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. ?

For the tenants own safety, it was good you reported. My dm used to work for the local council and people tried to get away with this all the time to earn more money for themselves, without giving a shit about the safety of the tenants, let alone impact on the local area.

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I feel for the tenant who I assume is completely unaware that it's an illegal let. Surely she must think something's a bit fishy though? No bills to put in her name? No council tax to pay? No own bins? And I assume no proper address. If she ever God forbids, has a house fire or any other disaster, what will she do when the insurance refuses a payout? Because it is an illegal let there is little or no proof that the owner is complying with a Landlord's legal requirements such as the annual gas safety check, smoke alarms plus other building regs.

MarySibleysFamiliar
A lot of places have a set rent with everything included.

I wouldn't think it was odd.

I presume as it is a garage it is on the ground floor and a smoke alarm isn't too much to fit or just have on top of the kitchen cupboards if the tenant wants and I presume there are windows so I wouldn't think it would be too dangerous.

I think that if the family are a nice family op I wouldn't have reported them
Presumably they are now going to have to move. So you don't know who or what you ate going to get in its place.

The council might decide that he cant have someone permanently in there so you could end up with an Airbnb

I would not have poked the hornets nest.

I feel for the tenant who I assume is completely unaware that it's an illegal let. Surely she must think something's a bit fishy though? No bills to put in her name? No council tax to pay? No own bins

I feel for the tenant too. If the rent he is charging is high enough the house owner may have convinced them that it includes all the bills. They may share the bins and the postal address - how often does a postie deliver a batch of letters to one property, with several different names on them? Quite often - myself and DP have different names for one.

Additionally, Is he reporting this income to HMRC? If so, what is he declaring it as? Or is it falling into his back pocket as a 'nice little earner'?

I would definitely report but realistically the council will not be bothered. Don’t seem to be where I live anyway.

There are a lot of ‘gyms’, ‘Sheds’ etc being built around my area in back gardens. Breeze block built then clad in wood complete with full diamond leaded UPVC windows and doors.

They look bloody awful and the local council could not give a damn.

The property is a garage with a 'games room above'. From what I understand from the tenant they have divided the games room into bedrooms and added a shower.

I don't know about council tax/separate address etc as didn't want to interrogate the poor woman. My only argument is that he applied for what he has built. Got refused ,.. and appears to have built it anyway. !

@FlamingoFlamenco by the sounds of it it's a completely self contained property so the tenant presumably must be getting her mail delivered to the landlord's address and is given her mail at his convenience or she has her own letterbox and has a separate fake address. Perhaps 15A Cheekysod Road rather than just 15.

Either way, it's wrong.

My point being, when people live together whether in a relationship or simply housemates, getting mail with different names on is normal. Your mail going to a neighbour is not.

I saw her again today. Only for ten minutes. The address is the same as the landlords . He gives them their mail.

Yes it is completely self contained. 2 storey property . 200 metres from main house. At the end of the garden near the road. (Farm track)

He can apply at any time for retrospective planning permission which he may or not get.
After 4 years he can apply and get a certificate of lawful use. At this point there is nothing you or the planning authority can do to stop the use.

The OP's reported it so he's not going to get to four years without the planners knowing about it. As his first application for a dwelling (annexe) was refused I would hope they wouldn't allow an application for retrospective pp to be granted otherwise they'll just look completely toothless and irrelevant.

Any news, OP?

This is a huge grey area. I live in an AONB and green belt. We have extremely tight planning policies governing my area and, as a result, a number of people are flouting the rules and getting away with it. Lots of people know, including Councillors, but nothing is done.

To come clean, we have a large garage with a loft room over it. It has a kitchen and bathroom and could be lived in. We don’t rent it out, but we could and who would care? We were totally upfront to Planning about the room over the garage. However, the building cannot be sold off. I don’t think you can stop the owner fitting out the room to have a kitchen and bathroom. A games room is habitable accommodation so this building never was solely a garage.

A neighbour has found another way of dealing with planning restrictions. He had numerous single storey barns. Not old and not pretty. They were turned into storage units. They then got windows. They then got roof lights. Doors were added. (Walls inside too). They then got tenants. We all joke it’s “x” village! It’s essentially a new development.

Two other properties have stables attached to their properties. Both are new stables. Not one horse has ever been in these stables. Both have been converted to residential use without further planning permission. One set of “stables” had an increased ridge height to enable a flat to be built above the “stables” and it’s rented out. No one ever checked anything.

Others have incorporated outbuildings into their dwellings and then used the new sq ft size to get a bigger extension. We are allowed an extension of 50% of the dwelling size based on the 1948 footprint. Or later if a newer house. Adding an extra outbuilding into your dwelling is gaming the system.

However now we have HS2 a short distance away so who cares? One planning law for the government and another for homeowners!

Well done OP. Did the council visit?