Have you/would you buy a listed house?

[meltedmarsbars]

Well?

Maybe not then....

doing so tomorrow. Ask me again in 2 months when we should be shoulder deep in renovations

Yes I have. Am in it now. What do you want to know?

I would.

Although I have slight fear that my current house might get listed, and I don't want them to do it before I get planning for an extension.

yep, we're on our second
been here 6 years

about to move from grade II to grade II*.
what's your ? about them?

only if I loved the house as it was and had lots of money.

Grade II*

Grade II not star - imagine the star adds nightmare when needing to do anything.

Its of medival status but been ruined over the years especially inthe 50s and 60s. SO it doesnt have any architectural merits left so this swings well with the planners when they try to tell me to put something in that is in-keeping with the period - I usually laugh!

You can get away with lots of changes with the interior but deff not exterior.

If the house is in great order then its not a problem - when in renovation state ....nightmare!

Yep, am in Grade II listed. Whaddya want to know?

yep Grade II.

Tis good so far.

Yep, Grade II.

Don't get confused by what Bacon's said about the interior v the exterior - a lot of people don't realise that the interior is listed as well as the inside. This doens't mean that you can't put in a new fitted kitchen or a bathroom, but it does mean that you need permission to knock a wall down, for example.
Ironically, we're going to make far greater changes to the outside than the inside!

My sister's advice (as an assistant CO) is not to buy a listed house unless you are happy to live in it as it is, as you cannot rely on being able to change anything. She often has people phone up and say 'if I bought this, could I do X', and the answer is usually 'maybe' or 'probably not' - it's very dependent on individual circumstance and on the history of the individual house. e.g. I said to my CO 'I'd like to make this change', she said 'no way, that's historically wrong', I said 'no, I've looked through the archives and that was how it was until 20 years ago', she said 'great, go ahead and do it'. It was my archive research that showed that I could do it.

We live in one. Before we bought it we had loooong meeting with the planners/conservationists about what we needed/wanted to do to it, so that we knew what we were facing. The result is that we've had no problems (so far!).

We rent a grade II Listed house and used to live in one as a child.

They are VERY expensive to maintain. People always underestimate how much they will cost to mainatain and end up bodging them as they run out of money.

Where we live there are dozens of listed houses and they are all lived in by old people who live is squalor because they just do not have enough ncome to maintain them. They are freezing cold and leaking in most cases.

Unless you have a good income and plenty of time dont buy one. If you must buy one get a really top notch surveyor to tell you how much it will cost to do it up and what illegal bodging the previous owner did. Add 50% to sny estimate you get for repairs.

Having lived in this rented house for 1 year I now know what repairs really need doing that I would never have spotted when we looked round. Our landlord really bodged it and hoped to sell it on but got caught by the property market slump. I estimate £250k would just about cover it and it really is not in bad shape compared to many houses round where we live.

Above all be very realistic - unfortunatley ,ost owners of listed houses simply will not cut enough off the price to make them worth buying and are just hoping to find a 'bigger fool' to fall in love with their house and hope they will do a survey so not see the repair bill that is waiting for them when they move in.

I knew BeenBeta would say that - and have to admit that he's absolutely right. Except that ours is not freezing cold, thanks to my fab dad.

e.g. Estimated cost to repair woodwork: £1k. Actual cost to repair woodwork so far, without touching the real problem areas: £3.5k

We've just found the best bodge so far - a rotten stud and window sill 'mended' with some concrete and a sheet of tin.

In fact, this reminds me I should phone the CO for a chat!

Yes I agree with BeenBeta the cost can spiral. However, its our home & business so we cant move away (sorry cant say too much).

You can get away with lots especially inside. Obviously you cant knock down stuff - pretty obvious.

So far we spent £100K and recently the builders were here for another stint - wouldnt be surprised £20K. Still not live-able!

The house was damp and over the years far too much patching up had been done to poor consequences. We stripped it all back to the stonework and the builder repointed and replastered. The ceilings were pulled down and loads of floor patching up done.

My experience is to do as much as possibe without involving the planners. Conservation planners really dont live in the real world and I have argued my case successfully many a time. Work can be held back for months. Beleive me any atime I wanted to set fire to the place just to get rid of it because after a few years you fall out of love with it. Living in a smelly caravan for a couple of years can also send you over the edge.

I'm lucky that I come from a architectual background so I can draw and understand technical bumff.

Always go with a builder with lime/old building experience most modern builders havent a clue. Hence this costs.

Interesting thread. This has always been one of my absolutely non-negotiable criteria for buying a house.

I've never owned or lived in one, but having grown up in an old house (no architectural merit, just old) that leaked, had rising damp and where no two corners met at a right angle I've alway assumed that if you added 'listed' to the mix you would be in for a nightmare.

Glad to hear I wasn't completely barking mad, but slightly envious of those with the money, time and balls to go for it.

Blimey. Not all listed buildings are renovations or wrecks though. It just means that if you want to change/add to it you have to get listed buildings as well as planning permission. Some of us live in really nice non-freezing, minimal repair, perfectly normal listed buildings!

Just to add, we discovered a few months back there is beam completely rotted through above our bedroom. This rotten beam is the one that runs the entire length of the roof and now the roof is sligtly collapsing under the weight of 100 tonnes of hand made tiles, lead, beams and parapets. The net effect is that it is pulling down the end wall at the opposite end of the house.

When the beam collapses so will the house and hopefully I will not be in bed at the time. The landlord seems unpreturbed.

We have a 11*. We had to have English heritage's permission to get an work done and the costs were astronomical. However we love it and DH says he will only leave in a box. Just be aware these houses need commitment and deep pockets.

I lived in a grade 'A' listed tenement in Edinburgh, different grading system to UK. It was fine. Built 1870 so not that old. We wouldn't have been allowed to make any major changes, especially exterior, but were allowed to turn a box room into an en suite and knock another box room through to extend the kitchen. I would just do as jux suggests and get advice from planners etc. prior to buying.

Totally agree with Bacon's tip about needing specialist, hence expensive builders. It will save money later on. It does also help to have architectural expertise in the family!

We are about to. My parents have lived here for 20 years though so I don't think there is anything a surveyor could tell us that my dad doesn't already know (guess we'll find out soon though!). It needs some cosmetic work but the windows have been recently stripped back, roof replaced etc. It will need a new kitchen and bathroom in due course but no lbc needed for that.

It does help though that it is in a not-very-pretty village and backing onto a housing estate so they don't need to be quite as precious about it as if it were part of a group of similar buildings for example.

Quite a lot of differing views then!

I walked round it with the Conservation Officer today, who said pretty much what I expected, there are some bits that need repairing by specialists but much of it can be left.

I'm mostly worried about the non-damp-proofed floors.