What can the consequences for not following planning permission be?

[Slimeblimeclimb]

We bought our house around 5 years ago with an outbuilding that was being rented out and we kept renting it out. It now transpires that there was no planning permission for renting this out (appeal rejected in the early 00s but from what we were told by the old owners it had been rented for nearly 10 years at that point). The property comes with separate council tax, electricity and water meters.

Are there any consequences for going against planning permission? Or is the worst they can do is say you need to stop?

Are you sure you mean planning permission ? This is normally for a build / alterations to a property.

Is the building legally there ? How has this all come to light ?

If you stop when told, that is it. If you refuse to stop, then ultimately you can ultimately be taken to court/fined etc.

Planning permission is also required for changes in use.

In this instance the building is being used as a separate dwelling for which PP would be required.

Do you mean change of use? Or were there modifications made to enable this? If the building was renovated or modified without permission you can be forced to rip it all out / down.

Yes it is the change of use.

So the change of use was rejected 10 years ago. The previous owners kept using it anyways we didn't know it was not above board (council tax etc) so we kept using it in this way. There is now an investigation (guess a neighbour wanted to do similar and complained or something of the sort). They have asked to do a site visit.

Could make it hard to sell in the future. Any decent solicitor would flag it up about lack of planning permission if they were told it was being rented out.

Change of use from what to what?

If it has been given a separate council tax band then that does imply permission doesn't it? I'd maybe explore that avenue, though I'm not fully clear on it.

Not worried about selling on. Happy to stop renting it out. The question is whether there are other consequences eg fines for the previous years.

That was our thinking. It has a separate council tax band and if you keep it empty you have to pay more (so will need to figure out how to remove the council tax if so).

I think there's a time limit such that after a certain period of time they have to grant retrospective permission (there shouldn't be, obviously! IIRC it's only four years 0

But i'm not sure if this applies to change of use.

If you can prove that the use has been going on continuously for more than 4 years it should be exempt from enforcement action. You could apply for a Certificate of Lawfulness for an existing use to authorise the use.
Proof could include sworn statutory statements from previous occupiers, evidence of rental payments, the Council tax bills, utility bills showing sept account from the main property etc

If it’s been in a separate residential use for more than 4 years then it is lawful and enforcement action cannot be taken against it. If you want to regularise the use then you could submit a certificate of lawfulness which will confirm the use is lawful.

That's really interesting. Thank you.

There may be an issue over how the property was described when it was offered for sale and did your solicitor do their side of things properly

After this many years they can probably get the certificate of lawfulness

Depends on the specifics but I read recently about a case where someone had spent tens of thousands converting a farm outbuilding into airbnb accommodation without planning permission, and the court order required the owners to remove all the fittings that made it inhabitantable - plumbing, heating etc. So if it's not deemed lawful you could be ordered to reconvert it back to its original use, at your own expense.

You may in that case have a reasonable claim against your solicitor who dealt with the conveyancing, if you can reasonably argue that they should have spotted this.

As others have said, there is a four year enforcement rule for breach of planning permission. If the council haven’t taken any enforcement action for four years, then you’re safe, there is no longer anything they can do.

I think this has changed to a 10 year rule, for any work completed from April 2024 onwards. But in your case, the 4 years applies.

I should imagine things have moved on a bit by now @Slimeblimeclimb ?