House Buying and Permitted Development

tocra

Hi Everyone,
Hope some of you may be able to help me, i am currently in the position of buying somewhere which has a seperate double garage with a bedroom above it that is insulated and finalised. I think they had it for guests. The unit is completely seperate to the house and on my enquiries it turns out they built it themselves about 7 years ago without planning permission or building regs.

There is no water or sewage running from the garage but there is electricity, it looks as though a good job has been done on it and i am going to get a building survey on it and the main house to see what they think.

My aim was to get the garage bottom part converted into liveable accomodation with a kitchen, bathroom and lounge and then have an internal staircase to the room above it which is already converted. I thought this would provide me with a source of extra income to rent out ?

My questions are :
1) As it appears it was built under permitted development (i looked at the definition of this and it looks like it might just fit in) would that present any issues with then applying for a change of use and would i need to apply for planning permission to convert the original double garage ? Do councils frown on allowing you to do this especially as it is to rent it out ? The property is on half an acre so has space for parking etc
2) As it hasn't got building regs , do i assume i would need to get the whole thing looked at again i.e. digging up the foundations to get this signed off and if it failed on that would i have to fix that or could i just not proceed with the conversion part ?
3) If i ask the council to look at the garage this obviously alerts them, if it needed planning permission what is the likelihood they would do anything now ? Obviously i invalidate any insurance i get from the vendor by alerting the council.
4) Does anyone have any idea what would be the rough cost of converting a seperate double garage to liveable accomodation as a ball park ?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

richardw

Where's the sewer?
Is the drain large enough for more sewage?

tocra

Cheers for responding, The house has its own septic tank so i was thinking i would have to link the garage into that.

de_g.

tocra wrote: »

My questions are :
1) As it appears it was built under permitted development (i looked at the definition of this and it looks like it might just fit in) would that present any issues with then applying for a change of use and would i need to apply for planning permission to convert the original double garage ? Do councils frown on allowing you to do this especially as it is to rent it out ? The property is on half an acre so has space for parking etc

Which bit of the definition of permitted development does it fall under? As a separate structure from the main house it falls under Class E in Schedule 1 of the Town and Country (General Permitted Development) Order 1995. The restrictions on this include:
- Not more than 4m to a ridged roof or 3m to any other kind of roof (how do you manage to get two storeys below this height?
- If any part of the new building is within 5m of the existing house, it cannot be more than 10 cubic metres in volume.

Enforcement action if take would be against the current owner of the property (i,e, you if you were to buy it) rather than the person responsible for the original breach. As it hasn't been operated for that period as a single dwellinghouse enforcement action could be taken at any time up to 10 years from when it was constructed, and it would be your responsibility as owner to remedy any breach, which could require demolition or reinstatement to a single storey garage if that is what was already there. Failure to comply with a properly served enforcement notice can ultimately result in a jail sentence.

I wouldn't take the risk, personally.

tocra

I think you raise a valid point, ill be honest i was surprised that this hadn't got planning or building regs originally, i dont see why people keep taking shortcuts to exclude the council.

The roof is a high pitch so the bottom of the eaves is at probably 2 metres where it starts and forming the point of the triangle at the top around 4 metres.

The house has a major extension on also without planning or building regs. All the solicitor keeps pointing me to is the indemnity cover they can get the vendor to provide but from what i can see that then stops me contacting the council and as i want to further extend and convert the garage as well as the main house that leaves me stuck as i do want to do everything the legal route as else i know you hit the rails when you try and sell.

dimbo61

RUN away from this property ?
It is going to be a nightmare.
Who built the garage and extension ?

planning_officer

It's been there for more than 4 years, so is now immune from enforcement action (under planning) whether or not it originally needed planning permission - that is providing it was built within the lawful garden area.

This only applies to planning though - not building regs.

For info, such a building cannot be permitted development now (legislation changed in 2008) - there is a criterion in Class E (quoted above) which states that any outbuilding with more than one floor always requires planning permission from the Council.

lincroft1710

If it had been a conservatory or small single storey extension built without PP or BR, might not be worth worrying about. But a major extension and a room over the garage? Why did they not bother obtaining PP and BR??