Grade II listed buildings and extensions?
 

An interesting house has come up for sale on our patch. Problem is it's a little small for my needs as it stands at the moment so would need extending. It's Grade II listed, does that mean it would be very very difficult to get plans passed for things like rear extensions, especially double storey?

Thanks

Not very very difficult

Probably just very difficult

You need to get listed building consent from the local authority.

It'll be a pain in the arse, that's for sure.

Everything you plan to do will be changed, the planners will more or less tell YOU how you can have YOUR house.

Get in touch with your planners and keep them on side.
Don't forget that any building that IS passed will more than likely have to be built using traditional materials to match existing and worse case - as I have seen from experience - having to have materials made to match.

One mansion I decorated many years ago (listed, but English Heritage also involved) the new owners had to have all the guttering, drainpipes, hoppers etc fabricated out of lead.

Cost was £kk's just for that.

Anyway, hope I haven't put you off :)

There was a Victorian building near me which was to be gutted and rebuilt with a more modern shop/office space but retaining the old facade - in accordance with the planning permission.

So the inside was gutted and the front was left standing...all supported with beams, props, scaffold etc.

Then a few weeks later - it all 'accidentally' collapsed.

...and an all new building was put up...now looking scruffy and tired...salt leaking out of brinks/mortar etc.

A friend of mine owns a Grade II listed building and it is a nightmare to get anything done. You have to have specific plans that make sure you fit in with the current building structure (same brickwork, same style etc...). It cost them an absolute fortune to do even minor cosmetic fixes.

Steve

Thanks, I think you've all told me what I feared. I've been waiting for something period with character to come up in our local area for ages to be our final move. I just wasn't expecting it to be bloody listed.

It's a gorgeous Regency style house but only has four beds and a pokey kitchen. It would need some major extension work and some general reconfiguration to make it work, but then would be fabulous.
Problem is if I bought it and the work was turned down I'd end up with a very expensive house that's smaller than the one I already live in!

Not sure if I can afford such a big gamble, for my sanity as much as anything. Shame.

been there, done that and spent 3 yrs working on a project for a client.

took 4 years to sort it out, would draw some drawings, they would go off to english heritage, they'd kick them back 2 moinths later with a 90 page document of things to sort, those would get sorted, they'd go back again, another list, redrawn and off to get planning permissions, who would then kick it back for etc etc etc.

tbh unless you have baggs of money then i wouldn't bother. Not only do you have to get permission form the council but english heritage (not say rightly or wrongly) are a pain int he ass to work with. Everything from brickwork to window frames have to match, and normaly there mega expensive on a graded building.

also you may not end up with a building your happy with due to how much you'll have to compramise, assumign you are eventualy allowed to build it, which might be outrightly refused.

personaly i'd walk away

Still worth a friendly word with your local planner.

They may see it as better for someone to make it into a better home - or see it getting ever dilapidated. (that is, if it's already on the way to being?)

If the latter, they may be more open to building works being done.

Thanks Tidgy, very helpful.

Zip, that's the problem, it's not dilapidated in the least, it actually already looks gorgeous and well maintained from the outside. The problem is it's lacking one bedroom and the big open plan kitchen that we love (and have now)

In other Edwardian/Victorian houses around here that's no problem, loft extension to give the bedroom and a huge extension at the back with lots of glass to give the big sexy kitchen. In this house that could turn into a nightmare, and I presume a loft extension would never be given permission.

I'll leave this one to one of the City boys with a huge bonus in his back pocket and an anorexic blonde wife that has nothing better to do than have a 'project'

Cheers

I used to live in a Grade II listed building (16th Century), and a friend of mine lives in a Grade II listed Georgian building. Depends how much you want to live in it. If it's what you've been looking for, and the extension won't be too drastic, I would say go for it. There'll have to be a bit of give and take on both sides probably. Ring the council and have a chat.

I currently live in a Grade II building (I bet you are all surprised ;)) - which lists one of the aspects of the house for unique brickwork.

We even needed special planning permission for a small internal change that had nothing to do with the listed aspect!

Parking a Porsche in the grounds?

My mate lives in a GII Listed barn, he had a huge conversion done,

The tiling alone cost nearly 10K each pan tile was £1 a pop & 5K for a

bund, totally useless, but the council planner decided it was a precaution!!


If you do decide to buy & go down that route watch out for tea leaves ;)

my mate came home few times to find whole pallets of bricks or tiles

missing where thieving gits with hiabs, used to lift them and scarper!!

Gets costly after a while


Mart

Would that not lead people to suspect there may be quite a large gay cruise scene in the area?

Definitely controversial.

Well greased palms

Not sure how masturbating would help:confused:

Our house is grade 2 listed and within a conservation zone...

You basically have to jump through hoops to get anything passed,and anything "out of character" is a definate no no...

But thats what happens when you choose a home with character rather than a plasterboard brookside looking monstrocity!!