Boundary Line query

[Eccentric]

Hi,

Wondering if anyone could help me.

We have secured a movers mortgage on a local property. We were planning on making an offer next week, subject to an engineers report. I was just having a nosy on Google at planning as this property has a large granny flat out the back.

Turns out they had applied for retention on this granny flat and change of use for the main house form commercial to residential in 2018. The application was deemed to have been withdrawn as property owners never followed up with it.

There was also a part on the retention about boundary lines. I pulled maps from development plans in the Council and the house next door boundary line runs right down the middle of both these properties (the main house and granny flat) … I’m gutted, is this a case of steer clear?

I am obviously not going to shell out stamp duty for a house that’s deemed to be a commercial property. Change of use is relatively easy to get and this house was originally a house, they just ran a business from it.

It’s the boundary line that really worries me.. how does a house built in the early ‘80s… cross over so much into someone’s else’s boundary?

Why have the neighbours not brought this up before, their house is relatively new.. I’m sure they are aware of it?

I suppose I need someone to tell me this kind of thing is common and plough on.. or avoid like the plague?

Any help greatly appreciated, really gutted over this, we were offering asking price to secure it, this house is ideal for us? Went and got full approval first just in case, all ducks in a row and now this..

BTW .. the auctioneer told us no issues with planning when I enquired on the first viewing, I asked purely because of the size of the granny flat ..
thanks a million!

 

[ALEXA]

"it’s the boundary line that really worries me.. how does a house built in the early ‘80s… cross over so much into someone’s else’s boundary?"

Is there any chance that the property you're interested in may have been built by the neighbours next door and part of their garden was built on? Of course this would normally involve re-definition of the boundary line when the new property was registered but perhaps this was overlooked in the past and has only come to light now.

 

[cremeegg]

Boundary issues are more common than you might think.
They are usually easy to resolve, but it is important that it be resolved before you sign a contract.

The planning regarding the change of use from commercial to residential, again this should be easy to get resolved.

The planning permission for the granny flat. Is there permission for the structure. If not this may not be an easy issue to resolve.

I wouldnt walk away, but I would look at other properties while waiting to see if the vendor can resolve these issues. If the vendor cannot or will not resolve, then you would need a big discount to take on the trouble. In any case your mortgage will probably become an issue if these things are not sorted.

 

[Eccentric]

Thanks a million for the replies, I’m confident there was no planning sought for the granny flat, they had applied for retention on construction of the granny flat, so it looks like they just up and built it.

We were going for another viewing tomorrow so I’m going to ring the auctioneer first thing and query the above.. don’t want to get embroiled in a planning mess and won’t be attending the viewing until I know more, my hopes were already high, and going to see it again will just add it that. I’ll give the vendors time to sort it out and fingers crossed it will be swift.

I’m local to the area and that granny flat is there since the 80s.. property is on the market a long time, auctioneer told me it was because vendors wouldn’t drop their price, which they now have done ..but I imagine the real reason is other buyers probably copped planning issues too.

Thanks again

 

[Peanuts]

Hi,

Wondering if anyone could help me.

We have secured a movers mortgage on a local property. We were planning on making an offer next week, subject to an engineers report. I was just having a nosy on Google at planning as this property has a large granny flat out the back.

Turns out they had applied for retention on this granny flat and change of use for the main house form commercial to residential in 2018. The application was deemed to have been withdrawn as property owners never followed up with it.

There was also a part on the retention about boundary lines. I pulled maps from development plans in the Council and the house next door boundary line runs right down the middle of both these properties (the main house and granny flat) … I’m gutted, is this a case of steer clear?

I am obviously not going to shell out stamp duty for a house that’s deemed to be a commercial property. Change of use is relatively easy to get and this house was originally a house, they just ran a business from it.

It’s the boundary line that really worries me.. how does a house built in the early ‘80s… cross over so much into someone’s else’s boundary?

Why have the neighbours not brought this up before, their house is relatively new.. I’m sure they are aware of it?

I suppose I need someone to tell me this kind of thing is common and plough on.. or avoid like the plague?

Any help greatly appreciated, really gutted over this, we were offering asking price to secure it, this house is ideal for us? Went and got full approval first just in case, all ducks in a row and now this..

BTW .. the auctioneer told us no issues with planning when I enquired on the first viewing, I asked purely because of the size of the granny flat ..
thanks a million!

This suggests that the council issued them a Further Information request. Typically (not sure if retention is the same) you have 6 months to respond to a Further information request or your application is deemed to have been withdrawn. This raises a red flag as it would appear that they weren't able to respond adequately to the queries raised in the Further Information request otherwise why wouldn't they have followed through on it. You should be able to access the planning file online and check what was in this request. Another reason I've seen for planning applications being withdrawn is if when people know that the application is refused it is sometimes withdrawn such that a refusal is not actually received. It's generally seen to be more difficult to get planning on a site where there has been a previous refusal.