Is it legal to have someone living in a hut in your garden?

[hastalamista]

Just that really, their appears to be someone living in the garden of a neighbour, its a pretty sturdy hut so not just a shed with power and I hope heat. I think it might be the woman's adult son as his works van is always parked in our street.

I am not going to report it or anything, I'm sure its just a temporary arrangement but if the lad is homeless wouldn't the council be able to sort him out with a proper flat or something?

Tell us you know nothing about the state of social housing without telling us you know nothing about the state of social housing

No, he can't just get a proper flat or something.

Yes, living in a structure in the garden is legal and doesn't need planning permission if the structure is only used as an ancillary to the main dwelling. So, he would need to be sleeping there but using the kitchen and bathroom in the actual house.

It's not illegal, and presumably he's well aware of what his options are if he's of working age. I guess it's a decent arrangement for him at the moment, he might be between homes or something.

Yes it’s legal.
An adult son with no dependents isn’t likely to be high up the list for social housing.

As above, not illegal as long as the structure meets regulations

Your comment about the council prividing him with a flat did make me smile though 😄

Oh well, I'm very sorry to hear that, I say that he might get a flat as there are literally empty council flats on the street adjacent to us, which would be perfect as he'd still be close to his mum and he does have children but I think they live with their mum.

I am not going to report it or anything, I'm sure its just a temporary arrangement but if the lad is homeless wouldn't the council be able to sort him out with a proper flat or something?
I'm not having a go at you, we know what we know, but no, he'd be lucky to be handed the address of a hostel!

If he uses the dwellings bathroom and kitchen, so he is only sleeping there it can come under the same rules as using a caravan in a garden as an ancillary bedroom, especially if he's keeping possessions in the house.

@Elleherd I just think its a shame that their are empty council flats available just nearby and the lad has to sleep in a shed, a nice shed of course but still a shed.

It doesn't work like that. There are areas with huge numbers of empty properties and people on the housing list, homeless people not on the list, closed lists but large numbers homeless not even able to join, all sorts.

There used to be all sorts of ways of using properties temporally etc including licensing them through HA's, and the right to squat publicly owned unused properties kept many a family together, but they decided they could save money by stopping the first and made the second illegal. (unless a commercial building- which there are less of) Keeping them empty and people un-housed is the cheaper option for the taxpayer short term. So, people have to find whatever solutions they can and pray others don't kick off.

Unfortunately, beds in sheds is a real thing.

@Elleherd I'm not going to say a thing to anyone, sounds like he is better off where he is for now, its a very sad state of affairs though.

Single men are at the bottom of the pile unfortunately. Maybe he's fine with living jn a shed. If it's got utilities and insulated it will be fine. Sounds pretty good actually, and probably cheap as well!!

Yes, it's a shame that many people have to live in hostels because there is no housing for them. Its also a shame women fleeing domestic abuse get put in a room in a hostel with their children. It's a shame people are homeless on the streets. The whole housing crisis is a shame.

Do you actually know he has no other options? Maybe he prefers the independence of sleeping in the shed to the house, maybe he also prefers it to having his own flat as he gets his meals cooked!

I don't think there is a blanket rule that it's ok to live in a garden structure. When I checked once my local authority said building one for overnight accommodation would require planning permission.

I know a young man sleeping in his family’s shed. I breaks my heart, but he can’t afford another option.

Just to add to my previous post, I think there's a difference between occasional use and regular use (eg a sofa bed for guests, or someone moving in). Depending on the building obviously, but I think my own son would love a private room in the garden as a transition from teenage to adult life. In fact I'd quite like it myself to get a bit more peace 😀

I'm curious how you know there are empty council flats nearby and where on earth is this El Dorado?

I know cause I past them daily and I asked a local councillor about them. Its in a small town in Scotland.

Yes building a shed for the purpose of sleeping in requires planning permission, or it's illegal.
Depending on how it and other facilities are being used, sleeping only, in an existing one doesn't, and isn't breaking any standard rules. (yet) 'Living' in, is a legally different position from 'sleeping' in.

Putting washing/cooking facilities into an existing shed or garage needs planning permission.
Charging money for someone sleeping or living, in a shed breaks lots of different laws. Accepting work in kind from someone only sleeping not living, in a shed is a grey area, and depends a lot on the rest of the situation.

'Bed in a Shed' describes an illegal shed/garage conversion where a person lives. (as opposed to someone chucking a bed and bedding into a shed for use as extra sleeping space) and is usually paying for it in cash or kind. It is illegal because it is impossible to get planning permission to rent it as accommodation, unlike a planned annex conversion with permission, which can originally be a shed or garage, and may or may not be treated as a separate dwelling by the council.

I see! Am surprised that empty council properties are not immediately filled with overspill from other areas! Are there no homeless in Scotland?
No Scottish cities with long Council waiting lists?

Figures are believed higher now but In 2021 there were over 16,000 on the council waiting list, with over a 1000 council owned domestic properties empty, many of which had been empty for more than two years. That 'El Dorado' is Southwark, London.
Many of those empty properties were waiting to be upgraded or knocked down. A small proportion will be genuinely very temporally empty being refurbed.
It used to be that they'd go out as temporary accommodation- hard to let's, or people would squat in them until the council had a due date for repair or demolition.

It doesn't work like that. Keeping them empty allows them to eventually attract higher rents for lower conditions using schemes like home office ring fenced money to move migrants from hotels etc. Or as part of emergency accommodation for the I LTB with children, that really can't house themselves and are going for the long haul, and decanting other properties into when they discover rouge cladding, crumbling concrete, breaking asbestos in properties.

The last thing a council wants is everyone else's homeless filling their assets (building are capital assets) and needing additional services, unless it works financially, or to genuinely have absolutely no room at the inn.

But maybe the homeless people in other cities have jobs, caring responsibilities or even free childcare that they rely on and they can’t just up sticks and move to where there happens to be a house available. Empty council housing is often empty because it is in places where nobody wants to live. Of course all of us have to make compromises with housing but moving somewhere you can’t find a job isn’t going to benefit anyone.

We looked to buy a house once that apparently 'came with' a man living in the shed. Seriously.

He was apparently about 80 and I think may have once been house staff (these were the sort of people I could imagine having 'house staff'). But apparently, the house was being sold under the condition he was allowed to stay on and live out his days in the shed. There was literally a shed (more like a summer house, did have a window) with a zimmer frame parked outside. Dh and I were so shocked and it was during COVID and viewings were so rushed that we didn't quite know how to respond.

In retrospect, I often wonder if we should have reported him to adult social services or something? We didn't offer on the house, so that was the last we ever heard of it, but I think of him often actually and wonder if he was adopted by the new family or if he's found somewhere more suitable to live. 😳

I have no idea about that I'm not involved nor do I claim to have any knowledge of such things I was told they were having some work done to them but that was a few years ago now and they are still empty. Perhaps there hasn't yet been the funds to do the work needed.