Change Granted Planning Permission to individual plots

[Richard Willetts]

Hi all

My name is Richard and I am new to the forum.

 

We have full planning permission for 5 units on one planning application, this consists of a Farmhouse, 2 Barn Conversions and 2 new build plots.

 

What we want to do is split the application into 5 individual units to allow us to sell plots off individually to provide more flexibility when selling.

 

An idea is to sell off the Farm House allowing us cash flow  to develop the rest of the site.

 

My question is has any one out there  had any experience in this area, would it mean going back to planning and submit 5 individual applications, we do not intend to change any of the plots or plans already granted with full detailed planning consent.

 

My other question is what would it cost for an architect to revise our plans

Thank you 

Richard

 

[recoveringbuilder]

Welcome, I’m no expert on this but can only tell you from my experience, we have an acre of land which we obtained planning for two dwellings on the one application, we are now selling these separately without having to separate them in planning terms if you get what I mean, there is also a field next to us with planning for 5 houses which all went through on one application which is being marketed as 5 separate plots, I imagine you would pay 5 times at the application stage,ie; 5x £401 or whatever the price is per unit, So I would imagine you will just have to split the titles of each unit 

[bassanclan]

The problem you would have is that planning permission might not be "signed off" until the whole of the project is finished which might cause problems.

It's worth checking with the planning department.

[Jeremy Harris]

Just now, bassanclan said:

The problem you would have is that planning permission might not be "signed off" until the whole of the project is finished which might cause problems.

It's worth checking with the planning department.

 

That's my thoughts. too.  Not sure how planning conditions can be discharged individually for each plot, as I'd have thought that the planners would only want to discharge conditions as applied to the whole development.

[PeterW]

Seen this a couple of times and tbh they don’t care round here as they charge you for the conditions every time. 

 

I would sell sell as individual units, anyone who wants to can go and get a new PP. 

 

What was the situation with CIL/S106 on the whole development ..?? That’s where you need to be very careful as the lot could end up in your lap. 

[Richard Willetts]

17 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Seen this a couple of times and tbh they don’t care round here as they charge you for the conditions every time. 

 

I would sell sell as individual units, anyone who wants to can go and get a new PP. 

 

What was the situation with CIL/S106 on the whole development ..?? That’s where you need to be very careful as the lot could end up in your lap. 

Thanks for your advice, its my 1st venture in development from scratch, I have experience renovations/extensions etc. My estate agent is encouraging us to split it into 5 or develop the site ourselves because of the silly offers from developers.

 The site is in the East Mids in a conservation area,there are several conditions to be met before any build can commence, such as window type, bricks etc, so I would try to gain agreement with Erewash Council before hand.

I will look at the situation with CIL/S106

Thanks Richard

[ProDave]

Do you have full planning or outline planning?

 

It is common to get outline planning on multiple plots in one application.  This is how it was with our previous house.  It all gets sorted out and separated as whoever buys each plot will then submit a full planning application for their own plot.

 

The one multiple OPP permission just establishes the principle that you can build.

[Mr Punter]

Perhaps be a bit wary if you sell off the plots individually. You may want to bind the buyer to build as per approved plans or complete works by xxx, otherwise they could apply for consent for additional units, flats / HMOs, never finish the works etc which could impact the value of the rest of the scheme.

 

I don't think planning should be too much of an issue as the consent runs with the land. It is not uncommon to have several developers working on a site with a single planning application.  It may be that each buyer will need to get some conditions signed or part signed off and you would undertake to get others, such as archaeology, contamination, access etc.

[Richard Willetts]

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

Do you have full planning or outline planning?

 

It is common to get outline planning on multiple plots in one application.  This is how it was with our previous house.  It all gets sorted out and separated as whoever buys each plot will then submit a full planning application for their own plot.

 

The one multiple OPP permission just establishes the principle that you can build.

We have full planning that is the route we had to go down as its in a conservation area and the council were a bit awkward on design but it went through 1st time 

[Temp]

Are they currently part of your main residence? Check out any tax implication of splitting the land before sale vs at sale.

[Richard Willetts]

2 hours ago, Temp said:

Are they currently part of your main residence? Check out any tax implication of splitting the land before sale vs at sale.

No do not live there I also have other rental property and worked in the financial services sector, so I am well aware of taxation, and ways to mitigate tax.   I am not the only owner so it will be CGT using annual exception (12K) then 18% and remainder at 28%.

The idea also behind the split is we could spread the gains over more than 1 year, or even move into a  new build this would also enable a reclaim of VAT.

 

[the_r_sole]

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Edited September 26, 2019 by the_r_sole

[Richard Willetts]

1 hour ago, the_r_sole said:

If you address all the pre-start conditions for the plots there shouldn't be an issue with selling them as individual plots.

If you don't do that it will land all the suspensive conditions with the first person to start (which will either mean selling the first plot cheap to let them do that, or no one will want to be the first!)

Thank you very much for your reply.

Would it be best to put services in to each plot as well as meeting conditions, there are a few conditions which I think is normal as its a conservation area ?,as this would make them more attractive to individual buyers. We need to go about 100 mts for Gas and Electric I think water and sewerage are nearer,I am think about £30k for services

Edited May 28, 2019 by Richard Willetts

[the_r_sole]

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Edited September 26, 2019 by the_r_sole

[Mr Punter]

16 minutes ago, Richard Willetts said:

Thank you very much for your reply.

Would it be best to put services in to each plot as well as meeting conditions, there are a few conditions which I think is normal as its a conservation area ?,as this would make them more attractive to individual buyers. We need to go about 100 mts for Gas and Electric I think water and sewerage are nearer,I am think about £30k for services

 

Serviced plots are def preferable. Nobody will want to dig up the main road for each service. It will cost about £10k per plot but will be well worth it for the buyers.  Just having mains drainage connection, water and power makes the site welfare facilities so much better.  Get in touch with the utils ASAP to work out how best to arrange them.

[Temp]

Most buyers like plots to be independently developable. What I mean is buyers don't want to have to rely on the seller providing access to services or anything else once they have purchased the plot. It's not unknown for sellers to disappear before the promised shared road or drain has been installed and the plot owner might not be able to legally provide these themselves if they don't own the land over which they have to be laid.

 

So if anything like this applies to any of your plots it would be worth sorting out those issues before sale. 

 

However if the plots each have their own boundary with the highway where services are located then I probably wouldnt bother, I'd let the buyers sort it out. 

 

It also depends on the difficulty of connecting to services. For example if a new transformer is required then definitely better for you to sort that out.