Using holiday home as permanent home

elljay · 5 June 2008 at 11:08AM

Hi, I live in an area with masses of holiday cottages/rentals but a real shortage of small homes to buy or let. It's easy to get planning to convert a barn into small holiday units but impossible to do the same for permanent homes. I was wondering how much the planning authorities check up on whether the planning was being adhered to - do they ask for returns? or spy to see if there's a different car there each week? And what happens if the owner sells the cottages?

A lot of these houses stand empty for much of the year, it seems absolutely immoral to me when young people are moving out of rural areas - one young man I know of who works on his fathers farm had to move 8 miles into the town to live and commutes each day because his father couldn't convert a barn into a flat for him. It's so wrong.

So how much checking up goes on, does anyone know?

Liz

PasturesNew · 5 June 2008 at 11:39AM

They will check up - but also, the neighbours will know - and never underestimate the power of a neighbour dobbing you in.

If it's on a site, you won't own the land it stands on - you'll be renting that. And the site owner has a vested interest to ensure that the planning permissions are rigorously adhered to (or they could have the park shut down).

If it were that easy .... it will already have been done by everybody for the last 10+ years.

elljay · 5 June 2008 at 11:50AM

Not sure about the neighbours, getting one over the national park is a regular pastime round here!! but there will always be one! I wondered though how much they might turn a blind eye, bearing in mind the shortage of affordable homes..

Some friends have converted a couple of barns into really nice little houses, and there are loads of others around, as I said, often empty, certainly in the winter. It seems so wrong when young people are desperate for starter homes.

Liz

silvercar · 5 June 2008 at 11:59AM

If you are thinking of buying a holiday home as a permneant residence, you will face a problem getting a mortgage with that restriction on it.

elljay · 5 June 2008 at 12:20PM

No I wasn't, I rent at the moment quite happily. I suppose it was a philosophical/political question more than a personal one really - there was publicity yesterday about the lack of affordable homes in Wales and it's the same in other areas, but loads of unused holiday lets. It just seems so wrong that I wondered how much the planners check up on who is living in them, and how they do, and following on, how easy it is to change the planning so they can be used for permanent lets. How long is a 'holiday' anyway?

Liz

PasturesNew · 5 June 2008 at 12:38PM

elljay wrote: »

how easy it is to change the planning so they can be used for permanent lets. How long is a 'holiday' anyway?

If they had been able to get proper/full planning in the first instance they'd have done that at the outset. Permission for holiday use varies on a plan-by-plan basis. Some are 10 months then the electricity/water is cut off. Some you can only stay continuously in for 8 weeks. Others have varying rules/regulations anywhere in between.

If it were possibly to attempt a permission "upgrade" at a future point, it would have been done by people before.

Holiday home planning permission is given to property that wouldn't get planning permission to build homes on because it's not right/in keeping with/decided as undesirable, so the holiday use just allows the local economy to benefit in some way. It stops the cute holiday places becoming an urban sprawl.

Also, holiday homes are a business, not residential.

A site in Cornwall where people tried to live sneakily: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2002/sep/25/homelessness.guardiansocietysupplement

angelavdavis · 5 June 2008 at 1:00PM

elljay wrote: »

Hi, I live in an area with masses of holiday cottages/rentals but a real shortage of small homes to buy or let. It's easy to get planning to convert a barn into small holiday units but impossible to do the same for permanent homes. I was wondering how much the planning authorities check up on whether the planning was being adhered to - do they ask for returns? or spy to see if there's a different car there each week? And what happens if the owner sells the cottages?

A lot of these houses stand empty for much of the year, it seems absolutely immoral to me when young people are moving out of rural areas - one young man I know of who works on his fathers farm had to move 8 miles into the town to live and commutes each day because his father couldn't convert a barn into a flat for him. It's so wrong.

So how much checking up goes on, does anyone know?

Liz

Hi Liz,

I live in a similar area and basically, to qualify as a holiday home, the property can only be lived in for a maximum of x amount of weeks of the year ( I think its about 40 but you will need to confirm). Therefore, if you can move out of the property for a few weeks every year you are legally entitled to stay there.

You will need to check the conditions when you purchase such a property.

Trollfever · 5 June 2008 at 2:06PM

A lot of these houses stand empty for much of the year,

Patience.

A lot of second/holiday homes were bought with borrowed money.

The party is now over.

Debt_Free_Chick · 6 June 2008 at 7:19AM

The planning restriction is on the owner of the property, not the occupier. So the landlord would need to agree that you can live in the property "permanently". As he's the one that would face any enforcement action, he's unlikely to agree. Anyway, you wouldn't get an AST if there's a planning restriction on occupation e.g. if the restriction is that you can't occupy for more than 8 weeks, you wouldn't get an AST for 6 months.

elljay · 6 June 2008 at 7:40AM

Thanks, yes I understand. Around here there seem to be several informal arrangements in operation,- friends or friends of friends or someone from the village staying long term in holiday lets. I suppose informal arrangements like these can't be policed anyway, especially if they're not formal tenancies. For example someone I know moved into a holiday let while waiting for their own house to be sold, and ended up just staying on - over 2 years now. It's in the middle of the village and everyone knows but no-one is bothered, why should they? Obviously there's no security or comeback either way but it seems to work fine.

It seems as though that sort of arrangement is the way forward, it should be a crime to allow a property to be empty.

Captain_Mainwaring_2 · 6 June 2008 at 7:59AM

elljay wrote: »

Thanks, yes I understand. Around here there seem to be several informal arrangements in operation,- friends or friends of friends or someone from the village staying long term in holiday lets. I suppose informal arrangements like these can't be policed anyway, especially if they're not formal tenancies. For example someone I know moved into a holiday let while waiting for their own house to be sold, and ended up just staying on - over 2 years now. It's in the middle of the village and everyone knows but no-one is bothered, why should they? Obviously there's no security or comeback either way but it seems to work fine.

It seems as though that sort of arrangement is the way forward, it should be a crime to allow a property to be empty.

Because it is human nature (particularly in the UK) for people to stick their great big hooters into other peoples business.

Please remember that your idea of a holiday home and a nice place to live may well be purgatory for someone else. Fortunately we still have the right to buy something like a car or a house and only use it as and when we wish.

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Using holiday home as permanent home

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