Freeholder
If you are a freeholder you will have a conveyance. A conveyance is also a form of contract which gives rights and responsibilities to the home owner and to us.
As a freeholder you have inherently more liberty to do as you please in your home than a leaseholder because you are not sharing any land or buildings. However you are still on an estate originally owned by Aylesbury Vale District Council (AVDC) and on which we still have many properties, and your conveyance recognises this.
Our consent is required for certain things like extensions or hardstandings, though this is invariably a formality.
Creating Additional Dwellings
Creating an additional dwelling in the plot is not a formality and can be expensive to regularise.
Owners of houses which were originally purchased under the Right-to-Buy sometimes have a garden which is large enough to accommodate another home, or in some cases the house may be big enough to convert into flats. The original conveyance, or contract of sale, specifically prohibits this with a clause stating that the property must only ever be used as a ‘single private dwelling’.
In some cases we may agree to alter the clause to allow a new dwelling but this has a value so, if we agree to allow it, we will require its value to be paid. The value is the total depreciative effect that the new dwelling will have on any surrounding properties we still own, such as visual impact or parking pressure. So the value will depend both on the size of the impact and on the number of properties affected.
Please note that our consent to alter the clause is totally independent of Buckinghamshire Council (previously AVDC) Planning Permission. The two are not related.
If you create an additional dwelling without our consent then the new dwelling will be irregular and you will not be able to register it at the Land Registry and you will not be able to sell it.
Email the Home Ownership Team or call us on 01296 732600 where our contact centre can pass you thorugh, for more details.
Please click the following link to view our Freehold Consent and Deed of Variation policy
