Amalgamation/deconversion

[deliwoman1]

Hello!

Does anyone know how to find out if a property has been legally converted into flats? We’re trying to work out whether we’d need planning permission to deconvert a property we’re interested in, or whether a Certificate of Lawfulness might suffice.

Have searched the land registry and there are no leaseholds on the flats in it, just the freehold for the property. I can’t find any record of planning permission having been granted to subdivide it originally, BUT subsequently planning has been granted to do work on it (as flats, project never undertaken). I guess this means the council think it is flats but whether that’s ‘official,’ I don’t know? The ‘flats’ are so shoddy it’s disgraceful really that people are paying good money to live in them. Agents haven’t been much help yet and I don’t much trust them on this point anyway!

If it’s officially flats and would need planning to deconvert, we might pass on it because we don’t want a lengthy battle and might get one due to the housing targets in our borough.

Does anyone have any advice? Thanks!

Are there records of the different flats on the council tax register? You can see this if you search find my council tax band.

Depending on your council you might struggle to get a lawful development certificate because it sounds like the conversion happened over 4 years ago. The council could argue that the legal use has become multiple flats. It’s all a bit weird really because on the one hand if you tried to do the conversion into flats today they might turn you down for not meeting all their planning guidelines, but on the other they might reject an application for use as a single home because of a perceived loss of housing units. It’s a nonsense area of planning.

Some councils allow you to return multiple flats to a single home if it started as a single home though.

Thanks! It’s Victorian and so definitely started life as a single home, but the annoying thing is that the property now has five (!) flats in it, four of which are insanely tiny studios. I know this makes it sound like a palace but it really isn’t! So, it definitely is a potential issue for the borough in losing four residences.

I can’t see how the flats meet regs, but yes a quick search tells me each flat is liable for council tax. So I don’t fancy our chances of not needing permission to deconvert. I suppose only an architect or planning consultant who knows their way around the borough’s planning policy could help with this one. 😑