Garage conversion, is it a good idea?

Planning permission for an extension/change of use will not take long at all. The best thing to do would be to get some quotes from a few builders, someone recommended if you can. They will usually arrange for the planning permission.
As far as Inheritance Tax, your parents, as a couple, would have to leave over £650,000 before being liable for inheritance tax and then it would be 40% of anything over this amount.
If they do have over this amount and spend some of it on your house, then as long as they live for 7 years after they have gifted the money to you, then there will be no inheritance tax to pay on that amount.
Hth.

I think Buffybee is being optimistic. You need to first check whether you will be allowed to turn the garage into a habitable room. There are circumstances where planning permission will not be given for such conversions.

It will be worth while getting pre-planning advice from your local council. This will cost about £150 and should include a site visit. They will discuss, not only whether you will be allowed to convert, but also any limitations and any extra work that might be necessary, such as upgrading insulation in other parts of the house, or extra building work needed to make it possible to adequately insulate the conversion to planning requirements - possibly needing to replace the garage roof.

Building work takes time and if your mother needs to sell her house before work can go ahead, however quickly you get planning consent, it could take six months or more to sell her house and where would she live while the extension was being built? Taking selling and building, it could be a year before she could move into the converted garage.

If your mothers life is, sadly, limited, it may be that her suggestion that she rents a sheltered house may be the best solution. She can move in while her house is selling. Or, if they can afford it, that she and her DH go into a care home together.

Long term, a garage conversion might have been a good idea, but I suspect you need an urgent solution to make the last few years of your parents relaxed and happy so rented sheltered property or even a care home for both may be the best solution.

Sadly I suspect this would take at least 6 months and more likely a year. Planners don't move very quickly, and then you have to get good builders in and keep them at it until completed.

You could ring your local planners and ask the question. Assuming it's all OK, how long does pp take on average with them at the current time.

If you had more time it could be a good solution. My sister converted her garage to an extra living/spare bedroom with a shower room, and it's very nice. I think for you this might not be the answer.

MOnica just to clarify. You mention in your post selling the OP's Mothers house, when the OP had stated her Mother was in rented accommodation.
I have made some enquiries for you escudo and as I thought, planning permission has been relaxed for small extensions, dependent on certain criteria.
It comes under Permitted Development and converting an attached building, e.g. Garage into living space comes under this and should require NO planning permission.
As I mentioned before, contact a few reputable builders who will be able to advise you further and quote you time scale and prices.
Hope it works out for you.

We converted our integral garage into a dining room and utility in our previous house and did not need planning.You do have to follow building regs. although our builder saw to and arranged all that.

It was a big success and took about 3 months from start to finish. The builder specialised in garage conversions and had lots of useful suggestions to make the best of the space. It was such a good job that a neighbour engaged him to do hers too.

I would get several quotes and make sure they tell you exactly what is included. Our quotes varied hugely. We followed up references for our chosen builder and were happy to give other potential customers references as he was so good.

Why doesn't DM go into the Home with your father? Contact social services for info especially financial implications for your DM.

its just a building warrant here for those types of changes ,any inside work that wont affect neighbours is the same ...

If your mum pays towards the cost of the building work the local authority may be able to claim some of the money for care fees if she later goes into a care home. If the money is coming from your father's savings they certainly will for his care. Of course it may be that they would be paying for it anyway depending upon circumstances. I believe LAs can go back as far as they like to see whether money has been given away.

Might be worth a chat with the CAB with all the details before you do anything.

We did this in previous house. Only needed a building warrant, think we did have to have plans drawn up though.
Backed on to utility room so easy to have en-suite at rear. Likewise easy enough to fit radiator. Room was a reasonable size.

Buffybee Every case is different and while, rules for extensions have been relaxed, there are still cases where there could be problems, if you live in a conservation area or your house forms part of the setting of a listed building, or there are local rules about houses on your estate, or the head of local planning has a bee in his bonnet about something or many other things that do not immediately occur to me

These problems do not arise often, but frequently enough to make it necessary to check that they do not affect you. The last thing the OP wants to do is assume everything s Ok, do the work and then have to demolish it. or pay a fine.

In our family one loft conversion was effectively blocked by a Planning Chief obsessed with the dimensions of staircases, another got consent for a very small utility room extension but had to make sure the roof, walls and windows matched strict rules for her estate (nothing up-market, it was an ex-council house).

All I am saying is check first that everything will be simple and that there are no nasty surprises.

Our next door neighbour did this quite successfully for her mother to come and live with them.
They had carers coming in daily using a key box.

The mother lived with her daughter and husband for about 2years before passing away.

Firstly the garage was internal and so part of the house and it had an bedroom above it.
This is important as it proves that there was a solid foundation.

Secondly the neighbour has an internal door from her kitchen into what was then the garage.
She also has a downstairs toilet.

She did not require any planning permission because the garage was internal.

She did however need to inform relevant authorities regarding building regulations and had to adhere to building regs regarding insulation thickness etc
The floor had to be raised to same height as the rest of the house.

At the front where there had been a garage door the builder built an insulated brick wall and fitted a double glazed window.

Internal walls were boarded and plastered.
It took about 4 weeks to complete.
A lot of that time was waiting for floor and plaster to dry.

Several houses in our area have turned garages into a study or play room etc.

You may not get planning approval, my ex rang our local council a few years back because he wanted to convert the garage for his mum to move in. I was rather relieved when the planning department told him we wouldn't get planning approval as we needed an off road parking space for every bedroom but one and we only have two off road parking spaces plus the garage, so if we had no garage and gained a bedroom we'd need two extra parking spaces and that's not possible.

My garage is fully integrated with a bedroom above it too.

We do have large drives instead of front lawns
Next door already had four bedrooms .

I wonder what your local planning would have said if garage was going to be used as a study.

Planning permission must be under local councils.

Ps our garage is only big enough for a mini and then you would struggle to open the car door never mind get out .

Our garage is a junk storage room.

Usually a planning department will have someone you can talk to who can give you informal advice your about 'plan' & if it needs full planning permission or not etc. I found them helpful when I was thinking of extending my kitchen.