Where to begin: site, planning???

Citychick50

My brother is offering myself and my husband a site but we don't know where to begin. He is willing to gift us the site but any fees or extra costs due to valuation we will we have to pay, which is fine. I'm not sure where to begin, should we go to an engineer, an architect, a solicitor to begin with? We have a choice of sites but i'm not sure if we will get planning permission (we don't come from the area, it is about 10miles from home) so we don't want to tie ourself into transferring the site and then not getting planning. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.:)

Leadership

We were gifted a site as well and the process we followed was:

Put in for Outline permission - This is a good guide to see what chances you have getting planning.

Once Outline planning was granted then you can spend a bit of money and get some house plans drawn up, perculation tests etc and put in for full planning permission.

Once granted then start land transfer, this cost us €2.5k and a top tip is to use the same solicitor as the land owner.

Apply for Mortgage

Clarelassie

Hi Citychick50,
We got a site from my Dad - the architect helped us define the boundaries as there are restrictions for distance to boundaries for perculation etc ( ours is not a standard square site) I only transferred the site into my name just before I applied for mortgage and after I got planning ( for planning, you can just get a letter from the landowner to say you have permission to build).
If I was you, I would get your architect to view the potential sites and with what you want from a house, he should give you the best site suitable for you.

Nice brother!!

No6

Citychick50 wrote: »

My brother is offering myself and my husband a site but we don't know where to begin. He is willing to gift us the site but any fees or extra costs due to valuation we will we have to pay, which is fine. I'm not sure where to begin, should we go to an engineer, an architect, a solicitor to begin with? We have a choice of sites but i'm not sure if we will get planning permission (we don't come from the area, it is about 10miles from home) so we don't want to tie ourself into transferring the site and then not getting planning. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.:)

Citychick, if I were you I would start with a local professional Architect, Architectrual Tecnhologist or Engineer to firstly find out if you can get planning on the site, Most counties have housing need restrictions for people wishing to live in a rural area, getting the site from your brother may also not qualify. If that is ok they can check some of the technical requirements on the site, sightlines, water, elevation and most importantly will have an idea from looking at it if it is suitable for a septic tank etc.
If all these loom ok agree a fee get an percolation test done and lodge your planning application. If and when you get planning is plenty of time to engage a solicitor, you will need one for arranging your mortgage so include the land transfer in their services at this point.

Best of luck with it and make sure you find out can you get planning on the site before spend a fortune!!!!

JuniorB

+ 1 for engaging a local professional Architect, Architectrual Tecnhologist or Engineer. They might shoot you down straight off.
If you & the potential site qualify for planning (in their opinion) then you can arrange a pre-planning meeting with the local planner and they should advise you on the most appropriate site or not.

You could do this on your own without the need for professional help but the professional should bring their local knowledge and experience into play and assist greatly in the dealings with the planner.

Best of luck.

Wolfhound14

JuniorB wrote: »

+ 1 for engaging a local professional Architect, Architectrual Tecnhologist or Engineer. They might shoot you down straight off.
If you & the potential site qualify for planning (in their opinion) then you can arrange a pre-planning meeting with the local planner and they should advise you on the most appropriate site or not.

You could do this on your own without the need for professional help but the professional should bring their local knowledge and experience into play and assist greatly in the dealings with the planner.

Best of luck.

I would agree with this approach. We were gifted a site from my father-in-law. We rang a few architects and went with one that had the best knowledge of the local planning situation. He came out to site for a free consultation and went through all our options. Once we brought him on board, he did a pre-planning and when he was unhappy with the area planner he went to senior planner and we got our planning first time, which is a real help.

imitation

The very first thing I would do is check your county development plan, it should indicate what type of zoning your area is and give an indication of how likely you are to get planning.

Apart from that I agree with everything else that has been said, get a architect who has a good understanding of your local council, carefully sound a few out, I had the misfortune of getting a bucko my first time around who obviously made a killing during the boom knocking out generic planning applications.

I think you should be able to get permission in your name without owning your site, provided your brother gives written permission with the app. This would be a good option, because you might be liable for capital gains on the transfer, and it would be bad to pay it for a site you can`t develop anyway.

muffler

Moved to construction & planning forum