Hi All,

We have a large Victorian 6 bed semi house and are considering converting it
to two flats one ground floor two bed and upper two floors to 3 bed.

Has anyone experience of this, or can point me in the right direction for
more info.....we are only at the information gathering stage but wish to be
as informed as possible.

Many thanks

James
www.directsos.co.uk

The message
from "James" contains these words:

We have a large Victorian 6 bed semi house and are considering converting it
to two flats one ground floor two bed and upper two floors to 3 bed.

Has anyone experience of this, or can point me in the right direction for
more info.....we are only at the information gathering stage but wish to be
as informed as possible.

No information on conversion as such but you will require planning
permission for the change and I have heard that some councils can be
particularly awkward over that if they think multiple occupation is out
of keeping with the area.

--
Roger Chapman

Roger wrote:
The message
from "James" contains these words:

We have a large Victorian 6 bed semi house and are considering converting it
to two flats one ground floor two bed and upper two floors to 3 bed.

Has anyone experience of this, or can point me in the right direction for
more info.....we are only at the information gathering stage but wish to be
as informed as possible.

No information on conversion as such but you will require planning
permission for the change and I have heard that some councils can be
particularly awkward over that if they think multiple occupation is out
of keeping with the area.

I'd second that - go and have an informal chat with a planning officer
at your local council just to run it past them; you may find that
there's a blanket ban on such conversions so that you idea is a non-starter.

Another tip is to talk to local estate agents about the idea; it's
possible you might even find that the 6 bed house is worth more than the
two flats, depending on circumstances! Or maybe locally there's a huge
demand for one and not the other? Whatever, they should be able to give
you rough valuations for the completed flats versus the house, which
should help you start thinking about whether it's worth even contemplating.

David

Roger wrote:
The message
from "James" contains these words:


We have a large Victorian 6 bed semi house and are considering converting it
to two flats one ground floor two bed and upper two floors to 3 bed.


Has anyone experience of this, or can point me in the right direction for
more info.....we are only at the information gathering stage but wish to be
as informed as possible.


No information on conversion as such but you will require planning
permission for the change and I have heard that some councils can be
particularly awkward over that if they think multiple occupation is out
of keeping with the area.


You may have to provide off road parking

Stuart Noble wrote:
Roger wrote:

The message
from "James" contains these words:

We have a large Victorian 6 bed semi house and are considering
converting it
to two flats one ground floor two bed and upper two floors to 3 bed.

You may have to provide off road parking

Yes, good point: lack of space for parking the inevitable extra vehicles
is a common reason for rejection of planning permission applications
for conversions like this.

David

In article ,
Huge wrote:
Is this still true in these days of rabidly anti-car councils? I've read
of developments being deliberately built without any parking at all.

Those will be where the developers grease the palms of the council -
after all houses yield more profit than parking spaces.

But different rules apply to a private conversion?

--
*I brake for no apparent reason.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Sun, 01 Jan 2006 16:27:07 +0000 (GMT) Dave Plowman (News) wrote :
Is this still true in these days of rabidly anti-car councils? I've read
of developments being deliberately built without any parking at all.

Those will be where the developers grease the palms of the council -
after all houses yield more profit than parking spaces.

In this borough (LB Richmond) they are anti-car and take the view that if
you've got nowhere to park a car you may not get one and are more likely to
get upset over what they perceive to be too much parking.

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk
Free SEDBUK boiler database browser http://www.sda.co.uk/qsedbuk.htm
[Latest version QSEDBUK 1.12 released 8 Dec 2005]

On Sat, 31 Dec 2005 20:32:29 +0000 (UTC) James wrote :
We have a large Victorian 6 bed semi house and are considering converting
it to two flats one ground floor two bed and upper two floors to 3 bed.

Has anyone experience of this, or can point me in the right direction for
more info.....we are only at the information gathering stage but wish to
be as informed as possible.

I would take informed advice as to likely values: round here large Victorian
houses are worth more as a single house than the sum value of individual
flats and our council for one will resist applications for reverse
conversions (i.e. turning two or more flats back into a single family house).

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk
Free SEDBUK boiler database browser http://www.sda.co.uk/qsedbuk.htm
[Latest version QSEDBUK 1.12 released 8 Dec 2005]

Huge wrote:

I've read
of developments being deliberately built without any parking at all.

I've even heard of one where you have to sign a covenant that you do not
own and will not purchase a car, unless you have somewhere else to park it.

Andy Burns wrote:
Huge wrote:

I've read
of developments being deliberately built without any parking at all.

I've even heard of one where you have to sign a covenant that you do not
own and will not purchase a car, unless you have somewhere else to park it.

All of which highlights the need for local knowledge, and asking the
local planning people about all of this!

(I certainly know of someone local to me who is trying to get permission
to split a large building up into flats; the sticking point is that the
council are insisting on an average of 1.5 off-road parking spaces per
flat, which has instantly placed an upper limit on the possible number
of flats, which is lower than the number he wants to convert to.)

David

On Mon, 02 Jan 2006 13:08:38 +0000 Andy Burns wrote :
I've read
of developments being deliberately built without any parking at all.

I've even heard of one where you have to sign a covenant that you do not
own and will not purchase a car, unless you have somewhere else to park
it.

Standard LB Richmond planning condition for new developments with no
off-street parking is to make them permanently ineligible for residents
parking permits. As Lobster says you really need to do your homework.

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk
Free SEDBUK boiler database browser http://www.sda.co.uk/qsedbuk.htm
[Latest version QSEDBUK 1.12 released 8 Dec 2005]