Internal Garage conversion refusal - due to loosing one parking space

HappyMJ

werdas wrote: »

Hello
long story short
we are young family, seen neighbors next block (3 of them in identical houses) had their garage conversions done

got the architect, plans (as permitted rights are removed )
applied
application been refused due to loosing one car parking space, LA saying for this size property (3 bed only LOL) there should be 2 car parking spaces.
asked what about other neighbors, they said out of 3 only one had applications but it could be due to either they did not need application or they just did it...
anyway Im not about other people etc
I understand I can appeal, but I feel it is dead end.
what are my options:
1. partial conversions, would they come to check etc?
2. still do a conversion and expect I will get away with fine or I will be told to change it back?
3?...

funny thing is in this housing crisis LA's are worried more about parking then living space...

Thanks

I would do a partial conversion.

You can keep the garage door in place and build a partition wall a few feet behind it. You can then plaster the walls and make a room. It can easily be converted back just by ripping out the partition wall.

Just to add a bit more...I'm not interested in properties that have converted the garage to a room but if I can see the partition can very easily be removed then I will overlook that. I don't want to be pulling a brick wall down to restore the garage.

Ozzuk

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I can see that other people would be impacted by having one fewer car parking space available. It's also entirely logical that a 3 bedroom house would quite likely (in this day and age) have 2 cars - ie with the high number of 2-car families there are these days.

What isn't logical is why someone would buy a house with one less room than they require and then try and convert the garage to make that extra room that is a personal wish for one household (rather than a need for any household in that particular house).

That is the logic the Council will be using - as they have to act in the best interests of all ratepayers and not just one household that apparently didnt foresee a wish for an extra room on the house they bought (presumably having viewed it and knowing what it was like at the time they bought it).

I'm not a car-owner - but I do frequently witness the "parking wars" that go on between households that own cars (because of all those multi-car households around these days).

Whether someone does actually use their garage as a garage is entirely up to the household concerned - and non-use of it as one isnt something that should impinge on neighbouring houses (ie by exacerbating those "parking wars").

I doubt very much that the council is using your logic to make planning decision, more likely they will use their planning guidelines and judgement (both which can be bizarre at times!)

Using your logic the council would never grant extensions (because the owner should have bought a bigger house in the first place).

OP, appeal, look up the planning information for the garage conversion that was approved.

moneyistooshorttomention

There is the thought to the "tell a visual lie - do as you want and keep the garage door in place" school of thought of:

- then worry about who might tell the Council about this

- what happens when you come to sell the house. When I was studying house details prior to recent move I came across details of a house with a "visual lie" like that (ie the original garage door was there - but there was a room inside it). The house basically looked nice/in good condition/in reasonable area/etc/etc - and last time I looked it was still on the market (ie rather a long time after I had first noticed it). Guess the moral is that buyers aren't very keen on getting landed with a situation like that on the one hand or having to rectify it on the other hand....

bouicca21

I've seen a couple of conversions where the garage door was left in place because the council refused permission for a conversion. In one case a window was possible in the side wall. In another there is no natural light but the quality of the conversion means that you scarcely notice its absence.

princeofpounds

I love planners. They spend half the time telling new developers they can't build car parking spaces, to force people to use public transport, and half the time telling garage converters that they have to keep their car parking spaces, so there is more space on the road to park cars.


When will they realise that the people that actually live in the properties might actually have some idea about the most beneficial way to use them?


If they don't want too many cars parking on the roads, they can control physical parking space or issue permits per house, and leave the poor householders alone to evaluate the cost/benefit of paying for an extra permit vs. getting extra living space.


Central planning was a disaster in the Soviet Union, and it has been a disaster for our sclerotic planning system.

pinkteapot

Really stupid question - do you have a front garden that you could pave over to create a second space? I'm struggling to picture a house with internal garage that can only fit one car on its frontage...

Andy_L

pinkteapot wrote: »

Really stupid question - do you have a front garden that you could pave over to create a second space? I'm struggling to picture a house with internal garage that can only fit one car on its frontage...

Perhaps the front garden is only 3ft deep

pimento

Andy_L wrote: »

Perhaps the front garden is only 3ft deep

I think the front garden is wide enough to have people from the block of flats next door walk across it (as per the OPs other thread).

werdas

pinkteapot wrote: »

Really stupid question - do you have a front garden that you could pave over to create a second space? I'm struggling to picture a house with internal garage that can only fit one car on its frontage...

not sure if this picture will give you an idea

pinkteapot

werdas wrote: »

not sure if this picture will give you an idea

Not really. Looks big enough for two cars but it's not clear.

What I was getting at was.... If the council weren't happy with you only having one parking space, could you do some landscaping as well as the garage conversion that would give you two off-road parking spaces on your land? Then, could you re-submit the plans including this, to show that the number of parking spaces will still be the same afterwards.