change of use?

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Martine
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change of use?

Post by Martine »

Hi
I'm thinking of turning my home into a holiday let (will live in my holiday cottage). Would I have to apply for 'change of use' to my council? Has anyone had any experience with this? I seem to remember that I read about someone who said once this had been changed, they had awful problems changing it back to residential when they wanted to sell it eventually.
Any ideas?
thanks
Martine :?
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

Assuming you're in the UK, then yes you will have to apply for change of use. (If you're not in the UK, ignore the rest).
There are two areas to consider (and they probably don't talk to each other :roll: ) - Planning, which may not be necessary and will depend on your local council and what restrictions if any apply in your area, and Building Control which will apply and they'll be looking at safety issues, fire alarm systems etc. Again, how stringent those requirements are seems to vary across the country.

I'd talk to the council in the first instance; as for problems changing back to residential, that's one I'd definitely ask about. There are certainly issues with, say, barn conversions where planning was originally granted for holiday letting and specifically excluded residential, but I'd be interested to know if problems would arise where a property had originally been residential and the owner was seeking to revert to that use.
Margaret
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Post by Margaret »

Well, we let out our home in the UK and have never applied for change of use. The local council is well aware of what it is used for as they have visited us several times when we were tring to get planning permission for the garden and never said a word. If you do a barn conversion and want to use it for a holiday let, that would be different.
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

Martine, I've posted up some relevant stuff in this thread
Martine
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change of use?

Post by Martine »

HI Greenbarn
Many thanks for alerting me to your post about this subject. It makes for interesting reading and clearly indicates a state of confusion, countrywide.
On a slightly different note, would it be correct to say you would be charged CGT on your main residence if you used it as a holiday let, when it came to selling it?
bye for now
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

I copied this from another site:
"A property may only intermittently have been a main residence -- perhaps because it was occasionally rented out, or maybe the owner had another property that was elected as a main residence. In this instance, any gain on disposal must be apportioned on a time basis between the exempt main residence period and the taxable non-main residence period.

One of the special property CGT reliefs comes to your aid here, because apart from the factual period of main residence, the last 36 months of ownership is also treated as though it was main residence, even though it may not have been, typically because it was let."

Basically, you get exemption for the time it was your main residence and for the last three years before you sell it, with various other reliefs and sums to be done on the intervening period.

Here's the link to the HMRC page covering it. http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cgt/property/sell-own-home.htm#3
Martine
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change of use?

Post by Martine »

What a star you are, thank you! :D
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

Nemo, as a fellow EASCO member, am I right in thinking they recently published an announcement about CGT as there'd been a recent change? Or maybe it was IHT - which might explain why it didn't stick in my mind as I'm not too bothered about what happens when I'm dead.........

Just checked, and it was IHT I was thinking about.

This may possibly be of interest to some: John Endacott, a Tax Accountant who did more for us than just about anyone else in the fight over the FHL tax rule changes, has a book on FHL called Furnished Holiday Lettings - A Tax Guide (nothing if not imaginative). Expensive at about £60, and as it's written for other accountants, probably dull, but might be worth a look - even if just as a present to your own accountant.
I'm still on his mailing list from when he was tackling HMG; at that time he produced some of the clearest information available - not written for other accountants!
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