Planning a medium-scale property redevelopment

[Taylrl]

Hi,

I have been involved in property for a few years now and have experience of being a landlord and running multi-let properties. I am now looking for the next thing and would like to take it up a level. I am looking at investing in a property that has planning for conversion from office space into flats but am wondering how to approach planning a project like this. I do have some quite basic understanding of what is involved (labouring on a pair of 2 story extensions with added dormers when temporarily out of work) and I whilst I am not a builder myself I have a good friend who is a carpenter/plumber. This property is structurally sound etc and as far as I can see its a case of partition walls, plumbing and wiring etc etc. etc.

Before I put any kind of offer in though I would like to get my head around what it requires and turn some of those etc. etc. etcs into things more solid from someone who has experience of undertaking a project like this. I am wondering if anyone might be able to help me or recommend there I can go to understand more about the regulations and unforeseen costs etc., how to approach costing it up and anything else that I might not be thinking of.

Cheers!

[Taylrl]

Ok. One thing I am thinking is how would I go about dividing out the amenities, and I presume every flat needs its own boiler for the hot water and heating system. Or is there some way that I can centralised this?

Also with all this load on the electrics, would I need a more heavy duty power supply coming into the property? What if everyone wants a shower at the same time and all the boilers fire up at the same time? It is these kind of things I am looking for answers to really.

[Sad S]

Planning permission or no, this conversion will most importantly need to meet building regs.
Suggest you speak to your local authority Building Control people ASAP to find out the score.

You will need proper gas and electricity and water supplies for each flat. With separate meters of course. Utility companies will tell you how to get this done, and how much they will charge. Not cheap.