Sold A House But Kept The Garage. Advice Pease

[ukanonymous]

I sold a house in the UK but the garage was separate to the house and I also had loads of junk to store in it lol My question is this.
I want a uk address for my business there now but I am resident in north Spain right now.
Would I be able to somehow use this garage as an office and somehow 'create'an address for it? thinking about it it is ideal for my office. I could get it kitted out and use it for that.

How would I start to do this?

[Peter Pedant]

There will be other people with greater knowledge than me on this

You have planning "issues" over change of use ( garage -> office ) and the council will be on the watch that you dont want to put a bog in it live in it and then sell on as a house or dwelling unit

and an address - you should have " addressed" this issue when you split the house -council again I am afraid

My fambly when they did this, did it front up when selling
I am not sure how you repair the defects once you have sold up etc

[Dogsbody2]

No, I can't think of an easy way around this either.

The land separated from the original house to which it is attached still carries the C3 use class, which is domestic dwelling. The fact that there is a garage on it enables it to be used for domestic storage or for a car, but any commercial use would constitute a change of use.

It isn't unlawful to start using the garage for commercial purposes but it is hard to see that it wouldn't attract the attention of the planning authority. If they then served an enforcement notice on the owner, that would then be unlawful to continue using it. One has to use the garage for ten years in the manner of a commercial use (without being challenged) before you could apply for a certificate of lawfulness - the ten year rule, and hence no use to you.

There are ways and means of getting a business address by 'renting' a space in an existing commercial block owned and operated specifically for that purpose, that takes in mail and forwards. No idea on costs - never done it.

The stand-alone garage is difficult to see what you can use it for - other than your own personal storage or rent out privately to a local person for their domestic storage. If the land is big enough in area and the site is within an existing settlement boundary you could conceivavly get consent for a new small dwelling. By guess is that it isn't or you'd have done that already.

[ukanonymous]

Thanks for the answer.. but now is it possible to make it into a separate dwelling then and get post delivered to it?

[hc4361]

Same thing - you would have to apply to the council for change of use from garage to dwelling. To do that they would have to be satisfied the building is fit for purpose as a dwelling - access, ventilation, insulation, sanitation and all the rest of it.

If successful, it would be liable for council tax.

[Dogsbody2]

I understand where you're coming from hc, but let me explain. It wouldn't be a change of use because the existing class C3 will exist on the land where the garage sits. What is required is a planning application for development of a domestic garage into a separate dwelling. It's a similar process as those who create a granny annexe on the side of their dwelling. However whilst a granny annexe will invariably contain a condition that prevents the permanent separation of house and annexe into two dwellings, in this case the house has already been legally split from the garage, so it HAS to be independent.

If the area of land is big enough and a new dwelling could be accommodated, albeit for a smaller house than perhaps those around, the access is OK and the garage is within the existing settlement area (in town/ city), then most of the policies applying would be ticked, and one might get consent, but my guess is that it isn't.

It is easier to split a house / garden / garage into two dwellings whilst one owns the whole, not just one bit of it.