Guide · 22 October 2025 · 10 min read
The second owner problem
Most architect-designed houses are damaged not by neglect but by the first person who did not commission them.
The original client understood the argument, because they paid for it to be made. The second owner inherits the argument without the conversation, and the first thing they tend to do is fix whatever they find inconvenient.
The inconveniences are usually deliberate. The narrow entry that makes the main room feel enormous. The absent upstairs corridor that forces the plan to work. The single north window in a room that would otherwise overheat.
We hand over the drawings, the specification and the architect’s contact details on every completion, and we ask new owners to speak to them before altering anything structural. About two thirds do. That number is the single best predictor of what the house will be worth in twenty years.
Written by Julien Aubert · Custodianship
