Building Regs and Change of Use to C3

[ndg]

<TLDR> What building regs are required for change of use from E to C3?

The longer version:
Bit of a specific question here, and hoping someone has experience. We went to look at a property at the weekend as a potential next house and came away intrigued but with questions.

It's an ~1900 Victorian detached house which at some point was repurposed for use by the St Johns ambulance as a training centre and operations base. They subsequently gave it up, but it continued to be run as a first aid training centre and base for event support ambulances (still charitable). Some of you will have by now guessed where it is! More recently, it's been empty for ~2 years and is now in very poor condition thorough lack of investment and a few structural issues that would need to be sorted. Many of the original features survive and it's on a good sized plot with potential for the all important garage.

My specific question relates to change of use as it's covered by business rates not council tax so definitely not residential; I think it would be class E currently. I've done some reading up and from a planning PoV it looks like a fairly straightforward Prior Approval application using class MA, so far so good. My concern is that even though it was at one point residential the change of use from E to C3 will require building regs approval and they will want it to modern standards. We would want to make the place more efficient, but getting a 9" solid wall building up to modern standards would be both expensive and remove all of the character that appeals to us. Have I understood the requirements correctly or are there subtleties and exceptions that I have missed?

External insulation is possible, but that obviously comes with planning issues of it's own.

I think the likely outcome is that we can't justify the costs involved for the final value and it will go to a developer who turns it into generic flats in a nice looking building, but at least if I know the answer to the above I won't be left wondering about the one that got away......

[ozzuk]

Not sure if it applies here, but when I applied to change a commercial property (holiday cottages) to residential I had to offer it for sale to the local community first (luckily they declined) as council was concerned at loss of potential community space.

[Jeremy-75qq8]

Would permitted development apply ? You can turn offices into flats - this may be also covered.

Sdlt will be 5% which helps.

[ndg]

Yep, as I understand it PD will get you from E to C3 under class MA, with a prior approval. But the building regs are a whole different set of problems to deal with I think.

[smokey mow]

Planning classifications have no relevance to building control.

For building regulations what you’re proposing a material change of use to a building under regulation 5 and specifically (a) since the proposed use is as a dwelling and the existing use is not.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2214/regu...

The applicable regulations to this change of use are then outlined in regulation 6 paragraphs a to j.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2214/regu...

[smokey mow]

Jeremy-75qq8 said:

Would permitted development apply ? You can turn offices into flats - this may be also covered.

Sdlt will be 5% which helps.

Permitted development applies only in relation to planning permission and not Building Regulations which are a completely separate set of requirements.

[Jeremy-75qq8]

The op asked " My specific question relates to change of use" which is planning which I replied to.

[ndg]

My question is on the building regs implications resulting from a change of use to residential. The answer from the reading I've done looks like the regs apply in full as if it were a new build. But PH normally has someone who has been there, done that, so was hoping for someone who has experience to chip in.

Thanks

[andya7]

From the planning side, it might be worth double checking that it doesn't fall into Class F1 - 'learning and non-residential institutions'.

There might be some historical planning info, when it was changed from house to a 'St Johns ambulance as a training centre and operations base'

Appreciate that your description might/could be worded differently, but before committing it might be worth an approach the LPA (local planning authority) to seek confirmation of the existing use class. Obviously, if it is Class E then (as you say) Class MA conversion.

I did recently fall foul of; 'transport impacts of the development, particularly to ensure safe site access' on a recent MA application... the highways authority stating/wanting a 5m wide access road... we had 3.7m (enough for fire access) but highways said no, so it was refused.

(I am guessing that you have found the relevant GPDO section - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/596/sched... )

[Equus ghost]

ndg said:

My question is on the building regs implications resulting from a change of use to residential. The answer from the reading I've done looks like the regs apply in full as if it were a new build. But PH normally has someone who has been there, done that, so was hoping for someone who has experience to chip in.

Thanks

I'm trying to avoid posting on PistonHeads any more, but to answer your question (and yes, I've been there, done that lots of times, in design terms), the Regulations for dwellings formed by material change of use are different from those that apply to a new build and are fairly relaxed in comparison.

Probably most significantly, in terms of thermal efficiency, there is a section in Approved Document L1 (paragraphs 11.5-11.8) that specifically deals with 'dwellings formed by material change of use', which is what you're talking about.

You'll almost certainly need to engage with a properly qualified Architect or Architectural Technologist to make sense of it, though - the Regs are not straightforward.

Also, although probably not applicable to the building you're looking at (unless it is Listed), the Regs allow specific relaxations (see paragraphs 0.8-0.13 of Approved Document L1A) for Listed Buildings and 'historic and traditional buildings', in certain circumstances.

Although not the question you're asking, I wouldn't be quick to assume that the building you're looking at is Use Class E in Planning Terms, however: there is a possibility it could be judged to be 'Suis Generis' (it's the 'operations base' bit that worries me, specifically, and for example I can tell you that an ambulance station would normally be classed as Suis Generis), in which case it does not benefit from Class MA PD rights. If you are serious about proceeding, my first step in your situation would be to confirm with the LPA that they do, in fact, consider it to be Use Class E.

[ndg]

Some great answers there, thank you.

I have read that bit of the planning regs, yes. But agree that if we were to proceed a check on current status would be required.

Equus, I shall go off for a look at 11.5-11.8. That's exactly the type of thing I thought I might have missed without reading the whole lot, so appreciate the shortcut.