We're in the process of buying a 3 bedroom cottage with 1.7 acres of paddock. The vendors currently have one small pony there and no other livestock. The mortgage lender valuation surveyor said to the building society that the property is currently being run as a smallholding so we need to prove it's residential. I don't understand how they've decided this as the vendors don't run a business from there, don't have any livestock and don't grow anything apart from a couple of old apple trees! They used to have a holding number from DEFRA a few years ago when they had a couple of cows, but DEFRA confirmed that was cancelled years ago. The vendors pay council tax etc and the house is a perfectly normal house with kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms etc i.e. not a barn or something that looks uninhabitable! How on earth do I prove it's residential as we're on a tight timeline !? Thanks!