Double garage costs and planning ?

[fastbikes76]

So as a first time buyer and petrolhead we have found a house we really like and expect to be throwing a decent offer in shortly. It has a single garage which is quite long (around 1.5 times normal length at a guess) but it also has a block paved drive which looks ideal for a double garage to be built. Would it be relatively easy to get permission to put up a double garage where the blocked drive is as well as keep existing garage ? The paving looks smaller in the pics than it is. You can park 2 L200's side by side without over hanging the block paving.

What sort of money at a flying guess would something like that cost...very vaguely, as I have zero clue to building costs. It more a case of thinking out loud at the moment and my mind running away with potential man cave ideas

[fastbikes76]

In an ideal world I would have liked to build a garage on the exact bit which is currently the block paved drive, so in front of the current garage. The paved section does indeed stick out past the house by around 3ft at a guess.

[fastbikes76]

RichB said:

That or extend your single & a half garage forward in line with your house to make a double tandem. That's the bst you could hope for and you'd still be akle to park one car on the drive to the left hand side

I guess a double tandem wouldn't be a bad thing as I have one car that barely gets driven which could live at the back.

[fastbikes76]

sorry for late replies...packing for holiday

The house is not owned by us...yet. As soon as we are back from abroad we will be putting an offer in. The house is exactly what we after and are even happy at full asking so all things being equal we should be full steam ahead.

I don't mind leaving the drive as it is and just utilising the single garage, it was more of a case that to my inexperienced eye it looked a good candidate to build a double garage on it. Its not a deciding factor on whether we go for it or not, it would have been a bonus though if we could at some stage.

The scrub to the left has a stream and foot path through it...by stream I mean a 12" trickle of water that gets no bigger regardless of any rain. So the option to buy that wouldn't really yield any benefit.

Thanks for the replies

[fastbikes76]

Hopefully it wont get away and we've expressed great interest with the vendor and EA. Sadly my mum has had another stroke the week before we are due to fly out there for a holiday, so everything's a bit up in the air right this minute. As soon as we land back in the UK we will go in full guns blazing. It would be a shame to miss it but right now I need to sort my mum out as priority.

I don't 'think' anyone will offer asking as its more than its worth compared to other properties around it, for us though it ticks every single box so I would be happy to pay asking and perhaps even a fraction more if needed.

[fastbikes76]

TheAngryDog said:

I'm baffled.

Not as baffled as me..first time buyer and haven't a Scooby doo what I'm doing M

I may ring EA tomorrow before we fly and put our offer in but let them know we will be out the country for 3 weeks so wont be able to go any further until we return. The last thing I want is while we away on holiday (and now sorting my ill mum) is to be trying to mess around with emails etc. We will be spending a lot of time out in the sticks with no internet.

[fastbikes76]

First time buyer, Spoken to mortgage advisor who ran though our finances briefly and been given an idea of amount to budget for, the house is 50K under what we can afford and been told we will get. This house is the end of a 3 house chain, which the sale fell through before due to last 'buyers' not actually in a position to move.

The people in this house are keen to get going once they find a buyer but I can only see my Mortgage guy again on 20th April when I'm back from abroad. I didn't really want to start the ball rolling before then in case it all goes tits up for some reason and mess these lovely people around for a second time.

[fastbikes76]

TheAngryDog said:

Get your offer in, tell the EA to email you if you can't get an answer when you're away with the result of your offer, but as you say, make them aware.

I hope your mum is as OK as can be.

Good advice,

And thanks, she is 'ok' but to what extent we wont know. There has been further brain damage from this one but reasonably minor and not debilitating yet.

[fastbikes76]

Well its all a bit off topic now but an update on our progression of house buying as FTB'ers.

We found this house in the OP that we love and it suited us 100% in every aspect. I was about to go on a 3 week holiday abroad and my mum had just had a massive stroke. I was advised it was best to throw in my offer before I left however I tried and the agent was off work for the day. The following day I left the country and due to mums illness I left the whole house saga till we got back.

When we got back on Sunday the wife checked and found the house marked as SSTC...gutted !! She rang the agents on Tuesday who were rude and not remotely interested saying it was a done deal and that's that. Off we went to our mortage adviser today and got our MIP sorted so we were ready to roll on any others that came upl. On the way home I said to the wife sod it, I was going to swing by the house and speak to the owners explaining were interested in the house and ready to go chain free. Wife was saying no ways it would never work blah blah. Spoke to the vendor who seemed genuinely sorry we had missed it by less than a week and wished it had gone too us instead, I said I would put an official offer in and offered a princely sum of 1k more than previous people (who had a chain) .

Well, 10 minutes after emailing the EA with a copy of MIP and screenshot of full deposit sitting waiting, we got the call..... We have just been accepted and on our way to start the process of buying our first house, from nothing to getting a MIP and offer accepted in less than 3 hours

[fastbikes76]

PositronicRay said:

Good luck, pleased it's worked out, but if the vendors are willing to turn over the 1st buyers...............

Vendors have had 2 previous sales fall through already, and the house they are looking to buy is chain free. With us being FTB'ers there is now effectively nothing to go wrong....in theory. We liked them and they really liked us, just someone beat us too it with an offer but are not in as favourable position as us.

[fastbikes76]

Totally accept gazumping its pretty crap, and no I wouldn't like it if it were done too me. The sole consolation for me is it wasn't about the money at all. They need to move desperately due to her MS deteriorating and have been messed around endlessly over the last 8 months. In all fairness I know they would have accepted our offer for LESS than other buyers who only made an offer 6 days ago AND still need to sell. The sole reason I offered the extra grand is my OCD would not let me deal with paying 359K, so a nice round 360 was what I offered .

Still, a bummer for other guys and a hollow victory for me.

As for the garage, I will leave things be for a couple of years and review things once we've settle in (provided it doesn't all go tits up)