Has anyone bought their "neighbors" house and knocked through?

Thesnipergecko · 11 Apr 2016 at 16:36

Just wondering if anyone who lives in a semi has had the opportunity to buy their neighbors half of the building and knocked through?

Whats involved council and utility company wise? Was it much work to get all the power/gas running from 1 inlet etc.

the_r_sole · 11 Apr 2016 at 17:40

I looked at doing this for a client before, but in the end it was never going to be worth the investment to buy and adapt into a single house - and they ended up selling their house and buying a slightly bigger one in a better location!
(not much help I know)

bitslice · 11 Apr 2016 at 18:01

Can't see the point, you'll have a large house with lots of small rooms.
Although this is great if you have 10 kids I guess, and some people apparently like having five tiny bedrooms and five tiny bathrooms to go with them.

Buy a bigger house, the rooms will then be in proportion to the size of the property.

wesimmo · 11 Apr 2016 at 18:38

My parents did years ago so not much relevance to your specific questions.

However I have never been able to drink warm milk since then as the dust from knocking walls down settled on the skin of the milk and put me off for life, so something to consider if you have small children....

Rroff · 11 Apr 2016 at 18:43

Not very helpful but my parents considered it and eventually came to the conclusion like above that it would make more sense to sell the house and buy something a bit bigger elsewhere.

In terms of the electrical side a reasonably complex job and not cheap but well within the capabilities of an experienced electrical company who've probably done it before and likely taken on much more complex jobs.

AHarvey · 11 Apr 2016 at 20:13

If they have chimney breasts in both houses I wouldn't bother, knocking around them looks stupid and really affects the flow and the feel of the place. I wouldn't do it it here because of the chimney.

If they don't then it's easier design wise but you're still going to need a fair bit if iron work in there for structural strength. Upstairs is slightly easier to plan than downstairs.

As for utilities, you simply disconnect the one address and get professionals in to put the systems together. Council, just a case of writing to them and letting them know.

Felix · 12 Apr 2016 at 08:54

I doubt the council would be keen, they'd loose a large chunk of council tax!

paradigm · 12 Apr 2016 at 09:05

Felix said:
I doubt the council would be keen, they'd loose a large chunk of council tax!

Not certain, as the band would likely be re-assessed to take into account the revised back-dated property value

Felix · 12 Apr 2016 at 10:36

paradigm said:
Not certain, as the band would likely be re-assessed to take into account the revised back-dated property value

But say the houses are band D, the revised band won't be 2 x band D.

the_r_sole · 12 Apr 2016 at 11:09

council tax contributions aren't a material planning consideration, there is nothing that would allow a council tax contribution to block a planning application with "loss of income" as the reason.

Council tax is applied to things that are there (not things that are potentially there), and combining two properties would require to be reassessed as a single property.

If the council tax contribution was able to be applied like this, I'm sure we would see local authorities insisting that only mansions are built!!

Skillmister · 12 Apr 2016 at 13:23

the_r_sole said:
If the council tax contribution was able to be applied like this, I'm sure we would see local authorities insisting that only mansions are built!!

Surely the other way round, they would insist every house was a 10 storey block of flats so they could get 10x more CT income?

SeatIbiza · 12 Apr 2016 at 14:43

I own two houses next to each other and the knocking through has crossed my mind but the way mine are laid out it could only be a couple of doors through as they're old terraced places.

It would be better to buy some land and build from scratch...

£15 · 12 Apr 2016 at 18:36

I imagine there'd be problems with valuing the house, especially if you ever came to sell. The resulting property value would not be the combined value of the original two properties.

I'd move.

Rexxar · 12 Apr 2016 at 20:53

Few pitfalls i see, (ever the optimist)...

1) Council Tax Hike
2) Final value would unlikely equal the two properties individual values.

Utilities shouldn't be an issue, choose one to cancel and use the other.

Cant see it being cost effective at all though.

Thesnipergecko · 13 Apr 2016 at 11:34

Thanks for all the feedback, it's given us something to think about.

cheesyboy · 13 Apr 2016 at 11:51

Council tax doesn't get reassessed when you do major work, but gets triggered later when you sell.

the_r_sole · 13 Apr 2016 at 13:40

cheesyboy said:
Council tax doesn't get reassessed when you do major work, but gets triggered later when you sell.

I believe when you merge two properties into one, or split one into more than one, the address change would trigger an assessment - and it would be in the interest of the op to ask for one if it wasn't re-assessed otherwise they would be liable for both council tax bills

R.C.Anderson · 13 Apr 2016 at 14:44

My parents did this (but was 2nd in a terrace) several years ago (probably about 10 now). I don't know all the details, but in terms of utilities, they've kept each half separate (or as much as they can), so they have 2 electric, gas & water meters. I believe the main reason for this is to make it a lot easier to split again in the future if/when they come to sell.
In terms of council tax etc, it exists as one house how, and is under a single mortgage.

Mat · 13 Apr 2016 at 16:46

BadMojo said:
I imagine there'd be problems with valuing the house, especially if you ever came to sell. The resulting property value would not be the combined value of the original two properties.

I'd move.

There is also the problem of pricing yourself out of the local market. Your new, double sized house may well be too expensive for the type of person who would be buying in that area but the area would not be appealing for those able to buy the property.