Hi there, everyone. Newbie here 
I hope someone can give me some advice. As the subject line says me and my wife decided to make our Garage into a Kids Play Room/2nd Living Room for our 3 sons and their pals when they come round. As there is never a struggle for off road parking and in the 3 years or so that we have lived here, we have NEVER used the garage for either of our 2 cars, so it seemed an obvious thing to do.
The Garage is not adjoining the house (its about 10 yards away) and was approximately a 35 sq mtr room, so fairly big. Basically we have insulated it (walls and roof), put a couple of 40" TVs on the wall with Sky/XBox etc, small snooker table, carpet tiles, few pictures on the wall, sofa and a fridge. Upgraded existing Single Glazed Window to a Double Glazed one, and also new PVC Door. Behind the garage door is now an insulated wall with glass wool between it. So from the outside the Garage looks as it was, so doesnt really effect any neighbours. Even with the TV/XBox volume high its pretty much soundproof, even at night.
Ok so here are my concerns........
1) Do we have a duty to inform the council? (i am guessing YES!)
If YES and we DO inform them: is that liable to be another 40 or 50 quid a month in Council Tax?
If YES and we DONT inform them and they find out later: can they calculate that you were due to pay x mount of £s extra and they chase you for back money? If so how far back can they go? few years?
2) If the council come round and say they want to examine and re-evaluate our property can they look at our garage and the insulation and make reference to the fact that we never went through any building regulation warrants etc? and get into the nitty gritty of insulated roofing etc etc. Could they say put it back the way it was??!!
At the end of the day there is no toilet, no wash basin, no one sleeping in the room overnight. So can it not be looked on as an official room? How strict does this have to be and where does the law stand on this? Could I argue..... if the wall behind the garage door came off, it would just basically still be a "Comfy Garage"?!
The alarm bells are ringing in my head because 2 neighbours (husband & wife) were passing and said "oh what are you doing with your garage". So i said, well come and have a look. The woman was nice about it, but the husband who has always struck me as a bit of a weirdo looked blankly and said "your rates will be going up then?". To which I didnt provide much of an answer, but he looks the type to cause bother and wouldnt put it past him to report it. Although his wife did say "oh there no need for the council to know!". So maybe worrying about nothing, although it pays to be prepared! People can be funny!
Any advice from you guys would be gratefully appreciated!
Cheers
I hope someone can give me some advice. As the subject line says me and my wife decided to make our Garage into a Kids Play Room/2nd Living Room for our 3 sons and their pals when they come round. As there is never a struggle for off road parking and in the 3 years or so that we have lived here, we have NEVER used the garage for either of our 2 cars, so it seemed an obvious thing to do.
The Garage is not adjoining the house (its about 10 yards away) and was approximately a 35 sq mtr room, so fairly big. Basically we have insulated it (walls and roof), put a couple of 40" TVs on the wall with Sky/XBox etc, small snooker table, carpet tiles, few pictures on the wall, sofa and a fridge. Upgraded existing Single Glazed Window to a Double Glazed one, and also new PVC Door. Behind the garage door is now an insulated wall with glass wool between it. So from the outside the Garage looks as it was, so doesnt really effect any neighbours. Even with the TV/XBox volume high its pretty much soundproof, even at night.
Ok so here are my concerns........
1) Do we have a duty to inform the council? (i am guessing YES!)
If YES and we DO inform them: is that liable to be another 40 or 50 quid a month in Council Tax?
If YES and we DONT inform them and they find out later: can they calculate that you were due to pay x mount of £s extra and they chase you for back money? If so how far back can they go? few years?
2) If the council come round and say they want to examine and re-evaluate our property can they look at our garage and the insulation and make reference to the fact that we never went through any building regulation warrants etc? and get into the nitty gritty of insulated roofing etc etc. Could they say put it back the way it was??!!
At the end of the day there is no toilet, no wash basin, no one sleeping in the room overnight. So can it not be looked on as an official room? How strict does this have to be and where does the law stand on this? Could I argue..... if the wall behind the garage door came off, it would just basically still be a "Comfy Garage"?!
The alarm bells are ringing in my head because 2 neighbours (husband & wife) were passing and said "oh what are you doing with your garage". So i said, well come and have a look. The woman was nice about it, but the husband who has always struck me as a bit of a weirdo looked blankly and said "your rates will be going up then?". To which I didnt provide much of an answer, but he looks the type to cause bother and wouldnt put it past him to report it. Although his wife did say "oh there no need for the council to know!". So maybe worrying about nothing, although it pays to be prepared! People can be funny!
Any advice from you guys would be gratefully appreciated!
Cheers
