DH and I just bought a house in the UK - we are both from overseas. The house has a small side-extension that fills the space between our house and the neighbour's house. The extension was built without a planning permission, but over 30 years ago, so we thought all was ok. The neighbours seemed nice at first, but once we had moved in, the City Council called and told us the neighbours had made a claim that they had a right of passage through the extension into their garden. No such right is deeded in their or our deed and they cannot actually get through the extension into their garden so we ignored it and did not hear anything more about that claim. Now the City Council just called again and said the neighbours are claiming we are 'intensifying the use' of the extension, specifically the first floor over the passage, which is only supposed to be used for storage, or so they claim. We have made some internal(!) alterations like plastering and replacing rotten woods, but we have done that everywhere in the house as it is in very bad condition. We have no idea how serious to take this. We have a deadline to submit evidence that the development is now legal and that it is an integral part of the house. What kind of evidence could we bring that would help us? Can anyone tell us please how likely it is for the Council to interfere with our use of the room? It is part of and accessible from the house so that seems somehow wrong. What would it mean if they ruled it was for storage only? Are there features a room may not have if it is for storage only? As we both just moved here and our solicitor is helpfully on summer vacation we are rather lost.
Please or to access all these features
Please
or
to access all these features
Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.
Property/DIY
HELP Certificate of Lawful use and Development
19 replies
Bewildered81 · 09/08/2015 21:38
OP posts:
Please create an account
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.