Forum Topic

“Divide Homes to Conquer Housing Crisis” The Times

This is the heading of an article in The Times today re: yesterday’s Autumn Statement: ”Homeowners are to be given the right to split their properties into two flats without planning permission as long as they do not change the building’s facade”. I am concerned about this.   Am I worried over nothing?  What about Building Control, will that still apply?

Martine Guy ● 1080d16 Comments

I think this is a travesty to common sense.In other words, the landlord may split the property into flats without following building rules and not having building control.A recipe for disaster!

Ivonne Holliday ● 1080d

Thanks Ivonne, I wondered if it was just me. What exactly is a facade, it it just the front exterior that faces the street or the exterior of the whole building? Also regarding the interior being split into two does that mean, for example, if you owned an Edwardian semi with 3 bedrooms, the owner could take out all the period features and carry out a really basic/crude conversion of a property that was only ever intended to be a family house. What pressure will it put on a neighbourhood’s on street parking if you increase the number of households? What about basic fire prevention measures between flats? Lots of questions to be answered, imo.

Martine Guy ● 1080d

Planning Permission and Building Control are separate as you say and I was complaining yesterday about this.  I wish they were not separate because so few people seem to understand how very important Building Regulations Approval is.It seems to be another recipe for disaster with the problems that occur with lack of fire and sound insulation between dwellings and the lack of strengthening of floors. I'm sure it has to be debated in the House of Commons but what we heard in the speech may be enough to cause a lot of hazards and a great deal of problems for Councils (who often  have a reduced number of staff due to cuts and "efficiencies" already).  They often also have for instance shared staff between Councils or no particular staff eg Conservation Officers at all.

Philippa Bond ● 1080d

What I would also point out is that it is far easier to insulate house walls on the outside than on the inside - and therefore also cheaper.  Insulating on the inside can cause damage.  It would be good if Councils or the Govt could come up with good and proven Guidelines on this.  They have in the past, as there are unfortunately plenty of cowboys around ready to take advantage of people.

Philippa Bond ● 1080d

I agree with all your first post, Philippa.   I don’t know about insulating walls so can’t comment. Some property owners will do everything by the book, to ensure everything is as safe as possible.  However some property owners will be ruthless and greedy to maximise their profits, and I guess will try to cram in as many people as possible, especially if the planners and building  control aren’t keeping watch on them. Pity the poor homeowner/resident living next door to shoddy conversions.

Martine Guy ● 1080d

Hello Martine,The facade is the front exterior that faces the street.The conversion of houses into flats was a fashion in the 1970 and 1980s.  In Fulham, where I lived at the time, very many family homes were converted into flats, some of them into four or five flats.  They had to follow planning and building control rules though.The pressure on parking was big, there was no controlled parking at the time - at least not that I remember - and double parking was a fashion!Many of these flats allowed many people to get into the property ladder.  A friend of mine bought a converted house in the mid 80s and reconverted it into a family house.  That was a true novelty at the time!As far as I remember, there were no fire escapes for each flat but one flat in the middle had an escape route to the back garden.

Ivonne Holliday ● 1080d

Nothing in  the announcement precludes building control from the process.Fire stopping and building regs will still beva legal requirement.Local authority will need to be involved for council tax and ratification if address, electricity,  gas and water companies for metering purposes and bew supplies to the 2 units .These and the LAs all talk to each otherIt just means neighbours can't object through the planning process.In some areas this will put a real premium on parking.

Andy Pike ● 1080d

Andy, thanks for the reply.  You say neighbours wouldn’t be able to object through the planning process, but it is often the neighbours who know the problems in a road, and although I think some people object just because they don’t like change, there are other people who will have valid reasons why they don’t want a development to go ahead.  
Surely a reason for a Council to ask for comments on a Planning Application is to find out problems they won’t know about? Ivonne, I agree.  In my Thamesfield neighbourhood, some houses were converted into flats during the 1960’s and 1970’s.  I doubt many residents were canvassed for their opinion on these conversions.  Also there are properties that were purpose built as maisonettes by the Edwardians.
Will the new proposal apply to properties in Conservation areas?  I doubt some of 1960’s and 1970’s house into flat conversions would have been approved if my neighbourhood had been in a conservation area at that time.

Martine Guy ● 1080d

I'm not sure sound is sufficiently covered by building regulations in England.It's a big issue with conversions and also purpose built properties. Excess sound can be very tricky to illuminate or reduce.

Ed Robinson ● 1080d

Hello Martine,I cannot answer about what happened in the 1960s and 1970s, let alone conservation areas, I am afraid.  Today, let us hope that common sense somehow prevails today - and hope is with capital letters and lots of wishful thinking!

Ivonne Holliday ● 1080d

Andy  I know that people SHOULD get Building Regulations approval but the way that the announcement was made did not make that clear and as things already stand you can find buildings that have been converted without any proper thought or consideration about Building Regulations.  I just wish that the Planning Permission bit was always mentioned together with the Building Regs bit so that it was understood that not needing one did NOT mean not needing the other!Building conversions and refurbishments are popular but more thought is often being put into "makeovers" nowadays with quick turnarounds for rent and not enough attention paid to the basic and less visible practicalities like health and safety, energy conservation and pure liveability.  Lack of bin space inside and outside and how it is looked after is often a problem. The lack of floor strengthening and sound insulation between dwellings where the floors were not all initially built as living spaces and strengthened as such can make life very difficult for residents.  You most definitely do not want to hear everything that happens in rooms downstairs when you are upstairs. Aren't there different regulations still for instance if the owner lives on the property and rents out rooms?There are regulations for if you want to rent out properties eg Energy Performance Certificates and Gas Certificates. This means that you do need to consider insulation and other  energy saving measures.We need good standards for housing or we will have more bad feeling and divisions created between neighbours... and there seems to be enough of that already in places...Conservation Areas can mean that you can't make some alterations and extensions that you would like to - or how you would like to - which may be very costly.  It seems to depend on where you are exactly what is covered by the list of things you can change without permission from the Council.  Also as we have a climate emergency - will you be able to put photovoltaics on your roof?

Philippa Bond ● 1079d

It's an interesting subject and Martine is correct in stating that flat conversions generally began around the late Sixties. When I began my estate agency career in Putney in 1972, developers were predominantly buying houses to convert into flats, ripping out all the interesting features, painting all the walls with Magnolia and laying horrible brown cord carpets.However, from c1986, many of the larger properties became more valuable as houses so developers patiently acquired the individual flats and returned the buildings to single unit family homes.

Tim Warren ● 1079d

My point about neighbours not objecting via planning is that there will  be a planning process for this type of development.

Andy Pike ● 1079d

Should read There will not be a planning process

Andy Pike ● 1079d

From what Andy has said, and things I have read, am I right that this proposal to divide houses into two is Permitted Development?  It is being compared to the Permitted Development that allowed a further storey to be built on the top of block of flats. MailOnline has an article on it, and the comments are very critical.

Martine Guy ● 1078d

It is obviously a good idea to try and simplify and make the division of a house into two flats less expensive to create more housing in when there is a dire shortage and fewer people are living in one house BUT we have already suffered from Govt reduction in regulation over homes and that has made homes less safe.  So great care will be needed when creating these flats and when buying or renting them!Many blocks of flats for instance have leases that stipulate  that the floors must be carpeted and this is likely to be as a result of the trend for laminate flooring which although it can be very practical can be very noisy for other residents especially where children and toys and heeled shoes and boots are concerned.

Philippa Bond ● 1078d