Before buying a Listed Building, check your blood pressure and your bank balance, and reckon on the former rocketing up, and the latter plummeting down by the time you complete your project.\u00a0 Unfortunately there is no cardio-vascular overdraft facility when your blood pressure spirals into the red.<\/p>\n
There will be times when the owner of a listed building will wonder as to whom the building belongs, such are the occasional unreasonable demands of the Heritage departments to which the owner must conform before picking up so much as a paint brush.<\/p>\n
Should you pay off your mortgage, your only contractual obligations to your Lender will have been to make your repayments and reduce their interest in your property.\u00a0 Other than obvious obligations, your only responsibility has been to live in it, raise a family perhaps, and make a home for yourself.\u00a0\u00a0 Though the Lender has taken a legal charge on the property for six-figure sums outstanding for decades, and you have honoured, they do not impose on you the mantle of Custodian either during the period of your contract nor, especially, once the deeds are handed back\u2026<\/p>\n
Your Listing is in perpetuity, to use a legal term. You now own exclusively the right and obligation to maintain the property.\u00a0 You become a Custodian.\u00a0 You are free from debt, but not obligations.<\/p>\n
The Custodian is expected to finance his\/her own labour & materials required under their custodianship.\u00a0 A custodianship liable for considerable fees from it\u2019s own arse pocket to the Heritage & Planning Departments so that the Custodian (sorry! Owner) may apply to maintain the building.\u00a0\u00a0 A Listed Building roof replacement will require a Permission and hefty fees before work starts.\u00a0 It\u2019s non-listed neighbour will not.\u00a0 While your neighbour has had the scaffold up, down and is weatherproof, the Listed Building Owner will be awaiting approval of samples, or consultation from the part-time Conservation Officer while running round with saucepans.<\/p>\n
There used to be grants for the repair of Listed Buildings.\u00a0\u00a0 There were concessions:\u00a0 projects could be V A T free.\u00a0 This ended in 2012.\u00a0 A Listed Building owner?\u00a0 You\u2019re on your own & lonesome, accept that from the start.<\/p>\n
Oh, you will have helpful Associates.\u00a0 An Architect, perhaps.\u00a0 A Structural Engineer.\u00a0 Maybe an Archaeologist, or most likely an Ecologist, for when your non-listed neighbour is booking his roofer you\u2019ll be checking for bats, newts, roman pottery, whatever.<\/p>\n
Each specialist at an hourly cost equivalent to a good divorce lawyer .\u00a0 Your experts will be your best friends for the duration.<\/p>\n
Cynical? \u00a0No.\u00a0 Just get real.\u00a0 Experts cost.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd in the blue corner!\u201d\u2026\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Conservation Officer appointed to my case is around 24 years old with a nose-stud, stretch pants and a clip-board.<\/p>\n
Her online CV shows her as a student for seven years, an internee with some Ecclesiastical Diocese Records Office for a further two, and a twelve-month volunteer behind Reception at a museum of note.\u00a0 This is her first paid job and she has held the post of Conservation Officer for two years and four months.<\/p>\n
Our Conservation Officer works part-time Tuesday through Thursday.<\/p>\n
Not many Listed Building Owners would be fortunate to have my experience of old and ancient buildings, but what we have in common is love and ambition for our properties. We mortgage and re-mortgage in the knowledge that our homes are precious in our hearts, never mind the Nation\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Busby<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before buying a Listed Building, check your blood pressure and your bank balance, and reckon on the former rocketing up, and the latter plummeting down by the time you complete your project.\u00a0 Unfortunately there is no cardio-vascular overdraft facility when your blood pressure spirals into the red. There will be times when the owner of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-listed-building"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/listedmoneypit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/listedmoneypit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/listedmoneypit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/listedmoneypit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/listedmoneypit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=140"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/listedmoneypit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183,"href":"https:\/\/listedmoneypit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions\/183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/listedmoneypit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/listedmoneypit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/listedmoneypit.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}