When is a house not a house?

You’d think it would be relatively easy to tell wouldn’t you? Not so, apparently, and especially when the Agent who markets the property tells you it’s a house, and you subsequently buy it as such, only to find out that it is still ‘in commercial use class’. It’s also particularly bad luck if your Solicitor doesn’t pick up on this during the Conveyancing process either.

Our clients for this particular instruction were living abroad with a plan to re-locate back home, but they then find themselves in a troublesome scenario: they’ve bought a ‘could be’ stunning period property, but they can’t live in it, because in planning terms, it’s not in residential use class. What happens next? You could call Abode Chartered Surveyors for advice.

Essentially, we helped work with the clients and the planning system to secure a “Certificate of Lawfulness”, essentially a document which enables them to live in the property they have bought. This involved a drawn out process of appeal, getting the assistance of a barrister to support the case, and happily it all eventually worked out well. Subsequent planning application and bat surveys were submitted and carried out, and consent given for the re-development of the property, which is now an amazing family home.