Change of plans

km79

Hi all, have a quick (and hopefully not a stupid ) query!

We have recently been offered the chance to purchase a site which is not yet on the market(estate agent keeping an eye out for us ahead of time)
The site is in the IDEAL location for us but.............there are 2 problems
1.The house planned for it is 2500 sq feet which is bigger than we would really need..........
2. The planning expires mid April 2020 and we wont be in a position to purchase the site until next Summer realistically. So that would leave very little time to get it built.

So my question is this. Given that there is existing planning on it would it be possible to put in for entirely new planning which would allow us to downsize and extend planning? Obviously the vendor would have to agree to this and sale would be subject to this planning?
The current planning has already had a 5 year extension so that is not an option

Metric Tensor

Yes. That would be totally possible but the new application will be treated on its own merit so the presence of a previous grant of permission on the same site is no guarantee that a new application will succeed.

Also be careful with terminology. You will be applying for a new planning application with all that it entails in terms of percolation tests, sight distances, etc.

A "change of plans" generally means an application to adjust the house plan of an existing permission and it would expire at the same time as the parent permission (i.e. 2020)

km79

Metric Tensor wrote: »

Yes. That would be totally possible but the new application will be treated on its own merit so the presence of a previous grant of permission on the same site is no guarantee that a new application will succeed.

Also be careful with terminology. You will be applying for a new planning application with all that it entails in terms of percolation tests, sight distances, etc.

A "change of plans" generally means an application to adjust the house plan of an existing permission and it would expire at the same time as the parent permission (i.e. 2020)

Thanks that’s very helpful
A lot of thinking to do this side of Xmas now

Metric Tensor

Not much time for thinking. If a new application fails the owner will then have even less time to try to build the house that has permission before the expiry date!

km79

Metric Tensor wrote: »

Not much time for thinking. If a new application fails the owner will then have even less time to try to build the house that has permission before the expiry date!

I didn't want to over complicate first post with too much detail but funds for sure will more than likely be coming from sale of our current house which won't be on market till next February. So I don't think building based on original plans will work for us anyway
Probably need to have a proper chat with estate agent to find out more about sellers intentions

km79

Back again with one more question.
If we were to get the vendor to agree to sell pending new planning permission and pay down deposit etc is there anything to stop the vendor turning around and selling to someone who is willing to buy with the existing planning ?

Don't want to get caught spending couple of grand for planning only for this to happen

Gumbo

km79 wrote: »

Back again with one more question.
If we were to get the vendor to agree to sell pending new planning permission and pay down deposit etc is there anything to stop the vendor turning around and selling to someone who is willing to buy with the existing planning ?

Don't want to get caught spending couple of grand for planning only for this to happen

The seller won’t tie themselves into this imo. It will add 4 months to the process.

km79

kceire wrote: »

The seller won’t tie themselves into this imo. It will add 4 months to the process.

Yeah that is what I was thinking.
One point to note however is the site isn't actually being advertised. The local estate agent is keeping an eye out for me and he came to me with this site when I enquired about a different less appealing site with expired planning.

Metric Tensor

The planning expires in April 2020. This means that the site is worth somewhere between 40k and 100k+ to the vendor between now say May/June of next year.

After that point it rapidly decreases in value and once Nov 2019 hits the site is worth its agricultural value - say 7k.

There is no way any sensible vendor will tie him/herself into anything that prevents immediate sale because very soon the site will genuinely be getting less valuable with every passing day.

km79

Metric Tensor wrote: »

The planning expires in April 2020. This means that the site is worth somewhere between 40k and 100k+ to the vendor between now say May/June of next year.

After that point it rapidly decreases in value and once Nov 2019 hits the site is worth its agricultural value - say 7k.

There is no way any sensible vendor will tie him/herself into anything that prevents immediate sale because very soon the site will genuinely be getting less valuable with every passing day.

Thanks that makes sense alright
We will just have to wait and see so Cos it will be July next year before our current house is sold most likely

Metric Tensor

You will be very tight for time to complete the site purchase, prepare construction plans and specifications, lodge commencement documentation, appoint a builder and have the house at "roof level" between July 2019 and April 2020.

km79

Metric Tensor wrote: »

You will be very tight for time to complete the site purchase, prepare construction plans and specifications, lodge commencement documentation, appoint a builder and have the house at "roof level" between July 2019 and April 2020.

Yeah I don’t think it’s a runner in that timescale
What I might have to do is sit tight and go back and enquire again next autumn
Not ideal but nothing else might come up in the mean time either .
I will call down to estate agent over the next month or 2 anyway and possibly the planning clinic in county council as well