local council granted permission for two flats in 2004

cam5

hi all, need some advice please an application was put into my local council it was a certificate of lawfulness for existing use as two seperate flats the application was permitted 07 05 2004 delegated decition this was done by the previous owner the permission expiry date is 07 05 2009 5 years for the past two and half years it has been used as a family house, i would now like to rent it out as two flats i will need to install a 2nd boiler and make a few alterations will i have to submit a new application for the conversion or can i convert it back to the original two flats, i hope this makes sense
thanks

poppysarah

You need permission. It can be denied if there's a lack of similar accomodation in the area.

cam5

its got permission until 07 05 2009, when a cetificate of lawfulness is issued is this only valid for 5 years what happens after that

PasturesNew

You will need Building Regs. It is possible that the actual conversion might cost £20-50k.

It's not just a new boiler, there are a whole raft of fire regulations.

Dinah93

You will need permission to convert a single family dwelling into two flats.

cam5

let me rehase this question i bought a house in 2006 through estate agent as a vacant 4 bed house, untill recently i have discoverd that in 2004 a application was put in to local council for a cetificate of lawfulness as two flats which was permitted the property still looks like two apartments just some of the doors have been removed and the upstairs kitchen / bath room have been removed but traces of all the plumbing etc are still there, my question is this property still lawfull as two flats so can we restore this property back to two units on an official basis the last two lots of council tax were paid in 2004 there has been no other planning app or building regs submitted to local council
thanks

planning_officer

Let me just try and fathom this one out - is the following correct? -

May 2004 - certificate of lawfulness for existing use of building as two flats granted by council

2006 - you bought the house

2006ish to 2008 - building used as a single dwelling (not as flats)


Firstly, I have one question about this application in 2004 - are you sure it was a certificate of lawfulness, or was it a planning application? There's a big difference. A certificate of lawfulness is a legal determination by the council of whether a development is lawful - it's a simple yes/no answer, and this type of application does not have a time limit - there's nothing to give a time limit to - as I say, it's a legal determination, not an application for planning permission.

Therefore, as you say the application is valid for 5 years, this suggests that it was in fact planning permission that was granted in 2004, not a certificate of lawfulness.

If it was planning permission granted for two flats, then yes, you can go ahead and do it, as the permission is still valid (5 years). If it was a certificate of lawfulness for an EXISTING use (as you say), then no - you can't turn the building into two flats. It may have been the lawful use in 2004, but since then it's been turned into a single house (which doesn't require planning permission), however, planning permission is required to subdivide it back to two flats.

I am dealing with a very similar case at the moment - the Council Tax issue is not definitive and indeed not really that helpful, as it is the USE of the building that is the issue in planning terms - in your case, the building has clearly been used as a single dwelling for the past 2.5 years, therefore planning permission would be required to subdivide it again.