Listed building

[Loobylouatkinson]

Hi can anyone help please. We have made an offer on a grade 2 listed house but it needs work doing on the bathroom which is awful - all the sanitary wear is squashed in one half of room with a hot water tank in the middle of one wall. Will I need to apply for listed building consent to rejig the layout? And if I want to put spotlights in the ceiling and change the boiler to a condenser will I need to apply for LBC for these? The solid floor in the sitting room is uneven too and I would probably want to level it - would concsent be required for this? I always thought grade two was external only but having read some things on the internet it appears it may be for internal too. Thank you

You cannot do anything to a listed building without consent

You will need to see the actual detail of the listing and ask the local conservation officer for advice. Somethings they will be very strict about, other things more relaxed.
Whatever you do don't do work without talking to them first. The building will be listed for specific reasons and anything that has an effect on that will need special consideration and probably permission. However this does not mean everything requires permission but you would be best advised to check so that you do not fall foul of the legislation as the penalties can be harsh. I have always found conservation officers quite helpful and keen to help if you are doing sympathetic work.

Listed building equals bloody money pit. You’ll need to check what is listed and work with the conversation officer. My previous house (grade two listed) included mention of the exterior, some windows, and the floor in some rooms. As soon as you mention listed building tradesmen would give a sharp intake of breath. Good luck with the purchase.

You can do lots of things on a listed building without consent.

However you have fundamentally misunderstood what Listing means. The entire building is listed, inside and out.

Good luck trying to speak to the conservation officer - in the good old days we could do this. Now with council cuts we can't. They will only speak to if have already put an application in, meaning you have to have a huge amount of knowledge already.

You can do generally upkeep and repair - ensuring that you use appropriate materials of course. You can't replaster a lime plaster wall with cement plaster.

However you could replace the boiler assuming you aren't going to go round making holes in the walls. Same with rejigging your bathroom layout.

Spotlights in the ceiling - not if the ceiling is a historic ceiling. Similarly levelling the floor - this would prob be seen as part of the character of the building. And what is your solid floor made of? If you wanted to level it you would need to use appropriate materials.

I've owned my Grade 2 building for 10 years and so far needed Listed Building Consent once and Conservation Area consent once (yes, I have the double whammy) but still done a lot of work. But owning the building is a labour of love, everything takes time and research, finding contractors who are listed building experienced but not extortionate is important. It will cost you more than buying a non-listed property.

I still love my house though.

Thanks everyone for your quick an helpful replies. I’m beginning to think that we’re maybe not ready to own a listed building! Much as I love the property and it’s in a beautiful location it’s best that we know now what the potential issues are. I feel crap about withdrawing the offer but we made it less than a week ago so best we withdraw now I suppose. Thank you x

PS I think it’s in a conservation area too (National Park) which would be a double whammy especially if we wanted to develop the outbuildings

We will be replacing the bathroom in our grade 2 listed house this year.

We won't be asking permission from anyone because we aren't going to be fundamentally changing the fabric of the building or any historic features, just replacing a 25 year old bathroom and tiles with new ones.

Similarly it wouldn't even cross my mind that we would need permission to upgrade the boiler.

We obviously wouldn't mess with any of the features mentioned in the listing but other than that we would renew/replace/redecorate as we wished.

The new boiler would require a new flue so a hole in the wall which I’m guessing would require LBC

We have a listed house, we've done plenty to it. Some stuff didn't require permission at all, some stuff just an email from conservation confirming that X isn't a historic feature and doesn't form part of the listing, and a couple of things that did require consent (free), which have been approved. I live in a street of listed buildings in a conservation area.

And the other thing to consider with listed buildings (I am in a Grade 2 one in a conservation area) is that by preserving many of the original features, you're probably in quite a draughty, old, cold building. That means we make use of our logburner, open fires, etc, BUT it's also costly in terms of energy efficiency if you like a warm house!

Yes, living in a listed building is costly in other ways - heating is definitely one of them! You may not be able to have double glazing, or only specialist double glazing, fixing all the drafts stops the building breathing, log burners are a no in a thatched cottage, and so on. We wear a lot of jumpers and drape ourselves in blankets.

I compromised on my boiler so I didn't need listed building permission when it packed up in the snow. I now have a lovely electric one - not the most efficient but the work for a new oil or gas one would have been £000s more plus waiting for permission while I froze my tits off, no thank-you!

That’s interesting I didn’t know you could get electric combi boilers - I thought they had to be gas or oil. Did it need a flue?

I’d urge you to look at the publication by SPAB (society for the protection of ancient buildings) about living in a listed building. The thing is, there is probably a reason that the bathroom fittings are all over on one side, for example.

How old is it? Have you looked up the actual listing text?

It's not combi. But no flue.

www.realhomes.com/advice/how-to-buy-an-old-house?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=24990&utm_term=11278135&utm_content=419736

It does worry me that the bathroom fittings are all squashed to one side for a reason. I’ve checked the register of listed buildings and can’t easily find a reason for it but I can’t think why anyone would want to do that willingly! It’s possibly the hot water tank which is sited in the bathroom and is in the middle of one of the walls and whoever put the bathroom in didn’t have any imagination!

Thank you again everyone for your help and advice

The hot water tank is a v likely reason.

I have found a lot can be done with a good workman and imagination - but a lot just turn tails on sight of the building.

I've had the same guy doing general stuff for me for years now and he's a godsend - but I am clear that anything involving specialist materials he can't do.

You can move a boiler as it isn't an ancient and special thing (it won't be from the 1700s for eg) but if you need to change layouts you will need permission, likewise levelling a floor. And with old ceilings sometimes you can't put spotlights in them as they're lath and plaster and will potentially fall down! We have all wall lights in our house for this reason and it's fine though.

We have recently bought grade 2 and am not an expert yet but we have been told like for like internal if modernized already doesn't require permission but anything else check with conservation officer - this included changing cooker to a larger one needs to be checked. It's safest though to run all changes through conservation officer, we haven't tried yet.

We bought our G2 listed property in January. I'd recommend the Listed Buidings Owners Club LPOC as a good resource for advice for novice owners.