Certificate of Lawfulness/council tax

ruralchris

I am trying to help someone who has lived in a non conventional property for over 14 years. There is no planning on the property to use it for residential purposesor it appears for any other purposes. The property appears not to be known to the local council. If this person goes for a certificate of lawfulness or planning to put a decent house/bungalow there on the basis that she has lived there for over 14 years.

A) Will she be charged back council tax?

Would she just need to pay council tax back to the start of this financial year?

C) Back to the statute of limitations for Council Tax which I believe to be 6years?

Will be very grateful for any help. Thanks

CIS

A) The property can only be charged Council Tax from the date it is banded - I believe the Valuation Office tend not to back date but they have the say on the matter.

It would depend on the date used by the Valuation Office.

C) There is no status of limitation for Council Tax. A Liability Order only has to be obtained within 6 years of a charge becoming due for it to be granted. The charge becomes due when the demand notice is issued e.g if the VOA backdated the charge to 2000 then if the demand was issued today then the Council would have 6 years from today to collect the balance due.

guppy

The council tax banding can be backdated to the date the house came in to existence, or 1993 whichever is the later.

To get a certifcate of lawful use your friend will probably have to provide evidence of how long they have been living there and/or swear on oath regarding this. Obviously this might make it hard to deny liability for council tax.

Funny how paying their fair dues only crosses your friend's mind now they want to build a new house for cheap.

John_Pierpoint

She only has to prove use as a dwelling for 4 years; though proving use for 14 years might make saying "No" more difficult for the planning committee, when it comes to passing the plans for a nice new bungalow on a one-for-one basis.

What is the designation of the land in the local plan (or what ever it is now called)?

What sort of property is she currently occupying? Would "shed" be an appropriate description?

ruralchris

This person is not a !!!!!!!!!! and she is not a friend...just someone that needs help. She has brought up a child without proper help and the property is the equivalent of a tandem garage. She has no money to build a new house as thought by some...doesn't have the money to get planning permission herself either. However she lives in a very expensive area and she has realised that if she can sell the land as a building plot then she would have enough money to buy a normal dwelling in a cheaper area. Lawful use= easier planning for someone to buy the land and the tumbledown buildings the woman and her daughter live currently dwell in. But a VERY BIG THANK YOU FOR ALL HELPFUL REPLIES. I will keep you all informed of progress. Thanks again.

molerat

A plot without pp and a plot with have 2 completely different values. A programme the other day showed a plot with an existing ruin without pp purchased for £15K and valued at £150K once pp had been gained. Would lawful dwelling naturally carry a right to develop ?

ruralchris

CIS and guppy. I have passed on your thoughts to the person concerned and quite validly, she has enquired how you came to your conclusions and the background of each of you, to be able to give weight to your judgements....ie who is right and who is wrong can only be judged by experience or profession?
In reply to molerat, as I stated, this is her chance of owning a small legitimate house before everything collapses round her and then she would have nothing and her old age could be rather gruesome. Lawful use would be very helpful to a prospective buyer to obtain the proper planning permission, but would not give a right to getting that planning. It would also give her the right to live there if planning was not obtained or no one was interested in buying the property at a suitable figure.

CIS

I work in council tax recovery .

What myself and Guppy say goes together, the issue with the date of banding is an issue for the VOA, they can backdate if required but often dont. Its depends on the individual circumstances of the case.

As to planning certificates , I know nothing.

John_Pierpoint

You could try checking out the postings of this member of the forum and perhaps send him (?) a Personal Message inviting him (?) to comment.:
planning_officer

My home looks out at a plot of land alongside a farmer's barn - it looks like part of the farm but is actually independently owned. For many years an nice old boy lived in a shed on the site HOWEVER when he died his son tried to get planning permission on it. Seems he failed but I don't know the details, perhaps he tripped up with serving the appropriate paper work on the council at the right time?

lincroft1710

I'm ex VOA and if a dwelling was discovered which had been in use as such for several years but not assessed for Council Tax it would be backdated to either 1 Apr 1993 or date first used as a dwelling, whichever was the later date.