Renovating a listed building

There are some 370,000 protected buildings in the UK and many consider it a matter of kudos to buy one and renovate it.

However you should be warned before embarking on this that making alterations to a listed property can be a difficult and arduous task, according to one independent property consultant.

Simon French, from consultancy Lane Fox, said: "Realistically in terms of maintenance, you are expected to do day to day maintenance on the building, the same way you would with any normal building."

He added that "it is when you want to change material substances, that is when you get into problems". If you want to change sash windows into double-glazed windows, then you have to get planning permission and this is "very, very unlikely" to be granted.

These situations can be worked around however and you may be able to get away with double glazed panels with timber sashes, for example.

Furthermore there are differences between the grade of protection afforded to buildings so with grade one, the most protected, "you can barely breathe in the building".


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