Grade 2 Listed House Advice
Discussion
If you have bottomless financial resources to cope with the listed buildings bod at Council then crack on but consider yourself warned.
Grade 2 Listed, you might need your head examined. If the Council are pragmatic it might not be too bad, if they are a nit picking PITA it is hell on earth.
Do yah feel lucky?
Grade 2 Listed, you might need your head examined. If the Council are pragmatic it might not be too bad, if they are a nit picking PITA it is hell on earth.
Do yah feel lucky?
If its absolutely perfect as it is then get all the surveys etc as you would with any other house and enjoy it.
Just don't buy a project unless you're prepared. If you want to do work to it or it needs repairing in any way then prepare for an inordinate amount of burocracy and being charged 3x the price for anything required.
Just don't buy a project unless you're prepared. If you want to do work to it or it needs repairing in any way then prepare for an inordinate amount of burocracy and being charged 3x the price for anything required.
We have a Scottish Grade B (equivalent to Grade II* in England) house. We've never had any bother from the Local Authority. We've consulted them on a few things and they have never objected. We also gained planning permission to build a garage and granny flat right next to the house. I suspect therefore that it depends heavily on the attitude of your particular Local Authority. Worth checking the experiences of other Grade II homeowners in your target area.
Mr.Nobody said:
I ve found a house that s in Cumbria. Is within my budget and is quite a nice house. I live not far from Liverpool. But I do love the Lakes.
It has some nice original feature and the garden looks a great size. Any advice would be great.
My advice would be to get a specialist surveyor (from lpoc.co.uk).It has some nice original feature and the garden looks a great size. Any advice would be great.
If the house requires you to make lots of changes then I’d think very carefully, as those changes might well be extremely expensive to implement or simply not be allowed.
We were lucky that the property we found was close to what we were looking for and although there were some changes that we wanted to make, we’d still have been happy if we couldn’t have done any of them.
We got the listed building officer on side by meeting with them early on and explaining what we were trying to achieve. When making applications we provided different options to allow the planners to have a say in the outcome, which I think helped a lot.
Changes and maintenance does cost a fortune though.
Make sure any changes that have been made have LBC, anything without becomes your problem if you buy.
Broadly I haven;t had many issues except the garage I wanted to build,and could have in a non listed building they simply rejected out of hand. They wanted it architect designed. Now the LB Officer was a right pita for that so there may have been compromise another time but she was having none of it.
Therein lies the rub, it's someones opinion as to what you can do with your house.
I might buy another but I'd rather not. It would have to be perfect and not requiring any major changes.
Broadly I haven;t had many issues except the garage I wanted to build,and could have in a non listed building they simply rejected out of hand. They wanted it architect designed. Now the LB Officer was a right pita for that so there may have been compromise another time but she was having none of it.
Therein lies the rub, it's someones opinion as to what you can do with your house.
I might buy another but I'd rather not. It would have to be perfect and not requiring any major changes.
I find it puzzling that there are 1960’s estates up and down the country that have been turned into total eyesores by inconsistent alterations and there are listed buildings subject to such draconian regulations.
The gap needs to be closed, building a shed in your back garden that is to all intents a bungalow is not right if I’m expected to source my windows from a supplier list so small they can charge whatever they want.
The gap needs to be closed, building a shed in your back garden that is to all intents a bungalow is not right if I’m expected to source my windows from a supplier list so small they can charge whatever they want.
DKL said:
Make sure any changes that have been made have LBC, anything without becomes your problem if you buy.
Broadly I haven;t had many issues except the garage I wanted to build,and could have in a non listed building they simply rejected out of hand. They wanted it architect designed. Now the LB Officer was a right pita for that so there may have been compromise another time but she was having none of it.
Therein lies the rub, it's someones opinion as to what you can do with your house.
I might buy another but I'd rather not. It would have to be perfect and not requiring any major changes.
This. It has potential to be a massive PITA but isn't necessarily. Our local planning bloke has a reputation for being awkward and turned up clearly expecting a fight. By the end of the chat he was perfectly reasonable and made a bunch of really useful suggestions including double glazing in the converted part of our barn which I'd assumed was a complete no no.Broadly I haven;t had many issues except the garage I wanted to build,and could have in a non listed building they simply rejected out of hand. They wanted it architect designed. Now the LB Officer was a right pita for that so there may have been compromise another time but she was having none of it.
Therein lies the rub, it's someones opinion as to what you can do with your house.
I might buy another but I'd rather not. It would have to be perfect and not requiring any major changes.
Mr.Nobody said:
Any advice would be great.
If you can live with the compromises associated with an old property, take the fear mongering with a grain of salt and enjoy living in a unique property. I would’t buy a Grade 1. Bigger concern for me would be the location: the lakes gets pretty rammed in tourist season. Couldn’t be doing with that.
My parents had one. As above if you don't want to do much to it and the condition is fine then happy days.
They don't come looking for you to maintain it ( other than extreme cases ) but anything you do need to do like windows are very costly. It is not about what they look like but how they are made. So you then need a craftsman who can use xyz technique.
I also find it bizzare that one part of government wants insulated homes etc but you try and get double glazing on a listed house ! We somehow feel that crap produced years ago is somehow amazing which is just not true.
They don't come looking for you to maintain it ( other than extreme cases ) but anything you do need to do like windows are very costly. It is not about what they look like but how they are made. So you then need a craftsman who can use xyz technique.
I also find it bizzare that one part of government wants insulated homes etc but you try and get double glazing on a listed house ! We somehow feel that crap produced years ago is somehow amazing which is just not true.
Depends on what condition the house is and what needs doing to it and just as importantly what the LA’s heritage officer is like.
We have lived in our G2 listed 400 year old house for 21 years.
The biggest issue was when we needed the front sole plate replacing and the very old part of the roof but repairing / improving was done on a like for like basis which is usually the mantra.
Over that time we have probably spent a further 50% of the purchase price but that includes other stuff outside too.
Not changing walls inside has not been on the cards so no issues.
We have lived in our G2 listed 400 year old house for 21 years.
The biggest issue was when we needed the front sole plate replacing and the very old part of the roof but repairing / improving was done on a like for like basis which is usually the mantra.
Over that time we have probably spent a further 50% of the purchase price but that includes other stuff outside too.
Not changing walls inside has not been on the cards so no issues.
I looked at a nice house in Walton John, it had 27 wooden sash and simple windows all rotting.
Grade 2 listed.
I googled "how much to replace a sash window with wood"
And went back to Rightmove.
I also looked at another that had a single pane-d glass window in the lounge with ancient etching on the glass. Frame rotting.
Repair = take all the single pane glass out, put on ground, refit frame and put panes back in.....
You don't own a grade 2 listed house, you look after it for a while, and the bills are out of your control.
Now own a 140yr old non listed house in Cumbria on the fells with nice looking all plastic windows.
Grade 2 listed.
I googled "how much to replace a sash window with wood"
And went back to Rightmove.
I also looked at another that had a single pane-d glass window in the lounge with ancient etching on the glass. Frame rotting.
Repair = take all the single pane glass out, put on ground, refit frame and put panes back in.....
You don't own a grade 2 listed house, you look after it for a while, and the bills are out of your control.
Now own a 140yr old non listed house in Cumbria on the fells with nice looking all plastic windows.
The_Doc said:
I looked at a nice house in Walton John, it had 27 wooden sash and simple windows all rotting.
Grade 2 listed.
I googled "how much to replace a sash window with wood"
And went back to Rightmove.
I also looked at another that had a single pane-d glass window in the lounge with ancient etching on the glass. Frame rotting.
Repair = take all the single pane glass out, put on ground, refit frame and put panes back in.....
You don't own a grade 2 listed house, you look after it for a while, and the bills are out of your control.
Now own a 140yr old non listed house in Cumbria on the fells with nice looking all plastic windows.
Orchard House? My Cousin lived there for many years and sold it to Fiona Armstrong.Grade 2 listed.
I googled "how much to replace a sash window with wood"
And went back to Rightmove.
I also looked at another that had a single pane-d glass window in the lounge with ancient etching on the glass. Frame rotting.
Repair = take all the single pane glass out, put on ground, refit frame and put panes back in.....
You don't own a grade 2 listed house, you look after it for a while, and the bills are out of your control.
Now own a 140yr old non listed house in Cumbria on the fells with nice looking all plastic windows.
We lived in that village for 29 years and moved to Hayton last year - brand new build so no more maintenance to worry about
We lived in a G2 house for 7 years and it never posed a problem to us as the only work we ever did was to have a couple of window frames and a door frame replaced. As the replacements were like-for-like we didn’t have to get consent or even consult with the conservation officer. As other people have said being listed is only an issue if you plan on making significant changes to the house or it needs to be renovated at some point.
It looks as though Lotobear could be a great help to the OP
It looks as though Lotobear could be a great help to the OP
Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area said:
As the replacements were like-for-like we didn t have to get consent or even consult with the conservation officer.
Whilst in theory no one would notice my discussions with the CO suggest this should have gone to LBs. Again in theory they could ask you to change these to something they would prefer. They often want sketches of the actual mouldings. If it was a repair to the window I believe that's allowed but whole replacements they'd want to know. Sadly it just takes one nosey neighbour..This is the thing, it varies so much from person to person and place to place.
ETA just the frame might be a repair?
Someone above mentioned internal works.
Our experience was this caused no issue ( grade 2 ). But and it is a big but you need to check the listing as it may specify certain things. We had one internal doorway that was listed. The rest of it they could not. Are less about. Every property an every listing officer is of course different.
As a ln aside we did get a formal stop work order for unapproved works. The good news is then they are round like a shot - and fortunately said do as you wish as long as you don't touch the internal doorway!
Our experience was this caused no issue ( grade 2 ). But and it is a big but you need to check the listing as it may specify certain things. We had one internal doorway that was listed. The rest of it they could not. Are less about. Every property an every listing officer is of course different.
As a ln aside we did get a formal stop work order for unapproved works. The good news is then they are round like a shot - and fortunately said do as you wish as long as you don't touch the internal doorway!
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