Your experiences please regarding permissions, finance, council tax, utilities and other non specific ball ache.

Haven’t you done this already? (As in the house knocking rather than the question asking)

That was massively rebuilding. But we had kids and buggered up our lives and had to move.

The house we are in now was once two, but if I kill next door I suspect that there will be a chance for further expansion.

if either property is mortgaged… good luck with that!

I’m having Dejavue (sp?)

I’m sure this was covered a while back, non?

Did this in scotland rejoined an upper and lower flat back to the original single property.

Both registered as separate addresses, both has separate water and utilities, both separate for council tax purposes.

Ours, modern and up to date. Downstairs, 70s everything, lead piping, rubber insulated wiring, Bakelite switches, the lot.

Depending on the property sizes and local housing levels it can be a planning issue as you’re effectively reducing housing stock. We work on prime central London property and it happens quite often but half of the houses in Mayfair and Belgravia are empty most of the time anyway..

I looked into it before when I lived at the end of the row of cottages and next door came on the market but it didn’t make financial sense as 3 bed houses in the area had higher value per square foot than 5 bedders.

Speak to local agents and ask about impact on value – most lenders are happy to lend on almost anything if the LTV figures are low enough.

I did.
One house was in West sussex, the other in Kent.
It didn’t work.

DrP

yes but i argued with mrs antigee upfront that it didn’t make a lot of financial sense – the combined property probably has less value than the separate properties and all the conversion costs are just sunk money – an emotional rather than a financial decision – a couple of years later we could have bought the corner property in same block and extended that and that would have added value

hassles – none with mortgage co’ ^^? but we had fair amount of equity and funds

council tax think got put in too higher a band should have appealed

utilities was problematic getting second gas supply cut off – usual no one sure who has to ask who to do disappears up own cavity issue

credit cards / banks / postal data bases – be prepared for your address doesn’t exist and the impossibility of some credit card / banks being unable to replicate a combined house number sorted out as data bases updated but prob’ took a few years

edit has less value not no less value

You could price yourself out of the local market and would need to split it back into two properties to sell

Turning them back into 2 dwellings involves planning permission but making them into 1 does not. We live in two adjacent properties and don’t see the point of knocking them together.

As a follow on from my last post above…

Process was straight forward. I can’t remember the order here. Helped by the fact it had been split in 1975, sympathetically, so all the stairs and stuff were in place, just boxed in. We reversed the split.

Involved planning with the council, downstairs was classed as a new build for some reason and has to meet accessibility and other regs. Not a problem, worked round it. Council were helpful removing one address, reassessing for council tax and placing the property on one address, one bill.

Buying, this was the most difficult. Nat west couldn’t get their minds around what we intended to bring the property back together and extend our mortgage to cover the purchase of the new half of the house. It didn’t fit into a standard mortgage product, the sticking point was having two kitchens even though we declared it was going to be one address, have one kitchen and be one property…
Upshot of this was an interest only purchase of downstairs to get in bought with a view to completing the work the a total remortgage. This worked, though cost an extra arrangement fee. Thanks nat west ….

Original property wiring was fine, rewired downstairs findin perished rubber insulation and bare wires… Properties joined with a new consumer unit and put onto one meter. Simples.

Replaced the boiler we had with a big wb combi in the same location, using the same water and gas supply, extended the rads downstairs. The lady who lived there only had a coal fire in one room previously….

Removed all lead pipes downstairs, replaced with alkethene as needed. Simples.

So, we ended up with one property, one council tax bill, one electric bill, one water and sewage bill.

The messy bit was a mortgage on upstairs, mortgage on downstairs and two entries on the land register. We left it like this as I was made redundant, and at the same time my partner had a job offer in Germany which we decided to take.
The solicitor in Edinburgh was brilliant and worked hard for us given the two mortgage issue and completed with the land registry and sale in the same day.

We worked hard to keep the buyers informed and the land registry bit was a condition of the sale.

Decided to sell, on the market for 10 days, legal system completed and sold. We made about £150k even after a penalty on the interest only mortgage for closing early.

Now living mortgage free in Germany. Would I do it again ? Yes….

worked in a council house that got knocked into the house next door, they wouldnt allow walls to be knocked down so they had a door downstairs and upstairs to each and from each part, they also needed a single feed in for water gas and electric, and it affected the council tax etc.

Two front doors with the same number on each