Changing a Georgian builiding from office to residential

[homecoming]

We have seen several properties currently used for commercial purposes in D2 with 'Protected Status'. We would like to purchase a Georgian property and change the usage back to residential or a combination of both whilst we get some work done on the property.

We have discussed this albeit briefly with the planning dept on seperate occassions explaining our intentions, but we seem to come back with the same response. Not until we have submitted a planning application will they consider this and we can't do that until we have bought it. We obviously don't want to buy a building we may not be able to use.

Does anyone have any guidance they could offer, many thanks.

 

[munchy]

As far as I know you do not need to be the owner of the property to apply for planning permission. On most of the local council application forms for planning permission is this tick box Q :" If you are not the legal owner, please state the name and address of the owner and supply a letter from the owner of consent to make the application as listed in the accompanying documentation"

You can approach the owner and ask for permission and get them to give you a letter of approval and they should be cooperative if they think you could be a buyer.

I would recommend not trying to apply for full planning permission which would require a lot of drawings, even for change of use, but perhaps apply for "outline" permission which requires less information in this early stage and is much quicker to approve. The local authority websites are actually quite useful.

In terms of change of use, you could consult the development plan. If it is a street of retail and offices, and no other apartments on the ground level it will be very hard to change, but if there are other residential units at ground level, you must state that these set a "precedent" Also state how much your plans will benefit the built heritage of Dublin etc

 

[homecoming]

May I thank up so much for your response and please accept my apologies for not coming back to you sooner to thank you, family committments took us away from the site for a while. The information is extremely beneficial to us and we hope to proceed a bit better informed. With very kind regards.

 

[abcd]

converting commercial to residential

hi, i am just wondering whether you persued this [we wish to purchase a georgian office and convert to our home]and how it has worked out as we have a similar plan, thanks a,

 

[Brendan Burgess]

You can check the zoning for the area.

As far as I know, it is Dublin City Council policy to promote residential in Georgian and Victorian Dublin. It is very difficult to go from residential to office, but should be easy to go back.

The problem would be in converting it in a manner which gets planning permission.

The Irish Georgian Society probably has a booklet on the issue.

A good conservation architect will also know what will be allowed and what won't be.

Brendan

 

[cremeegg]

A friend of mine recently received planning permission to renovate a derelict house that was a protected structure.

The planners were also very slow to explain in advance what the planning considerations would be.

She considers that the problem was the planning dept staff simply did not feel confident in this sensitive area.

She believes that the reason she got planning was because, her architect was well known as an authority in the field, had written a book on the vernacular architecture of the area.

The planners attitude was 'if XXX drew up the plans it must be ok".

 

[homecoming]

Thank you for your responses. We have several meetings next week to discuss this further with various departments and we will be happy to offer any results we find.

 

[homecoming]

Hi Abcd,

So we have had a good look around and found a few Commercial properties that suited us. As Brendan explained, going from Commercial to Residential in the permitted zoned areas are favoured. We did a lot of ground work on foot, within a couple of hours we had spoken to owners, builders, solicitors, owners of mixed use buildings and got a fair idea that basically if within the commercial area there are residential buildings in situ, there is a very good case for conversion and there are plenty doing it. As regards estate agents and even the good ones there was a lot of 'flannel' [not the commercial we were looking at but pre 63's are all but sold I'm told] and that's not true for sure and a chat with the planning dept was good. I would like to find someone within the planning dept to liaise with and I haven't got that far yet. So all in all I have no reservations about our plans and would be happy to discuss any future findings that might be beneficial. Good luck and if it's what you want, go for it, plenty will say your mad, but it only someone's opinion and not their money! All the best.