Garage being used as a home

[Thehouseintheforest]

Hi there I have NC as think my neighbours wife is on here . I am after some advice and genuinely don't know what the best course of action is.

My neighbour applied for permission to build a separate granny 'annex'. This was refused. They then applied for a double garage with a games room above. This was granted.

The property was constructed and finished in May. Since June a family of three have been living there.
I had the opportunity to meet the woman of the family today. We walked home together from our local village shop. About a mile along a country lane. All our properties are at the end of this 'no through road' . There are five houses in total . The area is in a conservation area and sssi .

The new 'tenant' of the garage was thrilled with her new home. Apparently it is 'beautifully finished and fitted out' as a 2 bed country house. For which they pay a commercial rent. They intend to be there a long long time.
I haven't told her that the property is not meant to be residential.

AIBU to contact planning enforcement and tell them what is going on ?
Will they care ?

I know the usual suspects will pipe up with 'its none of your business ' - but surely the whole point of planning is that people abide by it. It is my business because my neighbour has unilaterally deciding that he doesn't have to take notice of planning laws and has increased the dwellings in our hamlet by 20% without permission.

Or should I just live and let live. Do the same myself and bring in a bit of extra income.? Few people ever come up here- they will probably never know ..

It seems really wrong to me, but is it. ?

OP, it is legal to convert a garage without a planning permission. What your neighbour might be planning to do in the future, I don’t know.

I also don’t get the pure greed comments. I don’t know what rents are in your area, but I’d expect it to take 10+ years to even get your money back as it’s very expensive to build a little house.

Also, if someone is rich then why would they want some randomers on their property for an income that is relatively insignificant? I’d give the neighbours the benefit of the doubt. I think it might be that they were hoping for an annexe for an elderly parent or adult child etc and are just trying to recoup some of the build cost in the meantime.

That's interesting wowfudge and something I will also look at.

It's just feels wrong. I don't dislike my neighbour. He is perfectly ok as a neighbour. The lady concerned was also very pleasant and so pleased to have a lovely home in the country. They are quiet nice people so I feel torn about this for their sake.

Yet I can't get away from the fact that there are rules about planning in green belt for a reason and if he can do this unchecked then surely everyone else with a bit of green space can do the same... and that doubles the lack of green space.

Add to that I also feel sorry for people who would like to stay in a rural village but simply can't afford a house BECAUSE the planning laws are so strict.. for a reason !

You can only convert to living accommodation ancillary to the main house ie not rent it out separately.

As the Council had already refused PP for an annexe, it is likely that they removed or rights to convert the garage when they approved that.

OP you can check their pp on line at council's website to see what conditions were imposed.

*If your intention is to convert a garage into a separate house (regardless of who will occupy it), then planning permission may be required no matter what work is involved. We advise that you discuss such proposals with your local planning authority to ensure that any work you do is lawful and correctly permissioned.

Sometimes permitted development rights have been removed from some properties with regard to garage conversions and therefore you should contact your local planning authority before proceeding, particularly if you live on a new housing development or in a conservation area.*

The above is from the Planning Portal. It is not as easy as JoJo suggests. Which is just as well otherwise it would just be a CF's charter to circumvent the rules.

@cakes I have to know more about the darlek in the shed misses point of thread

I was being sarcastic re the council tax. I

What JoJo has posted isn't true. Conservation areas, national parks and SSSIs do not, in many cases, have the same permitted development rights as other areas - for a good reason! For a conservation area/SSSI, I believe the way to check what is allowable would be to check with the planning authority and Natural England.

I live in a national park, and it's the national park authority that has to approve any planning applications. They are stricter than the average council would be, as you'd expect. We can't just point to something being 'permitted development' in other areas of the country and expect it to be approved.

As pp implied, if he is chartered, he is duty bound to comply to a code of conduct in order to retain said chartership and it sounds like he may not be complying....

Working for a chartered surveying practice does not make one a chartered surveyor. But you probably would have quite a number of useful contacts. You can check on the RICS website whether he is chartered.

There is a MN poster that had her neighbours build a "bungalow" in the back garden utterly horrific and they got away with renting it out.

Was supposed to be a gym...

He definitely doesn't 'work for' a chartered surveyors practice. He is a fully qualified chartered surveyor with MRSCS after his name. He is also registered with RICS . Have checked it out.

Well, the way in which I feel sorry for the new tenant is that it’s entirely possible your neighbour wants or anticipates a need for a granny annex within a few years and, having got it all sorted now, is renting it out for a bit until it’s needed. At which point the tenant will be out on their arse. So no long-term stay for them at all.

I would discuss this with bc. If something happens and it burns down would the tenants have insurance. Also I'm a rule follower.

Report it.
In an emergency (fire, plane crash, etc.), it would be helpful to know what appears to be a garage is actually someone’s home.

You can report him to his professional body - particularly relevant if he is a surveyor.

Interesting that he is a registered chartered surveyor and has flouted the planning rules like this. I hope you do report him and that he faced enforcement action.

Faces - bloody autocorrect.

I have slept on it and have decided to report it. I am going to see the council this morning.

@Iwantacookie someone opened a sci-fi museum in our village and built a shed outside to put his dalek in and one parish councillor made a real fuss and it ended up as international news. It's funny and awful in equal measure

We converted garage into bedroom, didn’t need planning but did need building warrant. A good few years ago, so possibly changed now. You should be able to check council tax amount for the property on the council website. Makes me also wonder about house insurance situation.

I bet he’s found a loophole. I can’t believe a chartered surveyor would do something he knows to be illegal, it would risk his whole career and reputation surely if discovered? I wouldn’t hold out much hope of anyone chasing it up either. A couple of years ago I reported a relative (through marriage) who crushed up and entire asbestos garage at night and buried it in the garden of a lovely but wrecked cottage that he was doing up and eventually sold for over £400,000. It saved him a few grand and he didn’t seem to care that some poor family are now living on land which technically is classed as toxic wasteland (IIRC). I reported it to the relevant body and nothing came of it at all!

Report it.

Good on you . Watching with interest.

( Shame about the lovely tenant though )

I think the issue is here that pp has recently been refused for an annexe. The pp was granted for the garage. I am sure the Council would have put conditions on that pp restricting the use of the garage to what was approved, given it was obvious what the applicant really wanted. This could be checked on the Council website.

The Planning enforcement team will investigate.

Good luck today op. I’ve a bit of experience of very similar situations (garages/outbuilding used for holiday let’s despite planning being refused). Councils are so struggling that planning enforcement often takes a back seat and retrospective planning is then granted rather than costly enforcement procedures/action. In some areas there is a lot of opportunistic ‘let’s do it anyway’ development going on. Cornwall planning, I’m definitely looking at you !