Makiing a big house pay its way
Discussion
I have looked at several houses recently which we have turned down as being too big for long term living in terms of heating and maintenance. They are often large semi rural country houses with lots of land and parking. Often they are only about 10% more costly than their more manageable competitors. We are buying with the outlaws so having enough space for us to avoid each other but still being on site for the necessary 'coffin sniffer care' is needed. It got me thinking of ways to get value from the house once the outlaws have sadly passed to help with the bills and provide an income at retirement.
To date I can think:
1) B&B (sounds like hard work and ties you to the house?)
2) Creating an annex or apartment(s) and then renting it out, with a bit of allocated garden ( but would you have to create a sepeate legal buliding for council tax, gas, leccy etc and how does seperatying the bils out cost in terms of meter installations etc?)
3) formally creating a seperate home from the one end and selling it on (cost of conversion but positive is you get to keep the good bits and lay down the covenants).
4) Offering some sort of commercial use such as small offices or even a small training venue.
Any more ideas?
bobr said:
Locally, there are a few people who organise wedding receptions in marquees on their land, and some provide a B&B service for their guests. Could also run corporate events in the same way
I guess the one off summer event wouldn't be too intrusive either. I also thought about the specialist training companies who want a 'retreat' rather than a big hotel experience for small groups.Milky Bar Kid said:
Depending upon where you are in the country, renting some of the land to the horsey folk can make a reasonable amount of money for no work on your part.
Most of the places I have looked at have the land behind the house meaning horsey folks would have to bring their noise, vehicles etc close to the house but I can see how an unwanted paddock with water could work, thanks.Milky Bar Kid said:
Depending upon where you are in the country, renting some of the land to the horsey folk can make a reasonable amount of money for no work on your part.
^^ ThisAdditonally, I know someone who has built a pool, spa, gym, tennis courts, sauna etc and employs staff to do beauty treatments and spa weekends, that sort of thing. They also turned over a load of land to pheasants and employed a gamekeeper to look after those and then runs weekend country shoots for Londoners.
Cogcog said:
Too much work! I wanted something less 7 day, 52 week, less site instrusive, more occasional and something that could run with minimal input. There are som mofo lawns about so the 'event' thing could work.
Sounds like the wedding idea is the way forward, afaik you don't need planning for change of use if it's 28 days or less a year.Cogcog said:
B&B (sounds like hard work and ties you to the house?)
Any more ideas?
What about creating holiday lets? They are far less hassle than running a B&B and have the advantage that they can be used to avoid inheritance tax too. You don't even need to build anything as, if you have a suitable plot of land, erecting yurts seem to be all rage now. You could also tie it in with the wedding venue idea. Any more ideas?
Bill said:
Cogcog said:
Too much work! I wanted something less 7 day, 52 week, less site instrusive, more occasional and something that could run with minimal input. There are som mofo lawns about so the 'event' thing could work.
Sounds like the wedding idea is the way forward, afaik you don't need planning for change of use if it's 28 days or less a year.Tonsko said:
Daisy Duke said:
What about creating holiday lets? They are far less hassle than running a B&B and have the advantage that they can be used to avoid inheritance tax too.
This sounds interesting. How does it work?
Daisy Duke said:
I see you haven't got bored yet of taking the piss out of my hat. 
I'll be dining out on that for years yet... though not literally you understand.Well actually maybe I could - using the copious stocks of tasty picnic food within arm's reach. Plastic grapes on the brim, oh yes.
Bear in mind that you will need public liability insurance for a few of these things and of course you will need to inform your house insurance that you are running a business.. And not to mention that the council may want to take fees as well - I think if a certain percentage of the area of your house is used for business....
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