Your Property Questions answered, this week space and deposits

I need more space

I work from home as a life coach and, as my client list is building up, I am increasingly seeing clients in my home. My spare bedroom is my home office but I do not feel comfortable bringing clients upstairs - as it seems unprofessional, and a bit bedroomy even though the room, a double bedroom, is used only as an office. I don't have a spare reception room downstairs - just one livingroom, and a separate kitchen at the back and there is no room in the yard for a Shomera-type building and I don't have the budget anyway. Any suggestions?

Would you consider turning your house upside down? This column recently visited the home of an interior designer who, like you, works from home. She changed the room that would have been the kitchen into her office and moved the kitchen upstairs. The arrangement works really well. Double doors open out from her office - which is fitted out with shelves, a desk, etc - into the back patio so, not only does she have an office fit for clients, but she has a really nice, bright place in which to work.

Her bedroom is now downstairs, the livingroom upstairs in what would presumably have been the main bedroom. You are unlikely to want to move the kitchen - it's a big, expensive job, but turning your biggest bedroom into your livingroom, and your livingroom into a client-friendly office should be easy enough. For it to work your new office will have to have a strict makeover - choose a neutral paint colour for the walls; out goes the matching three-piece suite, in comes a small sofa or chair; if your carpet is patterned, replace it with something neutral or wooden flooring, the same goes for patterned curtains which should be replaced with plain curtains or blinds; and replace ornaments with books relevant to your new profession.

This new layout won't be ideal for you, as your livingroom will be far away from your kitchen, but if you look at it as a short term solution until your business really takes off, you should be able to live with it. If in the future you change career, or want to sell up, it would be easy to change your home's layout back to a more conventional arrangement.

Deposit on a house

We put a deposit on a house in late March after a long search. The sale is due to go through in early June. However, we now realise that a lot of houses come on the market after Easter and, if we had waited, we might have got something better. Is it possible to put down deposits on two houses at the same time - say if we see something we like better after Easter and then get our previous deposit back?

Theoretically, there is nothing to stop you putting deposits on as many houses as you like. In a private treaty sale it is usual to be asked for a "booking deposit" which doesn't really commit anybody to anything and I presume that this is the deposit you have put down. Both the buyer and the seller can still change their mind right up to the time they sign contracts. It's different in an auction situation - on the day of the auction you pay a 10 per cent deposit and sign contracts committing you with going through with the sale. The more fundamental question is why you are so unhappy with the house that only a few weeks ago you liked so much you were prepared to put a deposit on.

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Unfortunately, it is not possible to respond to all questions. The above is a representative sample of queries received. This column is a readers' service and is not intended to replace professional advice. No individual correspondence will be entered into.