Turning Two Flats back into One - anyone done this?

[TwoFlatsasOne2019]

We live in the top two floors of a Victorian terrace and have just bought the downstairs ground floor flat - we want to turn the two flats into one.

Has anyone else done this and would they mind talking me through any pitfalls please?
I\m particularly concerned about what to do with the utilities and council tax, etc.

I'm only here because I thought this thread was going to be about flat packed furniture!

I think you would have to approach your local Council Planning Department first of all for advice. There may be restrictions on whether you can do this.

BadTigerKitty

Lightsabre We already have planning permission, have already put in plans to building control and now talking to builders.

We sort of did this but it was 2 semis into 1 detached. Council tax was a bit of a pain because we had to prove that we only had one kitchen, that was their only concern really. But they didn't want to visit, eventually accepted photos of the stripped kitchen and capped utility pipes. Of course they didn't accept our new band suggestion and went one higher. Our neighbours are both detached houses and are the lower band.

The street naming dept of the council had to change the property officially all to one address which was done ineptly but eventually after much chasing was done. You may discover the old address actually never dies, we still get people looking for it and regularly get post (the postman knows where it was!). It still appears on all data bases.

Utilities was just too difficult and we've stayed with 2 sets. But a lot of this was because of cost and disruption . You might have your systems already in much closer proximity than ours.

Good luck and get used to explaining it all again and again.

Trumponerous Thanks very much, I was wondering how the council tax would work.
Bit worried about the utilities - if you stayed with two sets, do you have to pay two sets of standing charges, even if you aren't using any gas/electric from the redundant set IYSWIM?

I believe you get a special rate of 5% VAT (rather than the usual 20%) on any building works if converting flats back into a house. Worth looking into!

Yes we did this. Our first stop was buying the freehold for the building, I don't know if that applies to you?

With regard to utilities and council tax, we still have two electricity supplies but one gas supply was cut off and meter removed. Same for water. We applied for a re-rating of the property for council tax and it was granted, all pretty straightforward, I think we sent the council copies of architect plans and copies of planning permission.

And yes the old address never seems to die but that actually works well enough most of the time for us as our living space is on the level of the 'old' address.!

I never heard about they VAT thing, I'm surprised, the general approach by the council is that they aren't keen on reducing the housing stock by doing this (impossible to get permission to turn more than 2 flats into one). I think that's in line with Government policy so to sounds counter to that? Maybe different in London (where I am)?

minipie Yes, we are doing the 5% VAT thing as it is considered a 'change of use'. Spent an hour with HMRC to confirm.

sleepwhenidie Do you still pay a standing charge for your second electricity supply? And was it easy to get gas supply cut off and removed?
We are in London too! In a victorian house that used to be one house - we are reuniting the two flats really, I suppose.

Yes, we do pay standing charge for both sets. You need to weigh that in when choosing suppliers, they vary a lot.

Trumponerous Thanks for your reply. And was it easy to take out the gas meter?

Also, anything else I might need to think about anyone?

Probably not very helpful but Sarah Beeney Renovate don’t relocate has just done this with a family with two flats in a Victorian building. Not sure what channel,

The gas meter remover was sleepwhenidie. I remember when we first looked into this a MNHQer had done it and had issues with gas (maybe electricity) and ended up sticking with 2.

This thread And it was electricity, my mistake. Maybe there's something useful there

Utilities are a nightmare. DP spent the equivalent of a week on the phone when we were converting 3 flats back to one house.
He even had the conversation "draw a rectangle and then draw 2 lines across so you have 3 flats. Now take out the two lines, what do you have? ".
Answer " one rectangle"
DP " exactly, so instead of having3 flats we now have one house so we only need one supply"
Utility company "so what has happened to flat one and 2 then."
DP "they are not there any more"
utility "but you have supply for 3 flats"
DP" yes but we don't have 3 flats anymore"
Utility "so why do you have 3 supplies"
DP " because there used to be 3 flats, and now there is one house"
Utility "so what happened to the flats then?"
DP " we only have one house"
Utility "but you have supply for 3 flats" ..............
Repeat for about 3 hours until DP needed to pee, sleep, eat etc...

We still have 3 supplies 🤔

Trumponerous Sorry for mistaking you for sleep And thanks for the link to that old thread. Really dreading my call to the gas and electricity company on Monday, but needs must

Bellie99 😲