'illegal' mock-Tudor castle he tried to hide behind 40ft hay bales

AdrianC

DaftyDuck wrote: »

From the way that roof is coming down in the photos, a straw house would be better-built!

Well, the tiles are being removed. Apart from that...

But I await the apology from those who swore blind it would never happen...
<fails to hold breath>

DaftyDuck

AdrianC wrote: »

Well, the tiles are being removed. Apart from that...

But I await the apology from those who swore blind it would never happen...
<fails to hold breath>

Well, have a look at the sag (roof, not bottom), and look where some of the structural elements join.... I wouldn't think it would take much huffing and puffing to blow the house down...

Browntoa

I'm assuming a few tiles off this weekend and then tarpaulin goes on and that's it

He will try and claim he's complying with the order but needs more time but hopefully the council will just send a team in to do it at his cost

AdrianC

Browntoa wrote: »

I'm assuming a few tiles off this weekend and then tarpaulin goes on and that's it

He will try and claim he's complying with the order but needs more time but hopefully the council will just send a team in to do it at his cost

Oooh, you cynic!

patman99

At a guess, I'd say that he is carefully demolishing the building to save all the materials in order to use them to build a new property after he has obtained full PP.

His big mistake was to not plant a load of trees to screen the whole site from public view before beginning the original construction. The problem only came to light because the building was visible across the valley.

AdrianC

patman99 wrote: »

His big mistake was to not plant a load of trees to screen the whole site from public view before beginning the original construction. The problem only came to light because the building was visible across the valley.

Have you seen the wider shots of the house, not the carefully lined-up ones to make it look isolated?

It's in the middle of, frankly, a scrapyard.



https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.2044451,-0.1496944,213m/data=!3m1!1e3
From the aerial shots, it's blindingly obvious that it's built from a pair of old silos. It's also much, much smaller than the usual angles make it appear.

Davesnave

patman99 wrote: »

His big mistake was to not plant a load of trees to screen the whole site from public view before beginning the original construction. The problem only came to light because the building was visible across the valley.

D'you think country folk don't talk?

A guy like that will have many friends, and a few enemies too!

eddddy

patman99 wrote: »

His big mistake was to not plant a load of trees to screen the whole site from public view before beginning the original construction. The problem only came to light because the building was visible across the valley.

Quite possibly.

Here's another guy that did the same as Fidler, just 14 miles away from Fidler's farm - but his house was smaller and surrounded by trees, and nobody reported him for 4 years - so he got away with it...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2116111/House-woods-The-extraordinary-story-family-built-house-Surrey-beauty-spot-kept-quiet-FOUR-YEARS.html

Just to prove it, here's the certificate of lawful use: http://www.molevalley.gov.uk/CausewayDocList/DocServlet?ref=MO/2011/1449&docid=413870

patman99

There is a 6 bedroom house in my village that was built 10 years back without PP. The house was built at the bottom of a grden by the owner of the house with the garden.

The guy is/was a builder and shipped-in materials bit by bit in his trailer.
He got away with it because the house lay beside a private access drive with only one other property further along it.
The owner of the last property in the lane assumed that the builder had PP so said nothing.

Ithaca

Does it matter if you take intentional steps to conceal the property? I could imagine covering it with tarpaulin for four years and pretending it's a haystack would been seen as cheating, but planting fast-growing bamboo to screen it feels like it should be different.