Mum living in annexe - complaint made by a neighbour about this. Can we get in trouble?

[Motherof1and2dogs]

I will try to keep this as short as possible but as much detail as I can. Myself, my husband and my Mum all decided it would be a good idea to sell our previous homes and all move in together, this was down to many reasons, however the agreement was Mum was to have her own independence and own place to live so we agreed to find somewhere with an Annexe. The place we bought was advertised as an Annexe. When we viewed the property the Annexe at the time was just being used for a business and has no kitchen or bathroom, just a toilet so it was more like an outbuilding/ garage and not a proper annexe.

We have been in the new place since October 2024. The Annexe is not yet self contained, my Mum has to use our bath to wash and has a make-do temporary kitchen until we save up to get her a proper kitchen and bathroom fitted.

I have just had a neighbour knock to give us the heads up that another neighbour of ours has complained to the council that we have someone "living in our garage". Can we get in trouble for this?

Our plan was to contact the council when was was ready to start the building process to get planning permission and then make it a self contained Annexe, and understand we would have to pay council tax on this eventually but as it's just 2 rooms with a toilet I didn't think we would need to notify anyone? It doesn't have its own address and Mum uses our address for her post.

I am not really sure what to expect. I really hope this doesn't cause too many problems for us. I don't need this right now, we don't make any noise, I have a 2 year old and I am 14 weeks pregnant. I want to cry because we both work full time jobs, we work hard, pay all our bills, we are nice genuine people and we are being targeted already. One reason we moved is because we wanted a quieter lifestyle (moved from a busy town location to a small village) and it's not been the best experience so far :(

Could someone please let me know what could happen to us in this situation. I'm so worried we are going to have to move again.

The OP said it was described as a garage turned into an office and was advertised as an annexe.

There's no misdescription there.

100% legally incorrect, please do not post on matters you don't know about, this is what a spreads mis-advice.

She’s not sleeping in a room in the home though is she
and yes the planners will follow through on this

Agree
And the neighbours of course who clearly are clued up on this.

It doesn’t require a great deal of evidence to prove
In the first instance OP will get a warning letter and then if it continues and is evidenced by the planners or the neighbours OP will get an enforcement notice.

Now if OP and her mum are quite happy to keep moving the bed etc out of the space every day, just in case. If the mum is happy to keep the lights off etc etc etc then they may be able to lie about it.
OPs mum however is only 58 so that’s a lot of years of lying and moving furniture daily when she could just as easily apply for the required permissions and bring the property up to the required regulations if she gets permission.

Isn’t that are far more sensible solution and obviously the only legal one

The OP seems long gone! Am amused/horrified by posters referring to the mother as sn ‘old lady’ and how she might need to go into a home soon. She’s FIFTY EIGHT! That’s two years older than Kylie Minogue, the same age as Cindy Crawford and five years younger than Demi Moore.

I honestly can't believe that anyone would be mean spirited enough to complain about this!

Oh FGS. If the LA takes the trouble to write to them (which I highly doubt they would), they tell the truth that this is a temporary and informal arrangement pending an application for planning permission to convert the building into proper living accommodation. It is an actual building (not a garden office) which has already been converted, with planning permission and presumably building regs, for use as an office and is not currently being used as an independent dwelling. All of this information is in the original post, so what you’re suggesting is what the OP is planning to do anyway.

If planning enforcement were to make a visit, they give 24 hours notice — they don’t do early morning raids — so no one has to move beds on a daily basis.

But OP has also put
"She's also disabled which was another reason we wanted her closer."
So neighbours may well be worried that she's got a disabled 58 year old lady living in her detatched garage/ office with no kitchen or bathroom, that has not had the required building regs for residential use.
Council will probably send a planning officer to investigate.

Exactly my thoughts.
A disabled 58yr old living in an outbuilding/office in the garden who they've probably watched going back and fore through the garden to her daughter's front door, maybe in pyjamas, every time she wants to have a shower or use the washing machine.
It's winter and it's icy outside, I'd be concerned too.
OP says she has a makeshift kitchen in the outbuilding, yet the only running water is a tiny sink in the office toilet.
Presumably OP's mother has to do her washing up there after cooking.
It's a health and safety/fire/building regulations nightmare!

Jesus BCsurvivor thats quite the flare for drama you have there. Now shes an old disabled lady shuffling about in the cold in the garden in her pjs living in a barren hovel in a disused shed thats about to collapse/go up in flames. Give over. Next she will be part of a modern slavery plot😂

There is no way neighbours are 'worried'. Otherwise they would have spoken directly to the neighbour or adult social services - not planning.

This thread has made me unreasonably annoyed cos I can see so many of the busybody types here who would have reported and just make others peoples lives harder.

Get real @bigkahunaburger , no-one said anything about a hovel, but the building is not deemed to be a residential property and so doesn’t meet building regs - and that includes fire safety standards. Nothing ‘jesus’ about it - and while you might think the neighbour is a busybody or whatever the fact is they’ve done nothing wrong by contacting the planning dept.

and exactly the same age as me.🤣🤣
Id hate to have to live like this but I suppose she knew what she was getting in to at the time….assuming they did actually understand the legals of course.
Hope she doesn’t lose somewhere to live

If they are at the enforcement stage they can visit whenever
The neighbours of course are there all the time as well.

The planners will not let this go as they could get permission by stealth.

@NewFriendlyLadybird It is an actual building (not a garden office) which has already been converted, with planning permission and presumably building regs, for use as an office...

The OP said it had planning permission to be used as garage and storeroom. I don't think the previous owners applied for change of use to an office.

There is a lot of misinformation on here and people saying it's fine, sleep where you like or that people are keyboard planners are wrong.

It doesn't matter that you have planning permission. The permission is for the 'annex' to be built but not to be used as a dwelling. It is also true for building built under permitted development - they can have 2 out of bedroom, bathroom, kitchen but not all 3 and it is because it can not be used as a dwelling.
It is not the case that you 'notify' the council. You have to request permission for change of use, and I'd be very surprised if it was awarded. You are already on sticky ground if you have put any kind of cooking equipment into the building.Council tax is a red herring here.

Get off mumsnet where people have no idea what they are talking about and speak to your local council planning officer as a matter of urgency. These rules are in place as much as anything to keep people safe and out of unsuitable housing.

👏👏👏

I think OP has already gone
Hopefully she’s putting an application in
and not informing the planners what she wants 🤣🤣🤣

Could you not argue that you're now using the garage/ex-office as a spare bedroom? Friends of ours have a den/office at the back of their garden. Their young adult daughter lives there. Are the postal addresses together? Are the utilities together? Might be useful to keep all that together. Also put your mum on the electoral register as living at your address. I'd have thought that how you divide up your living space is your business. I could put a small kitchen in my spare room and then your neighbours could argue that my son is living in a separate flat. I'd take advice from someone reliable (citizen's advice? a lawyer if you can afford it) and make sure you are doing everything to protect your home from busybodies. Good luck!

Get advice from a planning solicitor.
A granny annexe will be less disruptive than running a business in the annexe?

You will need to apply for a change of use if someone is going to be sleeping there. And you may also have to prove that it is up to current building regs.

You can't just have someone sleep in the garage. You will probably find this also invalidates your house insurance.

You can't have someone living in a garden office permanently IF THAT IS WHAT IT IS, the best thing to do is have a conversation with the planning officer or get hold of any plans that already exist.

As to the nosy neighbour just advise its not a garage, its an annex and the family use it as that. It does sound like they were fishing

It’s not a spare bedroom though is it.
Its a separate building that does not have residential planning approval.
You can put a spare kitchen in your spare bedroom (that’s not a planning issue ) just remember it’s a fire risk and comply with building regs for that.

This is not a Citizens advice issue or a solicitors issue (as OP has bought it now ) this is a Planning Department and Building Control issue.
Why waste money on solicitors. All they’ll do is phone planning….I’m sure OP has a phone.

So the response to any queries is that you "have temporarily moved your homeless mother into your home office" If you really want to lay it on, ask if they would kick their own mum out on the streets if they had a large home office like this, lay on thick how abhorrent that thought is.

No one else needs to know that now she's there you are considering whether to do a conversion to make that permanent and a proper dwelling.

Find out who the busy body really is...and make their life hell!

I've read too much Reddit, but it doesn't count as residential if it doesn't have bathing facilities. That'll need a fact check.

If this is the case it should have been mentioned in the search documents from the sale. I have a large garage space which I am not allowed to build a permanent living space into but can use it for various other things.

Remember to tell them your mum sold her own house and gave you the money following which you put her in the garage.