Advice required urgently before buying a Listed house

[swift_ben]

Hi Everyone. Hope you can help me. I'm about to put a bid in on a Grade II* listed building in Norfolk which is in a great state cosmetically and has been lived in for years. However, on talking to the owner, he said that the work done to the insde of the house (including new kitchen and kitchen floor put in, removal of a ground floor shower, new lighting added) was done under a "gentleman's agreement" with the local conservation official when they first moved in 6 years previously and that, although no work has been done to the exterior, he has been changing some things internally without (it would appear) full written confirmation that such acts were approved. Is there any website I could check or person I could contact to check to see if it has been approved or not?
If I were to purchase this property, could I become liable to the costs of changing things back (if so demanded)?
Thanks for any help!
Ben

 

[biffvernon]

Theoretically you could become liable but it is very rare that Local Authorities enforce the rules and take action. On the other hand the * rating means that the building is rather more significant than a plain II so there may be good reasons why the Authority and even English Heritage take an interest. I think it might be a wise move to meet the Conservation Officer and get assurances in writing before committing a lot of money.

 

[Anne]

I've lived through this and survived. My house is also grade II* listed however it falls under CADW and not English Heritage. The star rating other then meaning its more then special means that these bodies also get involved with permissions. Your CO is the first stop however.

When we purchased the property I knew the pervious owner did work without consent and I also knew I didn't care and was willing to correct anything that I was forced to. Not many people for understandable reasons want to say that.

In my case I had problems with my attorney as she wanted to see permissions etc both the vendor and I convinced her that it was like for like just to get the sale done, but as I said I knew I would be responsible.

If you want to know where you stand and keep your solicitor happy call a neighbouring CO not the one under which the house falls because if you do this then should you need the vendour to get an insurance policy (not that those work in this case but lawyers like them.) it would cause problems.

The easiest solution is to talk to the vendor and see if he would agree to invite the CO out to the house with you there so that you will know if what he did was ok or if you will have to back and get retrospective consent. It really depends on what the vendour has done. Your vendor may not like this idea as if you don't buy it and the CO says things have to change he can force the vendor to make those changes.

Saying all this however it really does depend on what he did. After much panic my CO came out to see the house and thought everything was fine. We talked about some changes and he had no problem letting me put in a kitchen as long as it was free standing and not built in, changing the floor and putting the flagstones back was not going to be a problem etc.

It is possible also that your vendor had what he thinks is a gentlemans agreement with the CO but its the CO's job to write down his conversations with the owner's he speaks to. There may be notes on this conversation which allow him to do what he's done. Not everything needs consent. However trying to figure out what does or doesn't is impossible you need to ask.

Finally good luck

 

[NT]

If the seller says he has no permission, I would be surprised if it then turns out he has. I dont suppose the claim of a verbal acceptance constitutes LBC.

If you own it you become liable for any and all corrective work, regardless of the fact it may have been done by someone else. OTOH prosecutions are not very common. So, you know what youre buying and what risk comes with it.

ianal tho, so its up to you to check this with your solicitor.


NT