender can't give us enough. However, huge kudos to the guy for calling me back to say that I could just get a mortgage for the 2nd house with another provider and then remortgage when we have the single house.

Next:
-Contact local surveyor to scope potential new floor plan. Building Regs chap at the council said many will do this initial consultation free.

• Contact tame mortgage adviser to see if we could get a mortgage for the second property.
• Inform DH at some point.

VB, Olivia, Misfor and anyone else with experience of this, does this sound par for the course so far?

Joining thread slightly late.

We did this. The actual conversion was the most straightforward bit of it. The most complicated was the mortgaging.

Our original house was mortgaged. It was very difficult finding a lender who would let us get a mortgage for the second property. If I remember correctly, we had to get both mortgages from a single lender. Our original lender wouldn't go for it, and we needed the equity in our existing house to be able to afford the second house, so we needed both mortgages to be with the same lender, i.e. remortgage our first house and get a second mortgage for the second house, IYSWIM?

Part of the problem was that the converted single house would be worth less than the two houses separately. We had to buy the next door house on a buy-to-let mortgage, which had implications for council tax until we had the work done. Then we had to let the council know about the conversion work, as while there was building work ongoing we were eligibile for a reduction in council tax to the buy-to-let property. Then when it was finished we had to have a new mortgage for the whole converted property. We lost a lot of housing equity by doing this, but it was our choice to have the home we want - after all, equity's only useful if you are thinking of selling, right?

Then we had to get the new single house rebanded for Council Tax.

We also had to cut off the utilities on one side and connect everything to the other side. This went as far as having to have the gas pipe cut off under the ground outside the house, as they wouldn't let us leave it, and we had to pay something not too large for this work. The electricity meter is still there, even though disconnected, and to this day E-On still send us a bill for £0 every year for that side of the property!

Due to the remortgaging and losing equity we now have ages left on our mortgage term and very little equity so we can't move to a better mortgage deal which is a bit tough. But on the plus side, we made our dream home. We liked where we lived, we love our neighbours, we didn't want to move but our house was too small. Now it's bigger, and beautiful. It's a 5 bed house but if ever we were to sell we wouldn't get that big a price because it's an end of terrace, no drive way, garages in a separate block etc - things you would otherwise normally have in a 5-bed. It was a real headache but definitely worth it !

Oh yes and we had to have the title deeds changed on the Land Registry, which required solicitors etc (more money...)

what's the layout like inside? did you get rid of one of the staircases and get a bigger one?

Thanks Fluffy. How long ago did you do this?

I think the mortgage will be the biggest headache for us too. Childcare almost negates my salary and DH is now technically self-employed as he's just become director of a small business. It does have more than two years of accounts but he's drawing a smaller salary than before and then (if all goes to plan) getting dividends. The plot thickens.

Raising if you mean me, yes we got rid of one of the staircases. In our original house you came straight into the living room from the front door and the stairs were also in the living room against its back wall. These were the stairs we took out. In the next-door house, which was the end of terrace, the front door came into a little lobby and the stairs were just off this, so we kept those stairs.

Second house was two-up, two-down. We kept second house's living room - it is now our study. Second house's kitchen we split in two, knocking through to our kitchen to make a big kitchen-diner and dividing off part of second house's kitchen to make a utility room. We made no changes to the bedrooms, just had to knock through at the landings and join them. You wouldn't know it wasn't built like that now.

Mermaid it was in 2006-7 I think. The sale went through in the late autumn of 2006 and it was a while before we could get a builder, the work was done summer 2007, so just before the financial crisis began to bite and the property market went tits up! DC and I went to live with my mum while the work was going on and left DH and the cat there to live on a building site!

Something else - whilst most of the bills/utilities didn't double, the water bill was the one thing that did. I don't think we had to do anything to the physical water supply, but we did let the water company know it was a single property, and the change in bill was basically double what it was for the original house, because we are not on metres and it's a flat rate system where we are.

Verdict from mortgage advisor (paraphrased): "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Not quite game-over yet though; DH is due some dividends so if we can pull it off, I'll keep you updated.

Since there are two of you, can you not transfer your current mortgage to one name, and buy next door in the other name?

Then not even tell anyone when you create archways between the two houses cross other bridges when you come to them?

fluffyanimal, do you have before and after pictures?! or am I so interested it's a bit scary :-|

Flow nice idea but I work part time and my DH is technically newly self employed so I don't think either of us would be able to get the second mortgage independently.

DH ( who is now privy to all this ) reckons we could access more cash so we'll see what we can come up with.

Raising it's nice that you're interested. PM me an email address and I'll see what I can dig out for you if you really want photos!

Our local planning dept are very against this scenario as it taes away a home.

Can I please just lurk because this is fascinating?

Francis Crick (of the DNA) did this in Cambridge, two very narrow 4-storey+basement houses, but just put little doorways in it so it was full of small rooms on lots of floors. This was in the 60s I think