if you or DH is a builder can you PLEASE help me!!!

[emmamc252]

Hi, I know this is a strange place to post this but I really need some help and have always found this to be a pleasant online community.
Basically my Dad has become very ill after a 20 year battle with his condition and it appears he now has months left. I am really worried about what will happen to my mum when something does happen to him as she has now been his full time carer for 20 years and due to the nature of his illness has lead a very isolated life for that time. Once something happens to my dad my mum will not be able to afford to live in their house anymore unless she can somehow walk into a full time job, and to be honest I don't want her to have to go out to work full time, she is 62 and it just seems unfair that she should be thrown into a world she really doesn't understand.
Anyway, they have already put their house up for sale and are looking at "down-sizing" however to get into the lower price brackets it would mean moving to a different area so she would be a good 20 minutes away from us. I also think she is really scared of living alone and being lonely. I just don't want this to happen to her.
DH and I have spoken about the possibility of her miving in with us. We have our first baby due in 5 weeks and although our house is big enough for us to accomodate her for 6 months to a year, it would not be a long term solution, plus I think she would feel too much like she was imposing on our lives.
We do however have a brick-built garage in our back garden. It is only a single garrage but it has a coal shed at the back so I think its a generously sized single garage. It has an Apex roof and the building is in good condition etc. It has electric but obviously no plumbing etc. So we have thought about the idea of converting this to a little "granny flat" for her. There is room at the back where we could extend the building into the garden if we needed to but not sure what this would do to the costs. I am thinking it would need a living room with a small kitchen area (she could always use our kitchen but would need to have a small area where she could do her own thing) a bathroom and a bedroom. It wouldn't have to be huge, just nice for her.
Is this doable? I have looked online and there isn't a lot of information so I have no real idea where to start as at the minute I just want to know
-is it possible?
-how expensive would it be?
-how long would it take, with planning permission etc???

I don't think we could actually do it before something did happent o my dad as I think he would find it pretty rude of us to already be planmning life without him, and I know that it is a harsh thing to be doing, please don't get me wrong, I love my Dad to pieces and hope that he has many years left, but I don't want to see my mum left out in the cold if something does happen.

If anyone could give me some advice, where to start or if this is a totally stupid idea I would be eternally greatfull

 

[Chilly]

I can't offer any advice but I hope your Dad is ok for as long as possible and that your Mum is ok after.

PS I lived in Southport most of my life.

 

[lpereira]

Sorry about your situation. Dh is a builder but here in the states. Your very first step before anything else is to go to your local government and did out I'd they will allow it, what the fees are, and what modifications you will have too make to the building to get a certificate of occupancy. You would be surprised at some of the requirements.
Also i don't know if you have hoa s in england but if you do you will have to check with them as well.

 

[tennisfan]

Sorry to hear about your dad. I think the first thing you need to do is get an architect to design plans which would then have to be submitted to the council for permission.

Has anyone down your road done anything similar? it could make it easier to get permission if they have as they have already set a presidence.

Planning permission could take ages (years) to come to a decision especially if your neighbours dispute your plans

 

[irongirlof12]

Your sound very thoughtful indeed, your dad would surely be proud of you to think of your mum and her future.

You would need building regs and planning permission, you should be able to get some info from your councils website as well as info about how to choose a builder as there are a lot of rouges out there keep your eyes open for houses having work done and knock on the door and ask how thier builder is you could then approach them for a quote. If this gagrae is stand alone and single brick it might be quite expensive to convert as it would need a lot more work to make it habitable to todays standards with fire regs, insulaton etc.

We have looked at having our integal garage converted into a room and recon a sum of £6k for all of the work.

 

[mandymouse]

I am so sorry to hear what you and your family are going through, I wish I had some good advice for you so instead I will send you lots of hugs and pixie dust to you all

Take care x

 

[gemmybear83]

Planning permission could take ages (years) to come to a decision especially if your neighbours dispute your plans

Hi sorry this isn't true I am a town planner by profession.

For conversion of the garage into a granny flat you will not planning permission, but to extend you will. First thing I would do would speak to the planning authority at your local council they will be able to help you out, and give you some advice.

If you go ahead a planning application should take 8 weeks (may take a little less!) and your neighbours will be consulted, to ease the process I would suggest chatting to them first to avoid any sort of dispute.

Good luck - hope it all works out for you!

 

[joolz1910]

I have no advice to offer - just wanted to say that I hope you can work something out.

 

[gemmybear83]

I also should if your neighbours did object your planning application should still be decided within 8 weeks.

 

[Tinks1984]

Just to give an you an idea of time scales, we've submitted plans to our local council to convert a commercial property (formerly our newsagents) back into a domestic property and it took around 8 weeks for our council to get back to us with the plans passed. We also had to pay them £350 for the privilege! Plus, our architect drew us plans up and submitted them and his fee was a further £325 (but they do all charge differently).

Please also be aware, whatever the architect put on the plans, ie, with regards to insulation, heat loss, change of structure etc will have to be completed to the absolute same, we asked could we use different insulation and they've declined it and said it would not pass it's completion if we did that!

They'll insist on a specific sized bathroom also, as you must now provide access for anyone with a disability. We were told we HAD to keep our downstairs toilet (I was anyway), and it had to be big enough to wheel in a chair.

If there's anything more I'll see if I can help out.

On another note, we're still no-where near building! So many pit-falls along the way, we're hoping now to be underway by October this year! Fingers crossed!

 

[gemmybear83]

Hi things like he size of the bathroom depends on local policies - where I work for example we don't have that policy unless it's for over 15 houses so that's why it's important to speak to the local planning authority . Sorry to be pedantic!

Just to give an you an idea of time scales, we've submitted plans to our local council to convert a commercial property (formerly our newsagents) back into a domestic property and it took around 8 weeks for our council to get back to us with the plans passed. We also had to pay them £350 for the privilege! Plus, our architect drew us plans up and submitted them and his fee was a further £325 (but they do all charge differently).

Please also be aware, whatever the architect put on the plans, ie, with regards to insulation, heat loss, change of structure etc will have to be completed to the absolute same, we asked could we use different insulation and they've declined it and said it would not pass it's completion if we did that!

They'll insist on a specific sized bathroom also, as you must now provide access for anyone with a disability. We were told we HAD to keep our downstairs toilet (I was anyway), and it had to be big enough to wheel in a chair.

If there's anything more I'll see if I can help out.

On another note, we're still no-where near building! So many pit-falls along the way, we're hoping now to be underway by October this year! Fingers crossed!

 

[tennisfan]

Hi sorry this isn't true I am a town planner by profession.

For conversion of the garage into a granny flat you will not planning permission, but to extend you will. First thing I would do would speak to the planning authority at your local council they will be able to help you out, and give you some advice.

If you go ahead a planning application should take 8 weeks (may take a little less!) and your neighbours will be consulted, to ease the process I would suggest chatting to them first to avoid any sort of dispute.

Good luck - hope it all works out for you!

I only stated about planning permission as it sounds like it would have to be extended. Would she not need planning permission as its going to be converted to a living dwelling & have water added to it? I only ask as the house i'm moving into has an extension which only needed building regs as it has no heat as in gas or water to it.

I only said about length of time as my next door neighbour wanted to extend their property & the neighbours the other side disputed the plans & it dragged on for a while whilst the plans were changed.

 

[gemmybear83]

Hi nikki, as long as the garage is for a relative and only has certain facilities the does not need planning pemission as it would be classed as part of the house and not a change of use. If that makes sense? Apologies if I sounded defensive before! Planners often get a bad rep and most of us are just trying to help!

 

[tennisfan]

Hi nikki, as long as the garage is for a relative and only has certain facilities the does not need planning pemission as it would be classed as part of the house and not a change of use. If that makes sense? Apologies if I sounded defensive before! Planners often get a bad rep and most of us are just trying to help!

No need to apologise I wasn't trying to bad mouth planners, I was just going by what I knew from my neighbours.

Thats good to know about the planning part as I may want to build on the extension of my house in years to come

 

[Tinks1984]

Hi things like he size of the bathroom depends on local policies - where I work for example we don't have that policy unless it's for over 15 houses so that's why it's important to speak to the local planning authority . Sorry to be pedantic!

No, that's fine. It's just what we were told by our architect and the council agreed, I didn't know it wasn't the same for all. Only telling what I've been told, as others have said, we're not trying to get on at you planners

 

[janiebubble]

Hi fellow Southport resident ...

I'm sure you've already looked but all Sefton's planning info is here http://www.sefton.gov.uk/Default.aspx?page=3464

I know of at least one person in Southport who has converted a detached garage, hope it works out for you xx