Discussion
Depending on your Conservation department, and the particular officer, it can be pretty much as bad as you can imagine.
In the worst cases, their attitude appears to be that they are allowing you the privilege of looking after their property for them. They have total say so on everything from colour of your walls to putting in a greenhouse in the garden. They have no consideration for the practicalities of (a) doing the repairs as they specify or (b) living in the result. If there are two options they will pick the most expensive one (they can smell money). They can demand you do things that the building officer will throw three shades of fits over. Many of their decisions are down to personal taste, not some consensus view of what is appropriate. They reserve the right to forget the choice they made six months ago and to randomly change their minds. They will do all that they can to avoid giving you anything on paper, so you have nothing to fall back on.
Apart from that, I love each and every one of them.
In the worst cases, their attitude appears to be that they are allowing you the privilege of looking after their property for them. They have total say so on everything from colour of your walls to putting in a greenhouse in the garden. They have no consideration for the practicalities of (a) doing the repairs as they specify or (b) living in the result. If there are two options they will pick the most expensive one (they can smell money). They can demand you do things that the building officer will throw three shades of fits over. Many of their decisions are down to personal taste, not some consensus view of what is appropriate. They reserve the right to forget the choice they made six months ago and to randomly change their minds. They will do all that they can to avoid giving you anything on paper, so you have nothing to fall back on.
Apart from that, I love each and every one of them.
Tuna said:
Depending on your Conservation department, and the particular officer, it can be pretty much as bad as you can imagine.
In the worst cases, their attitude appears to be that they are allowing you the privilege of looking after their property for them. They have total say so on everything from colour of your walls to putting in a greenhouse in the garden. They have no consideration for the practicalities of (a) doing the repairs as they specify or (b) living in the result. If there are two options they will pick the most expensive one (they can smell money). They can demand you do things that the building officer will throw three shades of fits over. Many of their decisions are down to personal taste, not some consensus view of what is appropriate. They reserve the right to forget the choice they made six months ago and to randomly change their minds. They will do all that they can to avoid giving you anything on paper, so you have nothing to fall back on.
Apart from that, I love each and every one of them.
I have rarely seen more accurate or concise advice offered!!In the worst cases, their attitude appears to be that they are allowing you the privilege of looking after their property for them. They have total say so on everything from colour of your walls to putting in a greenhouse in the garden. They have no consideration for the practicalities of (a) doing the repairs as they specify or (b) living in the result. If there are two options they will pick the most expensive one (they can smell money). They can demand you do things that the building officer will throw three shades of fits over. Many of their decisions are down to personal taste, not some consensus view of what is appropriate. They reserve the right to forget the choice they made six months ago and to randomly change their minds. They will do all that they can to avoid giving you anything on paper, so you have nothing to fall back on.
Apart from that, I love each and every one of them.
The big benefit of owning a listed residential building is that any alteration works requiring listed building consent, can be zero rated for VAT purposes.
Local or National heritage grants may also be available for the likes of replacement windows,cast iron rhones and downpipes, repointing, re-rendering,reslating or replcement masonary etc.
At the end of the day, you will have a unique house of some historical interest so the listed building ticket is certainly not all bad news!
Local or National heritage grants may also be available for the likes of replacement windows,cast iron rhones and downpipes, repointing, re-rendering,reslating or replcement masonary etc.
At the end of the day, you will have a unique house of some historical interest so the listed building ticket is certainly not all bad news!
What Tuna said. Imagine the worst possible scenario. Done that? Right, whatever you imagined, the reality is far worse. Our last house was listed and we vowed never to have another. When we were looking for our new house, we refused to even view listed buildings. I am so glad I saw what my parents went through, so I never make the same mistake.
Our old house was 1580 and Grade II listed. Throughout the entire 17 years we lived there, the local planning authority were a complete pain in the arse. Our planning applications were drawn up by an award winning architect and had the full approval of English Heritage. English Heritage came around to the house and commented on the quality and sympathetic nature of our restoration. Everything was done "no expense spared". The plans were still rejected time and time again by the wet-behind-the-ears jobsworth in local planning. Be under no illusions - you are there to serve the house. You are just a keeper of the house. The fact that it may be impractical to live in is of no concern to the planners. From personal experience? Run a f
king mile!
Our old house was 1580 and Grade II listed. Throughout the entire 17 years we lived there, the local planning authority were a complete pain in the arse. Our planning applications were drawn up by an award winning architect and had the full approval of English Heritage. English Heritage came around to the house and commented on the quality and sympathetic nature of our restoration. Everything was done "no expense spared". The plans were still rejected time and time again by the wet-behind-the-ears jobsworth in local planning. Be under no illusions - you are there to serve the house. You are just a keeper of the house. The fact that it may be impractical to live in is of no concern to the planners. From personal experience? Run a f
king mile!Tuna is pretty accurate there I think.
At work we've just experienced the rough end of these guys.
Said they were going easy on us because of acknowledged difficult circumstances but the resulting prosecution resulted in £2.5K fine and £12K of remedial works.
Don't be surprised if a typical specification requires the timber to be patinated with the ear wax of eunuchs!
At work we've just experienced the rough end of these guys.
Said they were going easy on us because of acknowledged difficult circumstances but the resulting prosecution resulted in £2.5K fine and £12K of remedial works.
Don't be surprised if a typical specification requires the timber to be patinated with the ear wax of eunuchs!
I've worked on a number of listed buildings in an architectural role and found the hassle with listed building completely depends on the conservation officer and generally found them to be more of a pain when dealing with private individuals and not so onerous on developers.
Last scheme I did to convert a listed house into apartments the conservation officer was mainly concerned with keeping and restoring the external elevations and internal features to the principal rooms. Other than this he was very open to suggestion and very helpful.
Other smaller refurbishment projects I've found them to be a nightmare including not letting us add internal partitions to an oast house as it would have been open plan when built and asking for a full archeological report on a site when all we wanted to do was fix a leaking roof and some very minor internal alterations.
As others have said above the fact you want to live in it doesn't bother them at all.
One other thing worth noting is that there can be some harsh punishments for working on listed building without consent.
Last scheme I did to convert a listed house into apartments the conservation officer was mainly concerned with keeping and restoring the external elevations and internal features to the principal rooms. Other than this he was very open to suggestion and very helpful.
Other smaller refurbishment projects I've found them to be a nightmare including not letting us add internal partitions to an oast house as it would have been open plan when built and asking for a full archeological report on a site when all we wanted to do was fix a leaking roof and some very minor internal alterations.
As others have said above the fact you want to live in it doesn't bother them at all.
One other thing worth noting is that there can be some harsh punishments for working on listed building without consent.
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