Tips regarding Planning Permission

1. Eight weeks is the target that most planning offices aim for to arrive at a decision.

2. A little known fact is that you don’t need to own the plot – you can apply for planning consent on any land.

3. If you feel that the result isn’t going to be favourable, you can withdraw you proposal and resubmit it another time without incurring extra costs. You are also not restricted by the amount of proposals you submit.

4. You don’t need to include you nieghbours but it certainly help if you pay a visit to explain your ideas and talk through the plans. The final decision isn’t effected by their objections though.

5. Land with planning permission is worth more than land without. So even if you don’t go ahead with your plans and decide to sell– add this to the valuation.

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Tips on finding your Architect

1. Get recommendations from friends/ family
2. 'Interview' the architect - it's important you get along
3. Look for creativity in their past work
4. Don't be bullied by them - it's your house
5. Don't forget to compare costs.We scouted about asking friends and family if they could recommend anyone. We also got in touch with some trusted builders to ask them who they used. We got 4 firms around to see the space, talk to us about their ideas and give us an idea on how expensive it would be.

We were stunned how reluctant architects are in sketching or even talking through their ideas. What we were looking for apart from reasonable cost was inventiveness and a clear understanding of the space.

The first company – Loftplan – was a company we used on our last house to convert the loft. They impressed us with total professionalism, patience in waiting for us to commit without getting pushy and willingness to discuss every aspect the project. They draw up the plans, explained the process of planning and building and even introduced us to the builders who were going to work on the project. For loft conversions I would highly recommend them, but this project isn’t just a loft conversion and their quote was way over budget - £48,000 for the shell only

The second company was econo loft. The sent of a draftsmen (women) who arrived with smiles and promises at 7pm. She made us sit with her as she sketched her ideas out and it took man handling to get her out of our house at 12.30am. I can not stress how angry I was with this company and late apology from their smarmy MD didn’t help. Don’t touch econo loft

The third was an independent recommended by a builder friend. He was professional and would have done what we asked, and that’s where the plan lay. He didn’t show any creativity or to quote consultants – he didn’t think out of the box. He was also quite expensive for what he was offering. In short the cost would have been around £3000 for a drawing for the planning office and a building regulation plan.

So we went for another draftsmen that was recommended to us. Ignoring the fact he could talk the hind legs off a donkey (in a friendly way not sales way) he instantly offered new ideas that other, including ourselves, hadn’t thought of. He explained the planning process, payment process and sketched out ideas there and then. He didn’t get precious about changing the first draft and kept us in the loop regarding the talks between himself and the planning office. The total cost will be £1800 which includes the building regulation drawing taking us to the building stage. Details can be found on the proposal plan.

Other articles you may want to look at:
channel4
www.architecture.com
RIBA

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Diary - The first hurdle - planning permission is granted

POP - the champers is on ice. We have the go ahead from the planning office. The official line is -

Decision: Certificate of Lawfulness Granted
Decision Date: 01/15/2007

So onward with the building plans.

Cost so far - £900 for the proposal plans

here's the letter of consent

Tips on finding the right house to renovate

Still no news so here are my ideas on finding a good house to renovate.

Research

• Use www.upmystreet.com to research the social demographics. If you are going to add value to the house, it's wise to make sure that those you're targeting would actually want to live there.
• Research what your target wants. A house for young professionals and a house designed for a family will turn out totally different. Large open plan spaces may be what a young couple would like but a family need spaces to hide away from each other (trust me on this – I have 2 kids). If you are in a good area where crime is low and the schools are great then this will have a greater pull on a family than a hip area that would appeal to the younger buyer.
• Are there any plans to build new houses in your chosen neighbourhood? These will be cheaper to buy and could make selling your house harder as the demand in decreased.
• Stick to areas you know. You’re more likely to understand local trends which will help you to tailor the house to local markets when you come to sell.

Find the right house

• Small changes, big profit – Some houses only need bringing in to the 21^st century. Our first house was bought from a little old lady who was systematically ripping out the soul of the house. We added the Victorian features back, Reskimmed the walls and added a lick of paint. That would have been enough to get a small profit back but we bought it to live in. By the time we moved out we had converted the loft and cellar into rooms and gave the garden an overhaul.
• When converting any house, get a professional in to help with the building regulations. These will include: architect to design and help with planning consent, surveyor to cost the job and an estate Agent to help value your house. We found talking to an estate agent very useful to determine if we could justify the investment on our house and if there was an upper limit its value.