Building in Your Garden
When a big garden becomes too big, or when you just want to release some money for other things, splitting your plot and building in your garden can become an attractive option.
There are many pros of building a new home in the garden of your existing house and yet a few potential hazards; it’s worth doing some initial research before you get too excited about the idea:
In favour
- If you’e considering building in your garden, then you’re getting a free plot, carved from your existing property.
- If you’e building the new home for yourself, you have somewhere to live while you are building.
- You’re pretty much on site, so you can keep an eye on how things are going.
- You may have space on your existing property to store building materials, allowing you to shop in bulk or buy in advance where special offers arrive
- You don’t have to pay for the plot and can therefore concentrate all of your resources into the new dwelling.
- You can probably make use of the existing services, cutting expenses caused by having to open up roads to connect to services.
- You keep your own environment in an area you have already grown used to.
To check
- How to get planning permission. One of the best ways to work this one out is to talk to an expert.
- Do you have any covenants? Covenants attach to the title of a house and garden or land; details will be contained within the information held by the Land Registry. They are usually put in place by a previous owner and they are binding on any owner and/or any future owners. If there ae covenants in place, you will need to consult a solicitor to see if anything can be done to vary or remove them.
- Access arrangements can become tricky. If the plot of land you are considering using for your new house is subject to shared access or private access agreement, you will need to work with a solicitor to ensure these issues are settled before you proceed.
- The impact of the building on the value of your existing property should be checked with a couple of good local estate agencies. In most cases, as long as the existing house is left with a plot at least three times the building’s footprint, it is unlikely to have a significant impact on the value and this will be vastly outweighed by the value of the newly developed plot.
Before You Start
For a free, unbiased and expert view on whether splitting your plot and building in your garden will be worthwhile, call Alan J Currall Architectural Services on 01536 393505. Alan will also be able to support you through the planning permission process once you decide to proceed.