Buying next door and knocking through Post Reply

[Vhopeful]

Hi all,
Just wondering does anyone have any experience in Wandsworth borough of buying a neighbouring terraced house and knocking through to make the two terraced houses one large terraced house?
Did you have any issues with planning permission And were you allowed alter the front of the house so there was just one door?
Any advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[actuallyadad]

I don't have direct experience..but I know that in Westminster they refused permission to somebody I know wanting to knock two flats into one (with no external changes) on the basis that they don't want to reduce the number of homes in the borough. And in that case the building was originally one house. It seemed odd. So definitely worth checking if its allowed here.

[papinian]

Are the houses in a conservation zone?

Even if they're not, I think there is a good chance that you won't be allowed to alter the second house to remove/replace the door. Of course it very much depends on the nature of the houses - I'm assuming typical mid-late Victorian / Edwardian terrace.

Do you need planning permission to interconnect the two houses? You can own the two houses and live in both of them without any planning permission. I can't see any reason why knocking through between two terraced houses would ordinarily require planning permission if all the changes are internal. However, you should get advice from an expert - which I am definitely not.

One piece of advice is to think hard before integrating the two houses. It may be better to keep separate electricity, heating, etc. in case you want to sell them again as separate houses. I suspect that in most cases the price you'd get for selling them separately would be more than selling them as a single property - not least because of the stamp duty. See this story about Jamie Oliver: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/celebrit ... 23761.html

[ladyofacertainage]

I know people in Lambeth who did just that, I am not sure if they tried to get planning permission, but they did keep the two houses utility supplies separate and I assume had to pay 2x council tax so possibly not. They kept both front doors but only used one, so outside appearance was unaltered.
However it ended up much cheaper than moving and now their kids are about to be grown up they are downsizing back to one house, blocking up the doorways between the two and selling off the second one.
Worked very well for them and they can continue to live where they always have with less expense of selling and moving.

[Daisyduck]

Years ago a family on one of the streets between Thurleigh Road and Broomwood Road knocked through into the house next door. From the outside the houses still looked liked 2 houses but they only used 1 front door and address. Not sure if the family still live in the double house. The children will be late teens early twenties now.

[TTOBES]

I know of three examples in the borough of Wandsworth where there are two houses knocked into one, so the council must be willing to listen!

[DavidDecorator]

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