Buying the house next door? (Semi)

[RoastedCauliflower]

We’ve lived in our 2 bed semi for nearly a decade, but with 3 kids we’re bursting at the seams.

We know we need to move, but kids are settled at school and we wouldn’t be able to afford the next step up whilst still staying near school.

We will need to move to a different city in 3/4 years for DH’s job, so don’t particularly want to disrupt everyone now as well by moving to different suburb/school.

The elderly man next door (adjoining wall) has sadly just gone into a nursing home. DH and I are discussing asking his daughters if they would consider selling us his house.

Our tentative plan would be to do minimal knock through upstairs and downstairs, which would give us 4 bedrooms and office space. And then when we move in 3/4 years, we can either sell it as one big house/project or potentially put walls back up and sell it as 2 houses. Or perhaps even sell one house, and rent out the other.

Is this a bonkers plan, or do you think there is some sense to it?

We have savings/inheritance which would mean we would be cash buyers (hopefully).

Are there many reasons why this is stupid?

Sorry , that is an essay!

Would you need to keep it as two addresses and pay two lots of council tax, second home stamp duty, etc?

Yes that would be my thought you may not be legally to have it as one house in terms of utilities and CT.

If affordable though I'd do it.

Why would you still need to move in 3-4 years if you had a massive house? I think if it meant you could stay put then go for it - but I wouldn’t bother with the hassle/expense for the sake of 3-4 years

Stamp duty we had thought about, but it’s relatively low - because the house is about a third of the price of what it would cost us to get a ‘real’ 4 bed house .

Council tax though… yes, that could be prohibitive. It’s very high and we definitely couldn’t pay it twice each month! Thanks, will need to look into that …

Sounds like a good plan to me if it’s affordable

Sounds ok, but you could also discuss renting it on a 3-4 year contract, they might prefer an income to selling currently

We will be relocating in 3/4 years, to another city. (This is why, even when surprise baby 3 turned up a few years ago, we have stayed put!)

We have 3 kids in a 2 bed house currently. It’s not unusual where we are for kids to share, but this is stressful, esp as eldest approaches secondary age.

I know someone who did this so there must be a way round it with council tax

To convert into one house you'd need planning permission. Ask your local planning dept, though they're generally not keen on reducing the number of homes so don't get your hopes up.

You will also need to look at utilities supply/billing, house insurance requirements and planning permission- especially fire safety.

Sounds like a good temporary solution though.

Assume they are halls/stairs adjoining so you don’t disrupt 4 rooms by knocking through.
Planning may be difficult.
I can imagine what seems like a little jigsaw cut through () may actually be a disruptive major job and when selling I’m not sure whether I’d want to buy house where structural integrity of party wall had been cut into - it’d be clear on planning history.
Sounds sensible but possibly not practical.

Are you sure the stamp duty will be low? You’ll have to pay the extra 3% second home stamp duty on the full value of the property even that first £125k. You’ll also have to have planning permission to turn the two dwellings into one then again if you want to turn it back to two dwellings. If your current property is mortgaged you’ll also have to get permission from them.

If you could afford to and legally allowed to do it - do it!
I think your plan sounds genius honestly

I'd talk to the Council Tax department.
It might be possible to have the combined houses taxed as - for example - 1 band D rather than 2 band B.

If you’re doing minimal knock through, with plans to restore it in a few years, could your DH ‘live’ in one house and you in the other, each paying one person council tax? That would give you a bit of a reduction.

How confident are you that the daughters would consider selling?
This is the key - you need to establish that before making plans in my opinion.

Sounds like Great plan to me, fingers crossed it works out for you.

Rent it for the few years you intend to stay in the area. The relatives of the person in care may be delighted, but reluctant to sell at the moment.

You then have the issue of who lives where and who keeps an eye on the kids! I don't think I would buy, but would keep the cash you have for your next move. Too much work involved IMO for such a short time.

My parents did this in 1974.
We lived there until 1983.
Knocked one door through downstairs and one upstairs.
Had 5 bedrooms, 2 kitchens 1 used as a play room, double lounge and the stairs went up one side and down the other.
As kids we loved it.
When we sold it we had to split off the central heating system and brick up the doors.

You can definitely do this but you will need to apply for planning permission.
A colleague of mine owns 3 small terraced properties- well they were 3 separate houses, they are now all knocked into one long massive house!

I live in a house that used to be two houses. It had already been converted when we moved in, so I’m not sure what steps they had to take but we only pay one lot of council tax. We still have two front doors and the upstairs wasn’t knocked through so we have two staircases one to each side of the house. We technically have two kitchens but one of them we use as a utility.

I considered doing this last year. My neighbour is still alive and kicking but looking a bit pale 👀 (kidding - hope they have many more years left) and I googled it and found a really old thread on MN and one of MNHQ had actually done this and commented on the thread. Can’t remember who it was though but I’m sure a google search would turn it back up again.

It sounds like a great idea in theory, I’m not sure if the practicalities stack up though.

I have two friends who did this, one in Scotland, one in England.
In both cases, the pairs of semis were in small villages and they became their forever homes.
One removed one of the staircases and the other removed both, replacing them with a larger one.
One knocked through the kitchens, to make one huge kitchen, the other used the extra space downstairs to have a boot room, laundry and hobbies room.
Both properties ended up making wonderful family homes, with great gardens and sheds.
I don't know if the shortage of affordable rural properties would affect the granting of planning permissions at the present time, but their examples have made me think that I might look out for a pair of semis on purpose if I were house hunting again.