Renovating a Grade II listed property - advice

[HelloRose]

Hi

DH and I currently own a flat in London and looking to move to a larger house as we have outgrown flat since having dc etc

We viewed a property yesterday that ticks a lot of boxes in terms of space and character but it is Grade II listed and in need of some updating.

Firstly I was wondering if there are specific questions I should be asking the agent when viewing this type of property? Any red flags we should watch out for?

The property is in reasonable condition but needs cosmetic updates in every room. I understand repainting etc is OK and won't require consent. Is that right?

Every bathroom will need replacing eventually and in an ideal world, I'd love to knock through the kitchen into the dining room to make it one large space but I understand this will be the tricky part. Downstairs I'd like to take up the carpets and put new flooring. The kitchen is also very dated and will need replacing.

This house is top end of our budget and we won't be able to afford to do everything at once. I'm worried about it becoming a money pit but it has so much charm though!

If anyone has any advice or tips, I'd be grateful.
Thanks

Cosmetic stuff doesn't need permission, anything structural is likely too. Carpets etc all fine without permission unless you're ripping out old floorboards etc

I know several people who have had permission for knocking through to make bigger kitchen spaces in their listed properties.

Older houses can be expensive to run, particularly heating if ours is anything to go by, but also repairs also as you have to use the correct materials which are usually more expensive. Our windows are awful and we had to have each repaired by hand using exact replicas of the old pieces. Expensive and time consuming but lovely.

We've also found that things are more complex: we still don't understand our heating system fully, our electrics are a bit unusual, we have 3 boilers etc. Often tradespeople come, take one look, do the infamous intake of breath, and then say it's too complex for them.

Beautiful houses, incredibly charming and it's lovely to have a sense of being a custodian. But definitely not as simple as a new build.

Thank you so much. All really helpful and good to know.

I need to do some homework and more digging into the inner workings of this house.

We've got a grade II listed house, also in a conservation area - worth checking if its in one of those as well, that means we need permission for pruning of trees.

Ours just costs a normal amount to run but any work externally needs permission which if like-for-like is normally a month or two but chimney took 8 months as involved rebuilding. In our area its rare to get anything not like for like externally approved unless its repairing a previously bad repair like ours was. Internally ours are quite strict and here would be surprised if they'ld let you alter kitchen but our houses are from c1550 maybe in a more modern listed they would. I would only buy on basis can't change though as its not guaranteed. Painting internally as long as not over beams and changing carpet shouldn't require permission but any plumbing / wiring / layout changes for kitchen or bathroom will do AFAIK. At least its what our builder told us, he said he'ld had projects stopped that hadn't got permission.

Specialist materials can add to costs - bricks were double the price and we have thatch which was £30k for half the roof. But I love it and wouldn't change it. Other thing you need to be careful of is I believe you are liable for correcting any changes which didn't get permission before. It's also really hard to get hold of our listings officer at the council and you have to pay for advice.

My Grade ll was beautiful, but if I am honest a money pit.

It was as if workmen arrived to quote and simply doubled the price.

It was also a minefield of what I could and couldn’t do. The listing officer was happy with me removing carpets and laying wooden floors but got very precious over the replacement of ugly kitchen tiles (which definitely weren’t original to the house). She also refused a change of white gloss paint on the external windows to a matt F&B White Tie and made such a fuss about a Boiler Flu that I was 4 months one winter without heat or hot water until I was eventually allowed to fit a boiler with a protruding condensing flu (the only way I could replace the boiler in a like for like position).

However, that all paled into insignificance once the Bats got involved. I loved the Bats and was happy for them to scrabble above my head as they came home to roost at 4am on summer mornings. What I hadn’t realised was the cost of caring for them when my roof needed woodworm treatment. Similar issues arose in relation to plumbing repairs when the nursery roost was active. I also hadn’t considered that you can’t put down any kind of pest control in the roof if Bats are around.

Did I love that house, yes !! Was I proud of the work I did to it, including repairing many of the original windows, yes !!. Would I do it again no !! It is the only house I have ever lost money on and the stress just wasn’t worth it.

Check the actual listing. It’s my understanding that cosmetically you cannot alter anything in the listing so eg internally ours just includes our cornicing and our staircase, so we can redecorate, change bathrooms etc without any issues. Outside is more complicated. I found the local officer really helpful to talk to when we considered buying a listed 17th century farmhouse in need of complete renovation (didn’t buy it in the end, ended up with a listed Victorian vicarage instead).

We purchased a Grade II listed house last year and joined the Listed Property Owners Club. It provides a wealth of advice and we are able to get much cheaper buildings insurance via them:

www.lpoc.co.uk