planning

[oconnor]

hi, has anyone out there had or have a property with a garage/stable out building able to get passed as a separate living accommodation on the out building, but must remain ancillary to the main dwelling house, if the answer to the above is yes, have you applied to the council to split the {passed} building in to a separate dwelling in its own right!
selling off the main house, my wife and I have achieved the 1st part of the above but have been told by the council the separate dwelling unit must remain ancillary to our main house and cannot be sold separately, and cannot be rented out separately. They did not say we could not retain it on sale of the main house, the reasons the council have given us, is, there are no facilities in the village and our property is on the curtilage of the village hence they will not let us split the two units however, we are in the process of developing the garage studio and due to finical expensive s of the cost of the main house mortgage ect… we feel at some point in the future we will need to sell,
I have a small piece of land attached to the house and garage studio {which has the planning on} where I keep my pony and five sheep, I do not wish or are able to afford to buy another property to accommodate them, I would like to apply for change of use to the garage studio that we are developing in two a two bed house keeping the land with the above, and putting the application forward to the council to split and the main house, so we can become mortgage free, keeping the 2 bed house with land for my wife and I to live in, I will also put forward to the council that due to technology called the internet I do not need any facilities in the village, as I can do my shopping on line and have it delivered to my door. For reference the nearest shops to our property is 2 miles away and I have a car .also my daughters school is 2 miles away, and the school bus picks her up in the morning and drops here back at .3.30 round the corner from our house . if my property was situated 2 miles away in the next village, which have facilities the above would not be a problem and I would be able to achieve my goal, which is very frustrating, I have spoke to my solicitor and she has told me on the sale of the main house I can split and retain what I want as long as the value of the mortgage is covered on the sale from the main house, but she said to beware that the planning department could take away the developing rights on the garage studio, so is anyone in this situation and I can you give me some advice as to which is the best angle to processed with this problem, if we don’t get separate dwelling status after we have made an application to the planning department, we intend to split the garage studio from the main house keeping the land and put main house up for sale, we intend to do this once the garage studio has been signed off by the council and then ,we will keep on applying for separate dwelling status until our goal is achieved , we know that the g/s will become just an outbuilding with no developments rights but while we keep on applying ,it can be used as a facility when we come to feed our animals 3 times a day, to use the loo, and make ourselves a cup of tea!! Please help and give us any advice you may have, many thanks, Connor

[tenrec]

You don't need to repost this question. Someone with more knowledge will pick it up when they come online later. : )

[Kristal53]

hi -we are a firm of builders not planning experts, but have working knowledge of this sort of thing. From what I gather you have PP to convert outbuildings into an residential unit seperate from the main house , but PP has been given for a 'holiday unit' or a 'grannie flat' perhaps? You have started the building work but not finished. This situation is a bit like a farmer converting barns into holiday accomodation -they are attached in Title to the farm. I suggest you contact a local Land Agent as opposed to a Solicitor who will be able to help you. Any local Rural Estate Agency should be able to help you -especially if they think they may eventually get some business from you. Its not easy and you may find your property is worth more than you think with the new 'annex' and you may be better off selling the whole lot and buying somewhere else

[bushbaby_de]

The condition has been put on the property for the very reason that the planners know that splitting it into two separate properties would be contrary to local planning policies, so there is very little point applying again to ask them a question they have effectively already answered. If you tried to sell the main house separately they would come across the planning permission for the granny annexe and it would likely cause problems with your sale if you are trying to dispose of the house and annexe separately. By severing the planning unit you would also effectively end up with a nil use to the annexe as it would no longer be annexed to anything, so you would need planning permission for ANY proposed use of the annexe. My advice, therefore, is that the rules and parameters for the planning use of the property have been set by the planners and you need to abide by that.