Listed building

[DIYQueen93]

We have been to view a plot of land which has a listed building (grade 2) and we love the area but before committing, we are looking seriously at what that listing means in terms of future development etc.

The building is essentially, some very dubious walls and has evidently been left to rot for decades. It was a very tiny cottage so even if we were to put the property back in its original state, it would be far too small for a modern young family.

Is it a non-starter? We would happily bring the property back to its original state but with a very large extension (essentially, we would need to build an entire house and bolt that on to the tiny cottage).

What does the listing say? can you copy and paste it here?
It's not terribly relevant to what you can and can not do but it is interesting.

Lots of listings say very little and sometimes are wrong

We, for example have a listing part of which puts the West elevation down as an extension in timber frame. Actually it’s brick painted in black stripes to look like the rest of the Medieval hall property 🤣. Clearly the stripes were all they could see from the road

A conservation officer or similar is better equipped to give detailed advice

Although agree @Tortephant it would be interesting to see the listing

Early C19 small two-storey rural dwelling with a simple two-bay front elevation. Constructed in painted masonry with a slate roof and ridge tiles. Rendered chimneys at the gable ends. Wide eaves and verge overhangs. Small open porch to the front with a pitched roof. Sash windows to the principal elevation, with nine panes to the upper sash and four panes to the lower sash, without horns.

Wow, that tells you a lot compared to many listings. That’s fantastic and a solid base to be working with if you go ahead.

We have learnt things about our house by asking neighbours and elderly ones especially can know quite a lot or will ask someone else. We got sent photos of our house in 1945 and people also knew when our thatch was last done (in early 1980s) and our local authority will accept this type of thing. Ours also asks for information on similar properties if there are any. I've found when we've got specialists round to quote they often know things as well. It does take a lot of research and I would only take it on if you love history of houses and renovating them back to how it was. I would investigate viability of renting. Here house prices are flat and doing renovations is now risky for making a profit or even getting money back.

I’ve put that into Chat
Lovely

although getting the panes of glass and ridge tiles right was more than it could cope with. 🤣

This is beautiful! I’d be happy with this as the overall look. If we can make it work, we will!

Remember those ridge tiles are all wrong. Chat went all ‘developer’ on me

In my experience, a lot will depend on your local conservation officer. Ours was actually brilliant at walking the line between modern family living and preservation. I think with derelict properties, where they are choosing between restoration and letting it fall down entirely, they are sometimes a bit more flexible. Our situation was quite complicated and English Heritage was involved, so we did hire a heritage consultant, which was one of the smartest moves we made.

Another thing to keep in mind, on the positive side of the ledger, is that if the building has been completely unoccupied for two consecutive years, building services and materials will be charged 5 instead of 20% VAT, which was a very significant savings for us.

This is good to know! I’d like to think they would be a little more reasonable given its current state but we won’t hold our breath.

Honestly I wouldn’t even think about developing the property to that extent.

Can you buy the place, see if you can split the title, and build something new whilst renovating the old cottage?

IME (I live in a listed building) conservation officers are good about renovations, as long as people do their research and essentially look to replace “like with like”. I have no doubt you’d get permission to renovate the existing cottage sympathetically but you’d need to use traditional materials etc.

I would be surprised if you got permission for a massive extension- or if you did you’d probably have to spend money suing the planners and/ or conservation department. Which will be expensive and time consuming. I would never buy a listed property unless I was prepared to live in it more or less “as is”.

Beware of local planning consultants or architects spinning you an (optimistic) line too- I know someone who tried to extend a barn attached to a listed building and spent 15k before giving up- they had planners and architects on board from the start.

An extension should be just that and not dominate the original building

I agree with this too- so you might get permission for a rear extension which you can’t see from the front and which is subsidiary in size to the main house, but something which doubles it in size, changes how it looks from the front or dominates the plot is probably a no-no.

You say essentially you would need to build an entire house and bolt it on to the cottage- I don’t think you will get permission for a massive extension especially on a listed building, unless it’s some kind of architect designed ‘grand design’.

is the land in Green Belt or a National Lamdscape? If yes that could also be tricky.

you need proper advice from a heritage architect practice. This will not be cheap.