Council is stopping me from selling my house! (Planning permission refusal)

Rinzler

My family and I reside in an area that is mostly populated by students. This area was not like this before until buy to let investors came and turned the area into a student ghetto.

Living here is an absolute nightmare. Every other day there is loud music/screaming/house parties etc. As you can imagine we live under constant stress and worry. Most of our evenings are ruined by the houses on that road. We put many complaints in but by the time the council does anything a new set of students arrive the new academic year!

In desperation we put the house for sale. It has been 2 years and we have got ZERO interest from families...mainly due to the reputation of this area. The only interest we get is from buy to let investors but once they learn we have not got planning permission granted (change of use), they are immediately disinterested.

We have applied for planning permission along with an appeal with statements from our estate agents, solicitors and the environmental health but it was still refused. There is an Article 4 Direction in place and the reason for refusal is that the council wants families to stay in this area to integrate into the community. This is absurd as 90% of the houses on my road are houses of multi occupation and mainly full of student tenants.

Now my family and I are in a state. All we want to do is we just want to move for a fair price and get on with our lives! It breaks my heart to think that my parents will live out thier lives amongst these unruly, inconsiderate students!

From a place of desperation I ask for help or advice from where we can go from here?

Tl:dr - can't sell house because of no planning permission. Loud students are ruining our lives and we want to move.

Thank you for reading.

G_M

the reason for refusal is that the council wants families to stay in this area to integrate into the community. This is absurd as 90% of the houses on my road are houses of multi occupation

Well that's not absurd. That's exactly why the council want a family home!

I assume when you say you "have not got planning permission" I assume you mean for change of use to an HMO?

Or have you made some change to the property for which you needed, but did not bother to obtain, PP ?

If you price it right, a BTL investor will buy it.

stator

There was someone on these forums before who had a similar problem.

I would ask the council to buy your house because by refusing the planning permission they have made it unsaleable. You should see the details of this on your planning refusal. It's a stretch but you might as well try.

Rinzler

G_M wrote: »

I assume when you say you "have not got planning permission" I assume you mean for change of use to an HMO?

Or have you made some change to the property for which you needed, but did not bother to obtain, PP ?

Thanks for reply. We are just applying for change of use from a C3 to C4 property so we can sell it to a BTL investor.

thesaint

stator wrote: »

It's a stretch but you might as well try.

I would love to be a fly on the wall when they read that letter.
They will be laughing until they cry.

Hoploz

Can you let it to students? That wouldn't need PP if below 5 people, would it?

rtho782

BTL investors are a funny market to be chasing right now anyway, with the stamp duty changes and proposed income tax changes, the market has shrunk significantly.

The council aren't stopping you selling, you just want more than you can get from the house as C3 and feel it would be worth more as C4....

anselld

G_M wrote: »

Well that's not absurd. That's exactly why the council want a family home!

I have to agree with the OP, it is absurd. The Council aim to create a balance, eg in my area they set a maximum of 10% C4. That would have been fine if they started the policy donkeys years ago, but in many areas the horse has bolted so far that it completely futile to attempt to reverse the trend.

All that they achieve with Article 4 in areas such as the OP is further blight because nobody wants to buy the remaining C3s even at a discount.

Absurd attempt at social engineering by the Councils.

anselld

Hoploz wrote: »

Can you let it to students? That wouldn't need PP if below 5 people, would it?

It does need PP. That is the (misguided) point of the Article 4 Direction.

theartfullodger

Rinzler wrote: »

Thanks for reply. We are just applying for change of use from a C3 to C4 property so we can sell it to a BTL investor.

So there is no truth in your suggestion that

Council is stopping me from selling..

as you are perfectly entitled to flog the place to a normal purchaser.

What is it, please, exactly that you are complaining about? That having complained about too many students you wish to be able to sell it so that there can be more students?? Something doesn;t quite add up here chaps....

MacMickster

You are living in an undesirable area.

Houses in undesirable areas still sell well - for the right price. You just need to market your property for the right price. Nothing to do with the council.