Legality of renting mobile home in grandparents garden

dottydora

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help?Not sure I am on the right forum but here goes. My son and his girlfriend live in a mobile home in my sons girlfriends grandparents garden. they pay £50 per week rent and this includes utility bills. My son is still listed as a resident in my home for purposes of council tax and his girlfriend with her parents. clearly this is not right, but if they declare that they are living there I have concerns that the grandparents may "get into trouble" as I suspect they do not have permission, or might they be liable for some tax or something on what might be considered an income? Up until now they have afforded to live there and have conveniently ignored the council tax issue. However, my son is a full time university student and works part time in a hotel and his girlfriend works part time. she is now pregnant and I suspect there will be some benefits they can claim due to low income and student etc. But it is very complicated with the living arrangements. Anyone any ideas on how it all works? thanks in advance for any advice.

rrf494g

The mobile home may well be quite legal in place.
The use of the mobile home may well be quite legal see below . . .


A caravan may be parked temporarily (in the same manner as a car) within the curtilage of a domestic property without the need for planning permission, unless there are limiting conditions applied when the house was built. This is more commonplace in modern housing estates.
A caravan may also be used in a manner ancillary to the residential property; that is, in addition to the use of the house, but not as someone's separate dwelling. You can use a caravan as, say, a granny annex, but it must not become someone's "only or main residence". There must remain a relationship between the caravan and the house, so, for example, meals could be taken in the house. Use the caravan simply in the manner of an extra room / bedroom. Make sure it remains moveable. (planningApplications.co.uk)

So it seems to me that as long as the young couple put their address down as their granparents AND the link with the main house can be demonstated (as in the meals example above), things may be quite above board.

good luck.

BitterAndTwisted

Money-wise the grandparents will only have difficulties if they are dependent on means-tested benefits IF it can be proven that they are receiving any payments from the couple. Doesn't matter if there are two people living in a house or four if the grandparents are not claiming CTax benefit. An argument could be made that the £50 they are paying is only a contribution towards the utility bills and the three meals a day that granny is providing them both with. That caravan must be ruddy freezing at this time of year.....

tommie1shunt

Did see on TV a couple living in a shed in one of there parents garden, was a posh shed, but a shed none the less.

LandyAndy

tommie1shunt wrote: »

Did see on TV a couple living in a shed in one of there parents garden, was a posh shed, but a shed none the less.

And the council ordered them out IIRC.

NeverAgain_2

The caravan is being used as someone's separate dwelling, which is in breach of the guidelines, this breach will be even clearer when the separate family unit is completed by the baby.

Nor is there any 'connection' to the main house, apart from a hosepipe and an electricity cable, which is not what the guidelines mean.

The couple's council tax position is correct in the sense they must both be registered at a bricks and mortar address, because they are not allowed to be resident in the caravan.

It's not the most serious breach, so no one's going to prison, and they may well continue unhindered provided no one complains.

A complaint is most likely to come from a neighbour, if there are any close by.

Neighbours may not be bothered at present, but the arrival of a noisy baby may change that - caravans have poor sound insulation.

Werdnal

There may also be planning permission issues. A few years back when our elderly neighbour's wife was in the late stages of cancer, their son wanted to put a caravan in their garden, so he could move here short-term to help care for her. They approached the local council as wanted to avoid any problems and do it all legally, but permission was refused.

I would check out what the local regulations are in your area, as it only takes one neighbour to shop them and its game over! Being homeless is bad enough, but with a new baby is not worth thinking about.

TBH, knowing the difficulty young people have getting on the housing ladder, if it was just a case of sticking a mobile in the parents/grandparent's garden, I would think they'd be popping up everywhere, so there must be guidelines and regs to follow. I am not saying there is anything "illegal" about the current set-up, but they shou;d make enquiries before they get a nasty surprise!

dottydora

thank you all so much for your replies. The grandparents houses is in a rural area with few neighbours and although the 2 bed static mobile home is located in the garden it is reasonably hidden and no noise is likely to reach the house or that of the neighbours. I Actually made the same comment about the cold and my son assures me they have more problems with it being too hot as they have a good heating system in it. There are no issues with them being homeless as both myself and my sons girlfriends parents would take them in, they chose to move into the mobile home a year ago to give them some independence, but they certainly didn't have to. Anyway, the replies have been most helpful. I think the first thing I shall do is call the council regarding the siting of the mobile home. I'll keep everyone updated . Many thanks, again.

dottydora

Also, the mobile home has been sited in it's present location for easily more than 10 years, as the son of the owner lived in it for some time too, would this be likely to have any bearing on it?

tyllwyd

Are you sure you want to call the council about the mobile home? It's in someone else's garden, and they might not be best pleased if someone from the council turns up unexpectedly on the doorstep. And what will you do if they decide to demand it is removed at short notice or land the owners with a backdated bill? Your son & girlfriend and the grandparents are all adults - I'd say it is down to them to sort it out between them.

dottydora

Oh goodness, no, I wasn't going to say where it was, I was going to ask hyperthetically! Like you say, would hate to open a can of worms on something that is effectively not my business. I just think it would be sensible to know what we are dealing with in case they are eligible for any help when the baby gets here because of the low income and full tim student status.