Separate gas / electricity supply application.

[Haymish]

Hi.

We have house which has an annexe attached to it above a double garage - both were built a long time ago so no planning issues. We were thinking of letting the house and the annexe separately. At the moment they share a gas and electricity supply so we want to give the annexe it's own supply. The annexe does have it's own meter in the loft space but we are billed as one property for all usage. We got some forms from for an application for another supply but they are very complex and we are told that we may need an architect to assist us with the supply applications, is this right? It all seems very complicated for something so simple.

Any help would be appreciated regarding what we need to do.

Do we need extra planning permission? Do we need to inform anyone? How much should each bit cost? Any recommended contacts / architects that may be able to assist us (we are in Telford).

Is there anything else we should know or any pitfalls?

Many thanks.

Pete.

[tarquinlinbin]

You dont really need separate incoming services for gas an electricity. You could just install secondary meters andbill the tenant yourself. Buying/installing seocndary meters would be a lot cheaper than having separate new services laid.

Remove antispam and add 670 after bra to email

[The3rd Earl Of Derby]

tarquinlinbin wrote: [snip]

As I see it this is re-selling the suppliers product?

-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite

[Haymish]

here b4 us did it but we really need something simple as we my be out of the county for a while or my ex other half may have to look after the process on her own and, by her own admission, she is not very good at dealing with thinks like this. Also it would be unreasonable for the tenant in the house to have to pay for the gas/leky that the tenant in the annexe has used and then have to claim it back.

Thanks for response tho.

Pete

[Lobster]

It seems you're just asking for advice about the specific issue of separating the utilities, as opposed to the whole splitting up the house issue. Is that right? You might conceivably require an architect for the latter, but I really can't see why you would for the former, unless there are particularly complicated problems specific to your situation. Architects are very expensive!

I have experience of doing something similar (subdividing one house into two completely separate properties) which involved laying on new services. I'm afraid dealing with the utility companies is a massive amount of hassle as they haven't a clue what they are doing.

There's a fair amount about this stuff in the uk.d-i-y archives: here's one such thread:

(or

in which I've just consulted my own contribution as the quickest way to check my own costs when I did it!: Gas - 208 GBP Electric - 734 GBP Water - 1058 GBP

That's excluding any 'internal' costs involved, eg re-routing cables and pipes etc.

You won't need planning permission for installing the services, but if you are intending to set up two completely separate properties, then yes you will, I'm afraid; Building Control may also need to be involved. You'd also need to get the council Highways Department to approve and 'create' the new address (they then notify Royal Mail) and you have to involve the council tax dept to get the properties valued by them and set up all that.

Let us know more details of what you're doing and I can probably help a bit more.

David

[Haymish]

Hi David

Thanks for the information. I'd completely forgotten about the water board.

You are correct, we, or rather my ex is just looking to rent both the house to one party and the attached annexe to another party for the foreseeable future rather than split the property in two, though, she may want to do this at a later date.

I was trying to get some information on the best way to proceed to save her some money as it's very tight at the moment. I did have a highly paid job but became ill and lost it a few years ago. My ex is a carer so she doesn't have much money coming in, consequently, most of what she is doing is being paid for by money borrowed against the property.

We have a house which is too big for us with an annexe above a double garage attached to the house. She wants to try to get the house to work for her so she was going to rent the main house to a couple we know and the annexe to a friend of theirs. They are already renting somewhere else till Feb/March

2006 and want to move in after that.

We just want the two parties to be billed separately for utilities that's all.

Unknown to me Amy (my ex) has arranged for an architect to call round to the house. He has said he can deal with the matter but I am a little worried about the money side of things. Amy is not very good at dealing with burocracy, forms and people so even though she doesn't have much money, she will often throw large sums of it at a problem to try to get it sorted out. The problem is she doesn't always throw the money in the right direction.

If we do go ahead with renting the house and the annexe, do you have any idea who else we would need to inform?

I think she wanted the tenants to be billed separately for council tax too so can we do this without splitting the property in two?

Many thanks for you input

Regards

Pete.

[Owain]

Remember that unless you legally and physically separate the house and annexe, they will count as *one* property and (if in Scotland) this owuld almost certainly cause you to exceed the threshold for registration as a House of Multiple Occupation with the local council. This would require compliance with the council's standards which dictate room sizes, bathrooms and kitchens, refuse storage etc.

Scottish legislation is in the process of requiring registration of

*all* landlords with the local council.

You will have to consider facts like if you grant a tenancy to the house, the tenants may lawfully be able to exclude access to the annex across 'their' land for the duration of the tenancy.

No.

Separation of the property into two will require planning permission, building regulations approval for any necessary works, registration with the council/post office for existence of the new address and alloctaion of a house number, registration with the land register, and probably a covenant between the two properties regarding mutual access and repairs etc.

Rented property requires an annual Gas Safety Check by a CORGI. You must also declare the income to the Inland Revenue - some agents will do this for you.

Owain