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?

@titchy

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.

In my area, we asked the council about turning our house into two flats, and we were told they wouldn’t allow it, because there were too many flats and not enough houses. Our street is apparently a “stressed” street.

Oh wow, so much to think about thank you. If/when I can convince the children to go to sleep, I will work through the comments

@thecapitalsunited

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.

eek, had not realised that all. Thank you so much. That adds about another 9 grand. Eep. Feels like costs are mounting.

@Robin233

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.

Love this! Thanks for the examples of those who have done this /know friends who have

If an old fella lived there are there refurb / modernisation costs to consider?

I don't think I would. Unless you officially turn it into one house. There'll be council tax, utilities, insurance etc. Plus the cost of buying and extra stamp duty plus 2 lots of selling fees when you do move. Plus the hassle of knocking through.

Sounds like a big headache to me unless you stay there long term.

He only moved in 4 or 5 years ago. We actually joked about buying it last time it was for sale - that was when there were only two kids though!

Yes, I can see the legalities and paperwork might be very very hard

we are looking into this where we live. You dont need planning permission to knock it into one if youre just knocking a couple of walls...obviously need to take account of building regs...but you do to put it back to two. Utiltiies looked like a pain splitting them. We were thinking just knock one wall downstairs and leave utilities etc as it is.

Most local authorities are under huge pressure to provide additional housing. They’re therefore very reluctant to reduce existing numbers of dwellings. It’d be a very hard sell to secure planning permission and if you did it under the radar you’d have two lots of council tax

We're currently buying the house next to us as a BTL. Be aware that many banks won't give mortgages to purchase the neighbouring property

It is entirely plausible that the family may not have permission to sell, if the owner lacks capacity and didn't get lasting power in place prior to being taken ill, getting a court of protection order in place to be able to sell to cover care fees is a huge challenge (based on recent experience of friends). Planning and CT aside, buying the house of people in nursing care isn't always legally possible, even if the family no longer want the house.

DD is now a teen, but one of her nursery school friends' parents did this with two terrace houses. They pretty much gutted one half (and it probably needed it). It was very clever (think the husband might have been an architect).

I am fairly certain that they were able to do much of the structural work on the newly purchased house before knocking through.

I looked into this (but for the flat next door and on the same floor). Not planning knockthrough but cos its London, an additional flat is cheaper than buying a whole new house in my area given that houses are in excess of a million with an easier 'get out' plan if things go sour and we need to downsize.

Re mortgages, i had high street offers for mortgages e.g. halifax when I told them that I was buying it for personal use; my parents live overseas and are more likely to come over to help me out with childcare if they had their own self contained dwelling/kitchen.

I boughy my house from next door. They did exactly this. I had to contact council to seperate council tax. Im pretty sure they only paid council tax once on both properties. They asked us once we bought the property not to mention that a kitchen was fitted to the council until everything was seperated. I asked why and they said if they had two kitchens they would have to pay double council tax.

They didnt pull walls down just put a door in the livingroom joining both properties.

We did it just over a decade ago. I don’t think we needed planning permission because we weren’t altering the external , but did need building regs for internal alterations. It was all organised by an architect. We removed both staircases and put a new one in. We had to have a metal “beam/girder” made to put across the bit where we took the wall between the two kitchens out. It was reassessed for council tax and one of the addresses was removed from the postal register (although we still get occasional demands for tv licenses for the non existent property from time to time).

@happystrummer

we are looking into this where we live. You dont need planning permission to knock it into one if youre just knocking a couple of walls...obviously need to take account of building regs...but you do to put it back to two. Utiltiies looked like a pain splitting them. We were thinking just knock one wall downstairs and leave utilities etc as it is.

We actually have two ring mains for electrics, so two fuse boxes, one for each side of the house, but the electrician joined them so it was one inlet.

Not to put a dampener on your plans but you may find that the family are reluctant to sell whilst he is still alive

When discussing my father's affairs recently with a financial adviser we were advised that should he need a care home its best not to sell the family home but keep it and rent it out to provide an ongoing income for care home fees rather than sell and bank the proceeds.

Planning permission isn't generally needed to change two houses into one if all the work is internal. So if you keep two front doors etc and just knock through inside you'll be ok.
www.maldon.gov.uk/info/20046/development_management/9546/do_i_need_planning_permission_to_convert_two_attached_dwellings_into_one
Building regulations approval is a separate process and is likely to be needed as you would be removing walls. If you do turn it into one house then it's just one council tax, TV licence. Utilities could be kept separate or together as they won't care how the house is arranged as long as the energy usage is paid for.

We did it!
We needed building regs only for the 2 new doorways (one upstairs, one down). Once the 2 houses were combined it was re-rated so no double council tax, water company happily combined the 2 properties as one on the new rateable value (no water meter here). Electrics were linked as we wanted it combined and also didn't want to pay 2 lots of standing charge.

We kept both staircases as it made it quirky and at the time the mess and expense of taking one out was beyond us. We turned our original kitchen into a utility room, it was quite small so it worked well. Joined the gardens together and that was it.
We did it as we didn't want to move, whether I would be as keen if I was moving in 3 or 4 years time is difficult to say. It will probably depend on how much work you want to do to make one house out of 2 and use it as a proper home. We've spent years refurbing the place but we love it and have no intention of moving. Hope this gives you an idea of how it can work, ours were both cottages (back to the 1800s) so we were limited in some respects to what walls etc we could knock through given the thickness of them, but something newer could be much easier.

Tbh for the sake of a few years its far too much work & hassle. If you were staying long term I'd say to go for it, but by the time you get it up to scratch you'll have to start thinking of moving again within the next year or 2.

I came back to just add a gentle thought... Please bear in mind that the family may be going through a lot, given that their relative is unwell enough to require residential care, they may be dealing with lots of stressful paperwork and faced with no fun options as to how to face the costs of care which are huge and ongoing. Please be very kind with them if you go through with making this approach. This could be the straw that breaks them.

Thanks for all the thoughts. Re: the daughters. We’re in touch a lot - we’ve had to call an ambulance for him, and also call the daughters more than once when he needed help. Neither of them live nearby. I absolutely don’t want to upset them - that’s why I want to make sure the plan is even viable before mentioning it to them.

A few of you have suggested renting it - I can’t see how this could work?? Am I missing something obvious? (Unless I send DH and one of the kids to live there! Maybe we could have a rota

@FuckYouCorona

Tbh for the sake of a few years its far too much work & hassle. If you were staying long term I'd say to go for it, but by the time you get it up to scratch you'll have to start thinking of moving again within the next year or 2.

The thing is the is what has kept us here in this too-small house for too long. Now I am slightly giddy at the thought of being able to give 10 year old her own room. (And getting my room back too, if we can shift toddler our!)

@rovercat

We did it! We needed building regs only for the 2 new doorways (one upstairs, one down). Once the 2 houses were combined it was re-rated so no double council tax, water company happily combined the 2 properties as one on the new rateable value (no water meter here). Electrics were linked as we wanted it combined and also didn't want to pay 2 lots of standing charge. We kept both staircases as it made it quirky and at the time the mess and expense of taking one out was beyond us. We turned our original kitchen into a utility room, it was quite small so it worked well. Joined the gardens together and that was it. We did it as we didn't want to move, whether I would be as keen if I was moving in 3 or 4 years time is difficult to say. It will probably depend on how much work you want to do to make one house out of 2 and use it as a proper home. We've spent years refurbing the place but we love it and have no intention of moving. Hope this gives you an idea of how it can work, ours were both cottages (back to the 1800s) so we were limited in some respects to what walls etc we could knock through given the thickness of them, but something newer could be much easier.

Thank you, so glad it all worked out for you! This is so good to read! I’ve taken a screenshot and will refer back to it! Our houses are early 20th century. I really hope we can make it work. DH is more risk-averse than me. But there’s lots to think about here…