Channel 4 recently aired a programme called Posh Neighbours at War, and a war it certainly was!
Zipporah Lisle-Mainwaring bought herself a £4.75m old office property in Kensington which she wanted to convert into her dream home. However, it turned out that creating her dream house wasn’t going to be as straight forward as she thought.
Zipporah wanted to extend her property not upwards but downwards, creating a two level basement conversion complete with cinema, gym and a 20 metre long swimming pool. As there was no basement included in the property already, Zipporah had to get planning permission in order to extend her property but her neighbours weren’t as excited about the idea as she was. Niall, who bought the property next door to Zipporah a few months before she bought hers, already had a basement conversion with his property and didn’t want his property to be effected by hers. When the planning permission requests were submitted, Niall along with many others objected so the plans were refused. This didn’t stop Zipporah though, she submitted further planning permission requests until finally she was granted permission to build her two level basement.
Now it has to be said, Zipporah and Niall were both characters and had spent thousands of pounds on not only their properties but on lawyers and court fees too! It was quite alarming to watch.
If you missed it, you can watch it on Channel 4 on demand here.
Basement Conversion
Alarm aside, as the programme highlights, basement conversions aren’t always so simple to do. If you haven’t got a basement already but would like to build one, it is important to get planning permission first.
Building a basement requires a lot of work and must be built by professionals in order for the job to be done correctly.
At Peter Cox, we can offer you a full project management package for basement conversion from design to completion which includes a basement waterproofing system . A basement waterproof systems will keep your basement free from damp, eliminating the risk of wet and dry rot, mould and rising damp.
Find out more about our basement conversion services or call use free on 0808 159 5035 to speak to a member of our team.
