Agricultural Occupation Restriction - breach of planning enforcement

RabbitMad

I have recently inherited* a house that the family believes has a Agricultural Occupation Restriction that was a condition of planning consent back in the early 80's. The deceased owner ceased working in the agriculture industry at least 20 years ago probably more and likely within a year of the house being completed.

How do I go about finding out if such a restriction exists?

Could the local authority enforce such a restriction after it has been flouted for so many years?

Will this reduce the value of the property for probate purposes (IHT will have to be paid on the estate)?

Could we get such a restriction lifted or would it be better if I want to sell to get an indemnity insurance policy in place?


*as well as a beneficary I am the lay executor of the will and have yet to get probate.

DVardysShadow

Investigating getting the restriction lifted almost certainly risks disqualifying the property for indemnity insurance - unless you stick to generalities until you are totally certain of your grounds.

Something to look at is what did the deceased owner do after leaving agriculture? If they held down another job for a number of years, this breach might prove useful.

Richard_Webster

Write a bland letter to the Council saying you are selling the property and you would like copies of any planning decisions relevant to it. Don't tell them that you suspect that is has an ag-tie.

If there is an ag-tie you ahev read its wording carefully. It could well have allowed occupation by person who were formaely employed in agriculture and the deceased could therefore have complied and you are stuck with it. If he did something else after he stopped being agriculturally employed or the condition didn't allow former agricultural workers, then you would have to get together evidence of at least 10 yaers continuous use - (if the place is empty for a bit during the period you have to start again!) without compliance with the condition and apply for a certificate of lawful use.

(I was involved in the sale of a family property built in the early 1970s that the family were jolly sure had an ag-tie, but we had never seen the planning permission. Contacted Council to get a copy of permission and they didn't have it in the Planing Department - all the pre 1974 permissions given by former rural districts taken over by bigger authority in 1974 had been consigned to the archives! So had we not know about the ag-tie we could possibly have innocently sold the house without knowing of it!)

There have been other threads where we have pointed the difficulty of getting these conditions removed by application. You generally have to advertise the property for sale with the ag-tie at a price that takes it into account - to see if anyone is interested and only after 1-2 yaers of continuous advertising - which all has to be documented to the Council's satisfaction and proof that nobody was interested at all that you have a chance of having the condition removed.

RabbitMad

Thanks for the responses - I phoned the council and it does. I have the wording and am now going to park the issue until I have the rest of the estate sorted (or at least the paper work).

If the property becomes empty now that the former owner is deceased does that mean we'd need another 10 years?

My issues is can I legitamately get a value of the house for probate purposes stating that the property the AOC but then get the certificate of lawful use staight away once probabte has been granted or would HMRC take a very dim view of that?

My other issue is that the will is very complex and devisive and is almost set up to pit one half of the family against the other. As executor I have to try to act in the best interests of both sets of beneficaries.

A final related question - how can I get details of a ltd company for free or little cost?