Hustle your way to Property Success by Paul Ribbons

Author:Paul Ribbons [Ribbons, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-907722-73-8
Publisher: Ecademy Press
Published: 2011-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Rule No. 2: Never rely on what you are told

I visited a mate of mine who I used to work with many years ago; he was an agent in Stratford. He had a huge whiteboard in his office where they used to post their new instructions and on the board was a house described as three flats with no planning. I asked him if it was any good for me and he said no as they wouldn’t grant planning in that area any more. The local authority insisted that properties had to be a certain size to convert. Now, as the rule suggests, I’m not one for accepting what people tell me so I asked for an appointment.

The vendor was an old Jamaican fella and I asked how long this had been three flats. He replied, “Since 1962 when my father came over.” Now all I had to do was prove this had been three flats and I could get what they call a Certificate of Lawfulness. If a property has been converted for a certain length of time then you can apply for this but you have to have proof. I asked the vendor if he would put that in writing but he refused because he did not want to get into trouble with the local authority. Despite my assurances that they could do nothing about this, he said no.

So I agreed to buy it from him but I knew the value was in the Certificate of Lawfulness. I left the appointment and this was my mission – to prove it had been three flats for more than ten years.

The first place I looked was the Council Tax department. I asked them if they could tell me what the Council Tax banding was for the property; they replied, “Is that flat A, B or C?” ‘Brilliant’ I thought. I asked them if they could put that in writing and they said if I could prove I was the owner they would, otherwise no. Oh shoot, I have to buy it first to find out and that’s risky. The next place I tried was the services: gas, electric and water. The trouble with that was people change their energy suppliers nowadays more often than they change their underwear, so no joy there. In the end I gave up and thought ‘Sod it, I can’t be bothered.’

You don’t believe I would do that, do you? Well I didn’t, as I do not give up! And then I had a great idea. When Council Tax first came in, in 1993, the district valuer’s office was responsible for valuing every property in England, so I rang their office and they said, “Is that flat A, B or C?” I asked if they could put that in writing and they said, “Of course.” It’s interesting how one department says no and another says yes. This information was very valuable as I had an investor who paid us a £50k clear profit because he had Stratforditus and he wanted flats in that area.

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