Splitting your house into two maisonettes

Lease and freeholds

When it comes to property ownership you can either be the freeholder or the leaseholder of your home. A freeholder owns the entirety of their building and accompanying land, while a leaseholder only owns a certain part. Being a leaseholder is common if you live in a flat or maisonette. You’ll likely own your contained living space, but areas like the hallway will be managed by the freeholder of your building.

If you're splitting your property, it’s likely you’ll be the freeholder. However, if you plan on selling one (or both) of your new homes, your solicitor would need to draw up new leases, giving the new owners a leasehold. You would remain as the freeholder, and therefore be responsible for the maintenance of those shared areas - access points, stairs, etc.- plus the building’s exterior, and insurance.

Building regulations

Once you’ve obtained planning permission, you’ll then need to look into getting building regulations approval - this is mandatory for all property conversions.

As this is a large scale project, you’ll need to prepare a building regulations package in order to gain approval. This involves creating in-detail drawings of your future design, which your architect should be able to prepare using the ones submitted for your original planning permission.

At Resi, we offer a comprehensive building regulations package, that includes everything you’ll need to complete a safe and legal build, including…

• Preparation of technical drawings and construction notes
• Room data sheets
• Drainage design
• Party Wall guidance
• Structural Engineer recommendations and liaisons
• Budget guidance
• Council submission
• Tendering guidance and comparisons

Confirm with your lender

By converting your home into two smaller dwellings, you are essentially changing the nature of the property against which your mortgage was secured. If you’ve yet to pay off your mortgage, then you should first seek permission from your lender, before starting your project.

Side note: whether you’re able to borrow more against your home to fund your project will depend of how you propose to split your household, and how much equity is stored in the property.

Land registry

When you’ve created your two seperate homes, you’ll need to get them both recorded with the Land Registry. Currently, all homes sold, or even remortgaged, after the mid-1990s are automatically registered. However, by turning your dwelling into two distinct properties, you’ll need to apply for a “transfer of part” - but only if you plan on selling. For homeowners who are looking to rent out their new space, getting a leasehold registration will be enough. All of this should can be done on your behalf by your solicitor.