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Merging two houses into one advice

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Hi all,

I'm thinking of purchasing my next doors house and converting both houses into one.

I understand I need to notify building regulations about the change and I don't need no planning permission as all work will be internal. The only work i want doing is knocking down the wall between the two houses/kitchen to create a larger kitchen instead of having 2 separate kitchens if that makes sense.

 

I know I need an RSJ to support the wall above and leave 2 pillars for the RSJ to rest on etc. My concern is when the building regulations officer comes to assess what do they look for? I.e smoke alarms detections, fire exist doors (which I have smoke alarms and I've already got 2 back doors which I'm leaving.

Anything else they look out for?

 

Thanks in advance

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I would suggest having a word with your local planning officer. They are very amenable if you talk to them about what you are thinking of doing.

 

Is it commercially viable to knock two houses into one? We considered this many years ago as we loved where we lived. The house wouldn't be worth as much as two individual houses. That was before taking into consideration the amount of money needed to do the alterations too. It was a decent area but the house price ceiling made this a none starter.

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If someone was to knock 2houses in to 1 how would it effect the council tax etc? I'm only asking as I've been thinking of buying my neighbours house and doing same

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If someone was to knock 2houses in to 1 how would it effect the council tax etc? I'm only asking as I've been thinking of buying my neighbours house and doing same

 

You need to negotiate with your council. When we renovated our barn the council stuck a high council tax on it even though it was a two bed house. We said if you are taxing it separate then you must reduce the value of our council tax as ours was an annexe (same address, same land etc). We had a long discussion but won in the end. There are now separate rules about council tax on annexes but we did have quite a tussle. They said they had sent someone out but they never came inside (even though they said they had). We dug our heels in and got a fairer tax at the end.

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You need to negotiate with your council. When we renovated our barn the council stuck a high council tax on it even though it was a two bed house. We said if you are taxing it separate then you must reduce the value of our council tax as ours was an annexe (same address, same land etc). We had a long discussion but won in the end. There are now separate rules about council tax on annexes but we did have quite a tussle. They said they had sent someone out but they never came inside (even though they said they had). We dug our heels in and got a fairer tax at the end.

 

Can 2 properties on the same street be put in to different council tax bands ? Let's say at the minute all the houses on my road are in band a if I was to go ahead and do this merger could they put just my house in a higher tax band or would what I've done mean rest of neighbours houses would be moved in to next tax band ?

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Council tax goes on house value. I have often lived on roads where they were different bands. Only on this last occasion did I think the band was unreasonable for the value of the property.

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Gives me something to think about but would have to see if it would be worth while doing all work or if I'm better off just buying then selling neighbours house as it is

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Gives me something to think about but would have to see if it would be worth while doing all work or if I'm better off just buying then selling neighbours house as it is

 

You will need to get the council tax reassessed so it should be cheaper than paying two lots of council tax.

No planning is needed to knock into one but separating them at a later date back into two houses will need planning.

Any internal work will need to be done according to current building regs.

All wiring and gas will need to be redone unless you want to pay two lots of standing charges.

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I've spoken to council last week and I called them today and got 2 separate answers last week they said it's quite a simple process and today they said it's not as easy as knocking the wall down I have to have insulation done to the full house they also mentioned something about thermal performance which I don't know what they were referring to.

 

---------- Post added 12-07-2016 at 13:21 ----------

 

I would suggest having a word with your local planning officer. They are very amenable if you talk to them about what you are thinking of doing.

 

Is it commercially viable to knock two houses into one? We considered this many years ago as we loved where we lived. The house wouldn't be worth as much as two individual houses. That was before taking into consideration the amount of money needed to do the alterations too. It was a decent area but the house price ceiling made this a none starter.

 

 

I understand where your coming from in regards to selling the property in future it's not as valuable. I'm not thinking of selling anyway and if i did I'll need to apply got Planning permission and rebuild that wall I've knocked down and sell as 2 individuals.

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I'd be more concerned about the values.

 

Let's say they are 2 semis worth £170k each. Plus £50k building work. The single house you have would never be worth the £390k you have spent

 

edit - I see chez has already said this, apologies

Edited by hyper
didnt read the full thread before replying

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I'm not concerned about the value whatsoever as this property I'm interested including mine will be more then enough for me. Plus the major work will be knocking down the wall and the rest of the work that needs ddoig such as plastering, carpet/laminating painting etc all this won't even exceed 10k I assume

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Hi

 

Can someone advise if I have 2 houses already and paying 1 council tax as the wall is knocked out internally, can we combine both houses to make it 1 house on the land registry so the address is 1 and not 2 different addresses? I'm asking on behalf of a friend so not me who has the 2 houses.

 

Thanks

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