Expert Advice on a complicated sale

We were asked to sell a beautiful barn conversion in Dunham Massey, but the title was still linked to the farmhouse that the barn was attached to so it could not legally be sold separately. However, we firmly believed that selling the barn separately from the farmhouse would realise a much greater value, on the basis that the sum of the parts was greater than the sum of the whole. There was a long and complicated list of tasks that had to undertaken to enable the barn to be sold separately. This included:

Planning permission for a separate dwelling

National Trust consent

Separate Council Tax

Separate utilities and meters

New United Utilities water supply

Septic tank inspection and replacement

Land and boundary survey for new Land Registry title plans for both properties

Definition and establishing new physical boundaries fencing

Determining shared areas and rights of way

Registering the postal address

Latent defect insurance policy (like an NHBC guarantee)

Building regulations approval and sign off.

We are pretty sure that there are few Estate Agents that would have the skill set to undertake all of the above tasks, which we project managed with our professional contacts and of course the vendor’s help.

If you have a potentially complicated sale that needs some expert advice to maximise value, contact Peter Waterson personally peter@watersons.net