Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Flip

Original poster

Just about to buy a grade 2 Listed thatched house and it has a log burner

13 replies

Swifey · 18/08/2018 12:14

Not sure if the vendor has permission for it, and not sure if we will get permission to raise the chimney to 6 feet. Does anyone have experience of this? Will we have to change it back to an open fire? Or is there a clever way of getting round it and making it safe?
Tia

OP posts:

CalonGlas · 18/08/2018 12:42

Has your solicitor raised the issue of building consent in the searches? It's absolutely vital to the sale - if the vendor has made changes to a listed building without proper planning consent, then you're liable for the fine and also for returning it to its previous state.

CalonGlas · 18/08/2018 12:43

(After you've bought it and become the legal owner, obvs. They can't pin it on you at this point...)

Original poster

Swifey · 18/08/2018 13:36

We are just waiting for the written report from our structural surveyor (he specialises in historic houses) so the solicitor will get a copy too then.

We would like to keep the log burner as its much warmer, but are not sure if building regs/listed building consent will let us?

OP posts:

sunshinesupermum · 18/08/2018 17:21

Swifey You need your solicitor to check that building regs have signed off on this nothwithstanding the fact it's Grade II listed with a thatched roof. Your structural surveyor will not know this.

Inch · 18/08/2018 18:14

Also check with your proposed insurance provider. It isn’t straightforward to get insurance on a thatched property ( Listed or otherwise ) and woodburners under thatch can increase insurance risk and cost, with some insurers declining to insure or increasing premiums and conditions.

AnnaMagnani · 18/08/2018 18:28

Are you getting insured with a specialist insurer for listed buildings? It's good your surveyor is a specialist - I still use my survey years down the line, it's like my house bible.

I decided thatched was a step too far for me but membership of the Listed Property Owners Club is v helpful. They have an advice line which will definitely know the answer to this question.

My house had/has loads of stuff that was against building regs, I suspect a lot of listed buildings do. This won't be a new scenario that upsets insurers - what will be a concern is how safe your log burner is. So is the chimney properly lined etc etc.

Building regs is not the issue. It's listed building permission that is the problem. You are v unlikely to get permission to make your chimneys higher if that is not the original/vernacular style of your buildings.

Inch · 18/08/2018 18:44

@Annamagnani
We live in a Listed, thatched house. My advice as above remains.

NeverTwerkNaked · 18/08/2018 18:47

I’d be making sure insurance is available and at a tolerable cost (with full disclosure of the set up)

AnnaMagnani · 18/08/2018 19:09

Thanks - this is part of why I decided thatch was not for me. My non-thatched listed place is bad enough. If you buy thatched you have my utmost respect.

Inch · 18/08/2018 19:16

@Annamagnani

We are in the throes of moving as it happens - and won’t be buying a thatched property again ( or listed unless totally refurbished ) - so I get where you are coming from !,😏

BubblesBuddy · 18/08/2018 23:12

The Daily Telegraph published a very worrying article about fires in thatched properties in 2017. Google it. The increase in use of wood burners is to blame for many. Home owners are urged not to have them. They burn at 4 times the heat of a conventional fire. These houses were not designed for wood burners. Since 2008 there have been 450 thatched building fires of a serious nature. You are simply mad if you don’t remove it!

Original poster

Swifey · 19/08/2018 08:00

I think we will remove it and put an open fire back in. What we are now concerned about is the building regs of doing that as probably the flue will need to be changed. I agree, it's too risky to have a log burner in that part of the house, I would not feel comfortable at all, especially with children in the house.

OP posts:

AnnaMagnani · 19/08/2018 08:20

I don't think I could sleep in a thatched cottage with a logburner in.

Taking it out will prob be easy - would not need applications for permissions etc, just (I don't say this lightly) a qualified person who knows what they are doing. You may or may not find the chimney properly lined from the existing woodburner, given it shouldn't have been fitted in the first place.

Useful sources of info are the LPOC info line, the LPOC magazine - has loads of advertisers in the back, neighbours with listed buildings in the area if they maintain their properties (lots of small specialist contractors don't advertise and just work on word of mouth), and of course google.

For removing a wood burner bigger chimney sweep companies will probably know in detail. However you may have issues if you need lime mortar not cement in which case you need a specialist for listed buildings work. There are fireplace specialists for listed buildings - you may need one of them.

It's never buildings regs that are the problem in my house, it's always the materials and skills.

Flip