First off, big thanks for bringing up the complexities of illegal flat conversions. Your content is seriously a gem for us exploring the property landscape. I'm currently navigating the tricky waters of property hunting with the goal of letting a room on Airbnb at some point. One property in particular has piqued my interest because its current setup seems tailor-made for my future plans. The owner did some upgrades, mostly adding a kitchenette upstairs in the smallest room sandwiched between two ensuite rooms. As a result, everything upstairs, aside from the main door of the house and the hallway, feels very much self-contained. However, I'm a bit puzzled. The only conversion I can spot here is turning a room into a kitchenette (which I believe doesn’t require planning permission) and separating the heating. Otherwise, the electric, council tax, etc… has not been split. So, my burning question: could this setup fall under the category of an illegal flat conversion, with all the ramifications you laid out? Any insights or advice?
Thanks for finding and even more for watching this video, one of many as you will have no doubt seen. You clearly liked the cotnent, thank you, feel free to continue exploring other gems in my collection. From your description, it doesnt seem a planning violation but depending on how substantial the alterations are, it could fall foul of mortgage lenders T&C's, leading to problems getting a mortgage on it. The distinction would be how far it goes to being a fully functional kitchen, for example does it have a fully operational oven & hob? or is it mroe like a sink and a fridge under a length of worktop?
Hi Kevin, thanks for your insights! So, about that kitchenette, it's small, but it's fully functional with a hob, sink, a full-size fridge, and yes, even an oven. I'm pretty sure it meets building regulations - extractor fan and all that jazz but no planning permission. I reached out to a mortgage broker since my last message. According to him, it's a bit of a gray area. He's optimistic that it might fly under the radar with lenders, especially if I don't draw too much attention to the kitchen during the mortgage application process. So, if the lender approves the mortgage, and down the line, the kitchen becomes an issue that breaches the terms and conditions, what kind of problem could that pose for me? I didn't make these alterations, and I secured the mortgage with the existing setup.@@KevinWrightProperty
@@BoulderDash-i4s highly improbable that you will ever get a mortgage approved on that. As soon as the lenders valuer spots that fully functioning kitchen during the valuation visit, you are in trouble. in their eyes, you are halfway to fully converting it to a self contained flat, or at least a self contained living area - either would breach their T&Cs. So they are not going to give you the green light to do that by granting you a mortgage - and that's not a grey area at all.
Don't forget the cost of proper fire protection, AFD and EICRs for compliant electrical safety plus sepatate metering. Some conversions are death traps.
glad you like it Wayne - most certainly there is - in two respects 1. 30 m2 is the minimum to get a full range of mortgage lenders to lend. Below that it becomes increasingly more difficult to get a mortgage 2. 37 m2 is the minimum space set by Govt from October 2015 onwards
Hi kevin, I presume you apply for planning before buying the property, Which makes sense But if the vendor is looking for a quick sale,( and it’s a good price) Should I buy the property before I get planning? But If I had to buy the property as apartments and if I had to convert it back to a regular house because I couldn’t get planning on it It wouldn’t make sense financially , What would you do in that situation
Thanks for your question R D. Its a retrospective application for planning needed here. Normally you apply for planning in advance of making a change to the property. Here the change has already been made by the current owner without that permission being granted, so you are asking for the change to be legitimised. You could say whereas normally you ask for permission to make the change, here you are asking for forgiveness of a change already made. The correct term for this is a Certificate of Lawfulness but the process is very similar to a planning application and it must include evidence that the property has been continuously used as flats in recent years You can submit your CoL application prior to purchasing it, equally you can set up a pre-app meeting with the planners, to ask if they will have any objection to you asking for the change to be legitimised. How good a price the vendor was prepared to let the property go at in return for a quick sale could be a factor in deciding which option you choose.
depends on the actual planning authority and how they want to do things. ften they just look at your written submssion. its the Building Control officer that does site inspection visits.
i have heard this is called lawful development and if the building has been repurposed for 4 years or less the planning authorities have the right to decline the application but after ten years permission has to be granted. does this sound right to you
I am not familiar with it being called 'lawful development' but to rectify an illegal conversion a Certificate of Lawfulness must be applied for which is, in effect, a retrospective planning application. it must be accompanied by proof the the property has been continuously used has flats since the conversion. A great resource for any planning issue is www.planning geek.com - this will give you the clarification you need over this and many other planning questions.
Hi Kevin - great insights, thanks. Do you have any views / resources you recommend on how to make a profit from properties that are unmortgageable as the leasehold period is below 80 years (ie in London) - is there any way of perhaps checking how much it would cost to extend the lease, agreeing a lease option at a specific price level with the seller, exercise the lease option after extending the lease (can you use bridging finance to finance the extension of the lease while you hold the lease option?) and then finally exercise the option? I assume that another option is to package and sell that lease option agreement to another investor even before the lease has been extended on the basis that we have negotiated a good price and that the deal will be profitable for them? Would you say that this is a good strategy to focus on? Any tips / resources on strategies that work in London / South of England especially during the forthcoming post-lockdown period would be great appreciated. Thanks again!
Thank you Dani. Short lease properties are a very complex strategy and it is that complexity that deters most potential investors. The costs can also mount unexpectedly unless you know exactly what you are doing, so it is very easy to underestimate them and pay too much to purchase the property. You cannot accurately predict the cost of extending a lease because the process is one of negotiation with the freeholder of the block and their intent will clearly be to maximise the cost to their benefit. To be clear, the seller has no power over the cost of extending the lease, only the freeholder has that. You can agree a sale price with the seller and that's it. The best you can get is an estimate of the max it could possibly cost to extend the lease, then hope that your solicitor can negotiate it lower. You need to get this estimate from a Leasehold Enfranchisement solicitor and no one else.
Furthermore, you could use an option agreement but it is not advisable to, these are not particularly robust legal agreements and it is not certain that they would stand up in a court of law, should it come to that. A stronger legal document is an exchange of contracts, you will protect your interests better if you use this rather than an option agreement. Bridging finance can be used to cover the lease extension cost if it is used the right way.You cannot use bridging finance until you are the owner of the property though, you cannot borrow money on a property you don't yet own. Given the complexity of this I would guess that you would have a very limited chance of finding another investor interested in taking on your packaged lease option idea
lastly Dani, short lease flats can be a profitable strategy for those people with sufficient knowledge to execute them effectively. I train investors in detail on short leases as part of the curriculum on my Ninja Investor Programme. I also liaise with Leasehold Enfranchisement solicitors and surveyors to ensure my students have access the the best minds in this subject. Thus de-risking to a great extent the downside risk to operating this strategy. I hope to make a short lease project one of my mentee case study videos series on my channel before too long.
@@KevinWrightProperty Hi Kevin, thanks a lot for your detailed responses. BTW I started following your content on the recommendation of Sarah Hunter who I believe did your course! Understood re. the risk of using option agreements, it might not stand in a court of law, although I have seen some people actually use them effectively. Do you think the agreement is robust if both sides (buyer and seller) had legal representation and understood the full consequences of the agreement? Re. the exchange of contracts, I assume that this will mean that the actual purchase of the property is legally binding even if we fail to reach a satisfactory agreement to extend the lease at the right price, or is it possible to put that as a condition before purchase? Looking forward to your video on your video re. short lease flats, I like this strategy given that I am based in London and have been thinking profitable strategies that make sense in London and areas around it. So far have thought of: - Adding significant value to a 1 bed flat by adding an extra bedroom by converting an existing kitchen to a new bedroom, and adding a kitchen to the living room, and then refinancing. I actually want to do this myself when buying my first residential property and have been doing research around how to execute it properly and get the right freeholder / building reg consents etc. Do you have some experience around this as I have spoken to some clueless lawyers who I have had to educate on the matter and haven't given me much confidence that they'll be helpful when trying to purchase the right property! - Profiting from short leases as discussed - HMOs conversions - I believe these will generally have lower ROIs in and around London than like for like investments in areas further north though? - Commercial to residential - aware that there are some good opportunities here but probably I should probably get some other more standard property investing experience first? As you can imagine there are lots of thoughts and ideas in mind but I have no experience in property investing and think I need help to focus on a couple of specific things. Would it be possible to have a coaching call to discuss some topics (inc. the above) as I think that would be helpful before I invest in the right course at the right time
@@daniabdallah4956 ah yes Dani, Sarah completed my Ninja Investor Programme last year, and she is now participating in one of my follow up mentorship and accountability programmes too. For clarity I am not decrying the use of option agreements per se, sure they can work in certain situations but short leases is not one of them. Many thousands of option agreements have been entered into but the vast majority have yet to complete the purchase and option agreements can only be said to have been used effectively once the purchase of the property has been completed. I do not believe an option agreement is sufficiently robust purely because both sides have independent legal representation but why is a longer discussion than can really be discussed in this format. There are other situations where the use of options contracts but with short lease flats, you would be weakening your legal positions needlessly and there is no need to. When you understand the legal process, there is virtually no possibility that you will fail to reach a satisfactory agreement with the freeholder. This is because a) the Leasehold Enfranchisement surveyor you will have engaged will have worked out the worst case cost of extending the lease b) you will have factored that worst case cost into your agreed purchase price so the deal will still work even at that cost c) the worst case is rarely what is agreed, it is lower. However, an exchange of contracts can always be made conditional on a specific outcome and in this case you can protect yourself further by making the exchange conditional on a satisfactory outcome of the negotiation to extend the lease. I would agree that, if you live in London you are perfectly placed to make short lease flats a strategy that you use Dani. So perhaps look at following the path Sarah took with me to learn how to do short leases effectively and de-risk the process. You can be sure that you will have little competition to buy them and it is rare that you can say that about any London property. Maybe my student to be featured on the short lease video case study could be you?
Hi Kevin I’ve seen a terraced property that appears to have been converted into two flats what is currently advertised as a HMO. Is there something to be wary of and what implications could this have on future title splitting? Would I need planning permission before title splitting and then refinancing? Thanks
it is a substantial breach of UK planning laws to convert a house into flats without specific planning permission to do so. So whenever you look at a property like this, you need to get clarity whither it exists or not. The implication is that mortgage lenders pursue exactly this to get to the bottom of whether it has planning approval. Whenever they find it hasn't, the decline any mortgage application. So absolutely you would need both.
Great advice Kevin, I wanted to know if I could change my address (one house) to two flats through the VOA without planing permission and also what do I need to add meters (gas, elec, Water, etc) For your information, I am planning to have another family member live upstairs and they will pay their own council tax?
Hi Kevin - Just a quick one.. I understand that this causes a massive problem when you come to sell the property, but is this not a legitimate way to significantly boost your income of a single let property if you have no intentions of selling?. E.g what are the repercussions on doing so? can the council forcefully make you turn this property back into its existing state? are there any tax implications if you get caught renting out these two properties? any advice would be great, thanks and great vid
lets examine the question you pose - "is this not a legitimate way to significantly boost your income of a single let property" 1. it is a requirement that you obtain planning permission to convert a house into flats - clearly flouting planning rules is not legitimate 2. there a numerous examples of planning officers taking a hard line over planning breaches. In the most extreme cases bulldozing offending properties. They may not go that far in this case but they have the law on their side in ordering the property to be converting back to its original stat, at YOUR cost. Not really smart to breach planning to squeeze a bit more income, then spend at least as much again putting it back to what it was originally 3.No mortgage lender is going to touch an illegally converted flats, so you cannot remortgage. Your current lender can repossess you for breaching your mortgage T&Cs because a BTL mortgage does not permit multiple self- contained units. Plus they are likely to add your name to the CIFAS fraudulent borrower list, screwing your ability to get a mortgage from any lender. 4. Your insurance policy is likely to be invalid as you breach the terms of that too. So if your property should burn down you are stuck with a shell of a property that you have to rebuild at your own cost. You may conclude that your suggestion could be one of the dumbest moves you ever made, were you to implement it - and about as far from legitimate as its possible to get..
@@KevinWrightProperty Yes I understand regarding lenders etc. But in my instance for example.. My parents split their property into two units many years ago without planning permission, because my mother was severely ill and wanted her own living space which is now and still is probably classed as a self contained unit. This property has since been passed down to me, I was just wondering what you would advise me in my current situation? put in for PP? or turn back into one unit and remortgage? as I am aware it is a bit of tricky one.
Not to mention the downstairs property is now fully set up for a disabled person and maisonette upstairs perfect for a young family or couple, so seems a shame to turn back into one unit.
@@tkbbuildingcontractors ok, so now you are adding more background detail. You have inherited a property like this, which is different from buying it and converting it illegally. You can apply for a Certificate of Lawfulness, which is the correct term for retrospective planning permission. As part of your application, you will need to give them proof that the property has been lived in continuously as two flats for at least the last 4 years - one of the easiest ways to do that is to show that council tax has been paid on each flat separately. One you have got CoL, you have got a legitimate, mortgageable property.
Wow... Kevin that was a gem. Thank you
you are most welcome
First off, big thanks for bringing up the complexities of illegal flat conversions. Your content is seriously a gem for us exploring the property landscape.
I'm currently navigating the tricky waters of property hunting with the goal of letting a room on Airbnb at some point. One property in particular has piqued my interest because its current setup seems tailor-made for my future plans. The owner did some upgrades, mostly adding a kitchenette upstairs in the smallest room sandwiched between two ensuite rooms. As a result, everything upstairs, aside from the main door of the house and the hallway, feels very much self-contained.
However, I'm a bit puzzled. The only conversion I can spot here is turning a room into a kitchenette (which I believe doesn’t require planning permission) and separating the heating. Otherwise, the electric, council tax, etc… has not been split. So, my burning question: could this setup fall under the category of an illegal flat conversion, with all the ramifications you laid out?
Any insights or advice?
Thanks for finding and even more for watching this video, one of many as you will have no doubt seen. You clearly liked the cotnent, thank you, feel free to continue exploring other gems in my collection.
From your description, it doesnt seem a planning violation but depending on how substantial the alterations are, it could fall foul of mortgage lenders T&C's, leading to problems getting a mortgage on it. The distinction would be how far it goes to being a fully functional kitchen, for example does it have a fully operational oven & hob? or is it mroe like a sink and a fridge under a length of worktop?
Hi Kevin, thanks for your insights!
So, about that kitchenette, it's small, but it's fully functional with a hob, sink, a full-size fridge, and yes, even an oven. I'm pretty sure it meets building regulations - extractor fan and all that jazz but no planning permission.
I reached out to a mortgage broker since my last message. According to him, it's a bit of a gray area. He's optimistic that it might fly under the radar with lenders, especially if I don't draw too much attention to the kitchen during the mortgage application process.
So, if the lender approves the mortgage, and down the line, the kitchen becomes an issue that breaches the terms and conditions, what kind of problem could that pose for me? I didn't make these alterations, and I secured the mortgage with the existing setup.@@KevinWrightProperty
@@BoulderDash-i4s highly improbable that you will ever get a mortgage approved on that. As soon as the lenders valuer spots that fully functioning kitchen during the valuation visit, you are in trouble. in their eyes, you are halfway to fully converting it to a self contained flat, or at least a self contained living area - either would breach their T&Cs. So they are not going to give you the green light to do that by granting you a mortgage - and that's not a grey area at all.
Another golden nugget Kevin.👍
glad you enjoyed it Paul, plenty more to come
thanks Paul
Don't forget the cost of proper fire protection, AFD and EICRs for compliant electrical safety plus sepatate metering. Some conversions are death traps.
I hadn't
Hi Kevin
Great video
Is there a minimum floor space for a studio flat (including bathroom and kitchen)
Thanks
glad you like it Wayne - most certainly there is - in two respects
1. 30 m2 is the minimum to get a full range of mortgage lenders to lend. Below that it becomes increasingly more difficult to get a mortgage
2. 37 m2 is the minimum space set by Govt from October 2015 onwards
Hi kevin, I presume you apply for planning before buying the property,
Which makes sense
But if the vendor is looking for a quick sale,( and it’s a good price)
Should I buy the property before I get planning?
But
If I had to buy the property as apartments and if I had to convert it back to a regular house because I couldn’t get planning on it
It wouldn’t make sense financially ,
What would you do in that situation
Thanks for your question R D. Its a retrospective application for planning needed here. Normally you apply for planning in advance of making a change to the property. Here the change has already been made by the current owner without that permission being granted, so you are asking for the change to be legitimised. You could say whereas normally you ask for permission to make the change, here you are asking for forgiveness of a change already made. The correct term for this is a Certificate of Lawfulness but the process is very similar to a planning application and it must include evidence that the property has been continuously used as flats in recent years
You can submit your CoL application prior to purchasing it, equally you can set up a pre-app meeting with the planners, to ask if they will have any objection to you asking for the change to be legitimised.
How good a price the vendor was prepared to let the property go at in return for a quick sale could be a factor in deciding which option you choose.
@@KevinWrightProperty thank you kevin 🙏
@@RD-cp3gm - welcome
Hi Kevin when you apply for a certificate of Lawfulness does a planning officer come to inspect the property, many thanks
depends on the actual planning authority and how they want to do things. ften they just look at your written submssion. its the Building Control officer that does site inspection visits.
@@KevinWrightProperty thank you very much Kevin!
@@liszaf3976 welcome
i have heard this is called lawful development and if the building has been repurposed for 4 years or less the planning authorities have the right to decline the application but after ten years permission has to be granted. does this sound right to you
I am not familiar with it being called 'lawful development' but to rectify an illegal conversion a Certificate of Lawfulness must be applied for which is, in effect, a retrospective planning application. it must be accompanied by proof the the property has been continuously used has flats since the conversion.
A great resource for any planning issue is www.planning geek.com - this will give you the clarification you need over this and many other planning questions.
Hi Kevin - great insights, thanks. Do you have any views / resources you recommend on how to make a profit from properties that are unmortgageable as the leasehold period is below 80 years (ie in London) - is there any way of perhaps checking how much it would cost to extend the lease, agreeing a lease option at a specific price level with the seller, exercise the lease option after extending the lease (can you use bridging finance to finance the extension of the lease while you hold the lease option?) and then finally exercise the option? I assume that another option is to package and sell that lease option agreement to another investor even before the lease has been extended on the basis that we have negotiated a good price and that the deal will be profitable for them?
Would you say that this is a good strategy to focus on? Any tips / resources on strategies that work in London / South of England especially during the forthcoming post-lockdown period would be great appreciated. Thanks again!
Thank you Dani. Short lease properties are a very complex strategy and it is that complexity that deters most potential investors. The costs can also mount unexpectedly unless you know exactly what you are doing, so it is very easy to underestimate them and pay too much to purchase the property.
You cannot accurately predict the cost of extending a lease because the process is one of negotiation with the freeholder of the block and their intent will clearly be to maximise the cost to their benefit. To be clear, the seller has no power over the cost of extending the lease, only the freeholder has that. You can agree a sale price with the seller and that's it. The best you can get is an estimate of the max it could possibly cost to extend the lease, then hope that your solicitor can negotiate it lower. You need to get this estimate from a Leasehold Enfranchisement solicitor and no one else.
Furthermore, you could use an option agreement but it is not advisable to, these are not particularly robust legal agreements and it is not certain that they would stand up in a court of law, should it come to that. A stronger legal document is an exchange of contracts, you will protect your interests better if you use this rather than an option agreement.
Bridging finance can be used to cover the lease extension cost if it is used the right way.You cannot use bridging finance until you are the owner of the property though, you cannot borrow money on a property you don't yet own.
Given the complexity of this I would guess that you would have a very limited chance of finding another investor interested in taking on your packaged lease option idea
lastly Dani, short lease flats can be a profitable strategy for those people with sufficient knowledge to execute them effectively. I train investors in detail on short leases as part of the curriculum on my Ninja Investor Programme. I also liaise with Leasehold Enfranchisement solicitors and surveyors to ensure my students have access the the best minds in this subject. Thus de-risking to a great extent the downside risk to operating this strategy. I hope to make a short lease project one of my mentee case study videos series on my channel before too long.
@@KevinWrightProperty Hi Kevin, thanks a lot for your detailed responses. BTW I started following your content on the recommendation of Sarah Hunter who I believe did your course!
Understood re. the risk of using option agreements, it might not stand in a court of law, although I have seen some people actually use them effectively. Do you think the agreement is robust if both sides (buyer and seller) had legal representation and understood the full consequences of the agreement? Re. the exchange of contracts, I assume that this will mean that the actual purchase of the property is legally binding even if we fail to reach a satisfactory agreement to extend the lease at the right price, or is it possible to put that as a condition before purchase?
Looking forward to your video on your video re. short lease flats, I like this strategy given that I am based in London and have been thinking profitable strategies that make sense in London and areas around it. So far have thought of:
- Adding significant value to a 1 bed flat by adding an extra bedroom by converting an existing kitchen to a new bedroom, and adding a kitchen to the living room, and then refinancing. I actually want to do this myself when buying my first residential property and have been doing research around how to execute it properly and get the right freeholder / building reg consents etc. Do you have some experience around this as I have spoken to some clueless lawyers who I have had to educate on the matter and haven't given me much confidence that they'll be helpful when trying to purchase the right property!
- Profiting from short leases as discussed
- HMOs conversions - I believe these will generally have lower ROIs in and around London than like for like investments in areas further north though?
- Commercial to residential - aware that there are some good opportunities here but probably I should probably get some other more standard property investing experience first?
As you can imagine there are lots of thoughts and ideas in mind but I have no experience in property investing and think I need help to focus on a couple of specific things. Would it be possible to have a coaching call to discuss some topics (inc. the above) as I think that would be helpful before I invest in the right course at the right time
@@daniabdallah4956 ah yes Dani, Sarah completed my Ninja Investor Programme last year, and she is now participating in one of my follow up mentorship and accountability programmes too.
For clarity I am not decrying the use of option agreements per se, sure they can work in certain situations but short leases is not one of them. Many thousands of option agreements have been entered into but the vast majority have yet to complete the purchase and option agreements can only be said to have been used effectively once the purchase of the property has been completed. I do not believe an option agreement is sufficiently robust purely because both sides have independent legal representation but why is a longer discussion than can really be discussed in this format. There are other situations where the use of options contracts but with short lease flats, you would be weakening your legal positions needlessly and there is no need to.
When you understand the legal process, there is virtually no possibility that you will fail to reach a satisfactory agreement with the freeholder. This is because a) the Leasehold Enfranchisement surveyor you will have engaged will have worked out the worst case cost of extending the lease b) you will have factored that worst case cost into your agreed purchase price so the deal will still work even at that cost c) the worst case is rarely what is agreed, it is lower. However, an exchange of contracts can always be made conditional on a specific outcome and in this case you can protect yourself further by making the exchange conditional on a satisfactory outcome of the negotiation to extend the lease.
I would agree that, if you live in London you are perfectly placed to make short lease flats a strategy that you use Dani. So perhaps look at following the path Sarah took with me to learn how to do short leases effectively and de-risk the process. You can be sure that you will have little competition to buy them and it is rare that you can say that about any London property. Maybe my student to be featured on the short lease video case study could be you?
Great information here. Thanks
Glad it was helpful!
would you need 3 separate planning applications for 3 units of accommodation?
If the property is on one title, its just one planning application to convert to 3 flats Steven
Hi Kevin I’ve seen a terraced property that appears to have been converted into two flats what is currently advertised as a HMO. Is there something to be wary of and what implications could this have on future title splitting? Would I need planning permission before title splitting and then refinancing? Thanks
it is a substantial breach of UK planning laws to convert a house into flats without specific planning permission to do so. So whenever you look at a property like this, you need to get clarity whither it exists or not. The implication is that mortgage lenders pursue exactly this to get to the bottom of whether it has planning approval. Whenever they find it hasn't, the decline any mortgage application. So absolutely you would need both.
Great advice Kevin,
I wanted to know if I could change my address (one house) to two flats through the VOA without planing permission and also what do I need to add meters (gas, elec, Water, etc)
For your information, I am planning to have another family member live upstairs and they will pay their own council tax?
no chance Bashir, converting a house to flats requires full planning approval. Who lives has no effect on the need for this.
Thanks Kevin for your advise, I am in the middle of talking with an architect.
@@bashirmohamed6148 - ok, convert it without planning and it will be exactly the type of illegal conversion I talk about in the video
Hi Kevin - Just a quick one.. I understand that this causes a massive problem when you come to sell the property, but is this not a legitimate way to significantly boost your income of a single let property if you have no intentions of selling?.
E.g what are the repercussions on doing so? can the council forcefully make you turn this property back into its existing state? are there any tax implications if you get caught renting out these two properties? any advice would be great, thanks and great vid
lets examine the question you pose - "is this not a legitimate way to significantly boost your income of a single let property"
1. it is a requirement that you obtain planning permission to convert a house into flats - clearly flouting planning rules is not legitimate
2. there a numerous examples of planning officers taking a hard line over planning breaches. In the most extreme cases bulldozing offending properties. They may not go that far in this case but they have the law on their side in ordering the property to be converting back to its original stat, at YOUR cost. Not really smart to breach planning to squeeze a bit more income, then spend at least as much again putting it back to what it was originally
3.No mortgage lender is going to touch an illegally converted flats, so you cannot remortgage. Your current lender can repossess you for breaching your mortgage T&Cs because a BTL mortgage does not permit multiple self- contained units. Plus they are likely to add your name to the CIFAS fraudulent borrower list, screwing your ability to get a mortgage from any lender.
4. Your insurance policy is likely to be invalid as you breach the terms of that too. So if your property should burn down you are stuck with a shell of a property that you have to rebuild at your own cost.
You may conclude that your suggestion could be one of the dumbest moves you ever made, were you to implement it - and about as far from legitimate as its possible to get..
@@KevinWrightProperty Yes I understand regarding lenders etc. But in my instance for example..
My parents split their property into two units many years ago without planning permission, because my mother was severely ill and wanted her own living space which is now and still is probably classed as a self contained unit. This property has since been passed down to me, I was just wondering what you would advise me in my current situation? put in for PP? or turn back into one unit and remortgage? as I am aware it is a bit of tricky one.
Not to mention the downstairs property is now fully set up for a disabled person and maisonette upstairs perfect for a young family or couple, so seems a shame to turn back into one unit.
@@tkbbuildingcontractors ok, so now you are adding more background detail. You have inherited a property like this, which is different from buying it and converting it illegally. You can apply for a Certificate of Lawfulness, which is the correct term for retrospective planning permission. As part of your application, you will need to give them proof that the property has been lived in continuously as two flats for at least the last 4 years - one of the easiest ways to do that is to show that council tax has been paid on each flat separately.
One you have got CoL, you have got a legitimate, mortgageable property.
@@tkbbuildingcontractors - with the additional information you have now provided, I agree - get your CoL
Too much talkin didn’t see anything
Obviously not for you then. try a different channel.