Granny annexe

i will echo what others have said about not doing it.It seems a great thing to do , but reality can bite.Things can and do change,by all means live near them but not with them.In 1980 to 1984 i lived and worked in the same building/ business, with family,turned into a living nightmare....think carefully.

One question…have you got planning permission?

I would say think twice and then think again! So many potential problems particularly with tax implications and planning permission.
A friend of mine wanted to build an annex in her large garden for inlaws, permission refused on the grounds that as the proposed dwelling was more than so many metres from the main house it might be used as a B&B which was not acceptable.
So many other potential problems as others have mentioned. What if your daughter has to move for work etc and you're left as a tenant on a stranger's land?

You might sound cynical but you are so right!
These things sound good but getting down to the nitty gritty it can be dangerous waters!
She or anyone has to be extremely careful.
Also are there any other siblings to consider?

Op , you only mention your daughter, do you have other AC ?
If so what are their thoughts?.
I know 2 families who have added a granny annex to their houses for their elderly parent . Both extended to the side of the house and the annex had a separate front door and shared drive . It worked well afaik. Both grannies have since died and one of the annex’s is now an Airbnb.
However this situation was the AC house , your situation is different and as others have said get extensive legal help.

I have only two second hand experiences of this type of arrangement.
One worked well for both grandparent and adult children. But when the grandparent died, the children really struggled to sell the property. They had to hugely reduce the price, thereby wiping out the money the grandparent had put in.

My daughter converted their garage into a dwelling. She was a property lawyer and her husband was a developer, so they had plenty of contacts and got everything right. But the annexe was and still is a holiday let. They would not have got planning consent for a granny annexe.

You asked about builders, but the legal side and all its implications should come first, before contacting a builder.

I haven't really got experience of this, but many older people do live in annexes / lodges to their children's homes so if you feel it's right for you I would go ahead. Get the legal advice on tax implications & how to safeguard you interests, it will only cost a fraction of the total cost. Remember the many people living happily with these arrangements don't shout about it, while the nightmare scenarios & estrangements get talked about because people need to vent or to hear from others in that situation

For got to add that the homes we looked at were classed as below:

Because our annexes are engineered to conform to the Mobile Home Act, you may not require planning permission – but for peace of mind, we always apply for a Certificate of Lawful Development from your local council.

This was from a company called Home Lodge, not the one we contacted (can’t remember the name and I don’t have the details with me) but a similar build.

As I said they looked good on the screen and in the brochures but we didn’t get to go and see one in situ. We have stayed in one as a holiday home and you really couldn’t tell that it was classed as a ‘mobile home’.
Anyway, I think your problems might come afterwards.

JenniferEccles

I hope you have seen from the comments on here that what you are planning is definitely not a good idea for you.

Your daughter has everything to gain from this arrangement, hasn’t she, and you have, potentially, much to lose.

I do hope you take note of posters’ examples of just how easily everything could go wrong for you.

I’m sure what you have read is not what you expected but you can’t ignore the fact that every single person has urged you not to go ahead with this.

I hope it’s not too late.

I most certainly did not urge the OP to 'not go ahead,' like many others I urged caution.

It will not be mutually beneficial, believe me. You could easily end up homeless. And you really have no idea whether a dwelling will be permitted in the garden or what it would cost. Take advice from a good, experienced solicitor and tell them exactly what you’re planning, don’t go to one of the cheap conveyancing outfits. I am a retired solicitor and can foresee enormous problems with this idea. So much so that if you insisted on proceeding despite clear written advice I might well refuse to act for you. That’s how serious this is.

Pennylucky007

Thank you all for your response and yes I will be taking legal advice before proceeding. I should have mentioned it will be mutually beneficial as we need to downsize and live on one levels for health reasons. The price of bungalows is out of our range and we don’t want a flat as the service charges are also so high. By doing this we will be mortgage and debt free and I am still working for another 5 years by which time the grandchildren won’t need babysitting. My daughter is selling her property and putting her equity into the purchase. But I appreciate everyone’s input.

Sounds well thought, but do get good legal advice.

We've adequate land round our home for other homes with independent access - permission wasn't particularly difficult. But legal advice was paramount.

Thank you all for your response and yes I will be taking legal advice before proceeding. I should have mentioned it will be mutually beneficial as we need to downsize and live on one levels for health reasons. The price of bungalows is out of our range and we don’t want a flat as the service charges are also so high. By doing this we will be mortgage and debt free and I am still working for another 5 years by which time the grandchildren won’t need babysitting. My daughter is selling her property and putting her equity into the purchase. But I appreciate everyone’s input.

I hope you have seen from the comments on here that what you are planning is definitely not a good idea for you.

Your daughter has everything to gain from this arrangement, hasn’t she, and you have, potentially, much to lose.

I do hope you take note of posters’ examples of just how easily everything could go wrong for you.

I’m sure what you have read is not what you expected but you can’t ignore the fact that every single person has urged you not to go ahead with this.

I hope it’s not too late.

Best solution I have come across is where family bought a house in one street and one set of parents bought the house behind it on another street.

This is happening to our house in France. We are two farmhouses down a short lane. A young couple bought the house across from us, and when we said we were selling her parents came round and offered to buy it. Two entirely seperate properties, both independently owned, but both owners closely related.

There are so many reasons why this is not a good idea, which previous posters have already given, and it may not even be achievable. You would need planning permission, which may well not be forthcoming as planners tend not to like ‘back garden development’ which sets a precedent, it would be a complicated and expensive project involving building to the latest building regulations and laying all necessary services (if there is insufficient ‘fall’ for gravity drainage sewage would have to be pumped if connected to the mains for instance). I hope the sale to your daughter can still be stopped. This is a very ill-conceived idea, in ‘pipe dreams’ territory, and if I were your solicitor you would be receiving very firm and unambiguous written advice not to do it.

That is so sad Primrose53 and I expect not that unusual. I know of 2 similar examples.

I knew a lady who was persuaded to sell her home near London and pool her resources with her son and family to buy an old pub up here where she could have a granny annexe.

It was in a hamlet with no public transport, no shops, nothing at all. She was very lonely because they just left her to it and never visited. She told me the only person she saw all week was the mini bus driver who picked her up once a week to drop her at a day care centre. She wished she had never moved in.

What are the reasons behind this?
Are you likely to be in need of care in the near future?
Is your home too big to keep/maintain?
Will your daughter be able to keep up the mortgage/maintenance?
Have you applied for planning permission?
There are so many questions.

In my experience I would say, think everything through, even the worst case scenarios and what would happen to you and your husband in those circumstances. My youngest daughter and her then boyfriend who is now her husband lived with me in my house for 10 years. In that time they married and had their 2 girls and saved up a deposit for a house. We got on well so when they moved 4 years ago, I moved with them, thinking things would carry on as they had for the past 10 years. This has proved not to be the case. I have my own bedroom and sitting room but I am frequently told it is THEIR house and it is like walking on eggshells a lot of the time with ever-increasing do's and don'ts. I am a glass half full person so try to look on the bright side and not let things get me down but I feel more and more that I am here under sufferance. However, I am very handy for last-minute babysitting and school holiday care for free. Some posters have mentioned the financial implications of your plan. When we moved I sold my house and gave my 4 children the money they would have inherited had I died. When I duly altered some details on my Will, the solicitor told me that having given the vast majority of my money away it could look as if I was trying to dodge care home fees should I need one. If I could turn the clock back I would have done things differently. Think very carefully.

The problems are potentially endless, just don't do it. Downsizing and passing on of some assets makes much more sense

I agree with all the other posters. You should tread with great caution, both financially and emotionally. Life has a habit of changing on a sixpence even though it might seem utterly implausible at the moment.

God forbid but death, divorce, redundancy or illness could suddenly strike your daughter. The world is a much more fragile place than we realise. What if she's offered a wonderful job opportunity and wants to relocate?

If she is married and anything happened to her, all assets would go to her husband. Where does that leave you?

If she isn't married, what happens when she does? Will her new husband happily embrace the arrangement? If not, this could cause untold bitterness and your daughter will most likely side with him.

What happens when you or your DH, or both, become a burden instead of good company and a help?

Please seek independent legal advice for the financial and practical side and then think very long and hard about the points that I and other posters have raised.

My parents fell into a an awful trap doing something similar with my brother and his wife. It seemed like the perfect solution for everyone, a golden opportunity and sensible forward planning for all concerned. It was a disaster and they became effectively homeless and emotionally battered.

Pennyluck07 Where do you live, I am wondering whether you live in the UK or in another country.

I say this because anyone in the UK would know that you would need planning permission to build another property in the garden of another house, and, unless the granny annexe has its own independent access (not through the drive of the existing property) planning permission may well be refused.

I would support all the other problems that people have mentioned. You need to take very careful legal advice because arrangements like this are fraught with danger and have a high failure rate, sometimes with grandparents being evicted from their home and left homeless. Their are significant tax implicatins as well.

If you can divide the plot of your home into 2 seperate plots and the second plot has independent access to the road. You could register the land of the planned Granny home as being an entirely sperate and independent plot of land and build on it. Then, if there is a disaster at the house you used to live in and it has to be sold, you will be unaffected and can continue to live in your granny home.

As for builders, unless you live near someone on GN I doubt anyone can recommend a builder. if you live near me I can recommend a very good builder, but if you live in Yorkshire or Cornwall or Kent or anywhere else in the UK or further afield, I cannot make any recommendation.

For me this would be a NO!!
Selling my house at a discount to an AC price so they can move in and we end up in a Granny annex at the bottom bottom the garden - I don't think so! Have you thought this through? When we are no longer here our AC will benefit from our assets - but not before! Please be careful.

We considered pooling assets for my mother-in-law but I'm so glad we didn't.
I think we would both have grown to resent it and what if we had wanted to take a job elsewhere?

I know our idea was different but unless you have two separate dwellings with separate ownership I think there are lots of problems that can develop.

Take advice from a solicitor. Take it alone (with your husband) with your own interests in mind. Don't go with your daughter who should be taking separate advice.

Planning is a separate issue.

Unless you are in a Conservation area it’s doubtful you will need planning permission as long as all the Utilities are connected to and paid for by the main dwelling, the building is occupied by family members only and that the properties cannot be sold separately. Building regulations will have to be applied.
We looked into this very thoroughly during Covid, I will look at MrOops iPad later and find the Company name, they deal with everything, the slab, connecting utilities and total build a 2 bed, 2 bath home back in 2020 was £150,000, they look beautiful but we didn’t go as far as going to see one as our daughter didn’t want to live at the bottom of our garden ( it’s a large garden so plenty of room). The one we looked at was 60’x40’. Approx.
However, divorce could really leave you homeless, as your annexe will be tied to your daughters house and unable to be detached and sold as a separate dwelling.
The company we looked into will also do check to make sure your particular council allows an annexe on your property.