Having a lodge in the garden to holiday let

Jenks6598

Hello,

My Wife and I are very luck to live on the North Coast of Cornwall close to the sea and amazing beaches. We bought a Bungalow in a small village in January 2018 and have a good sized garden to three sides of the Bungalow.

We’ve had an idea to boost our income by building a small wooden/lodge type structure in the garden for short term holiday letting throughout the year. Appears to me that this can be achieved through permissible development and wouldn’t cost the earth either. My question or wondering really is if anyone has done this before and could advise on any pitfalls?

What I don’t know is whether to finance this through an unsecured personal loan or whether to start a small business and try to do it all through the business etc, any advice welcome please.

I have a bit of experience holiday letting previously just when I moved in with my now Wife and we let my old apartment out for a summer.

Thanks a lot

mikep22

Wouldnt that need planning permission?

Jenks6598

Not from the enquiries we have made, if it is less than 2.5m high so single storey and less than 30m2 it would be classed as a garden building and as it’s not going to be a permanent residence ever it falls under permissible development.

lincroft1710

I would doubly check on the pp, as a building of the type you are envisaging would be capable of being occupied as a separate dwelling.

tizerbelle

And with its own kitchen and bathroom its likely the council will want full council tax for it as a separate dwelling.

Owain_Moneysaver

If it's occupied as a separate dwelling you will need planning permission.

You might get away with just having a bedroom cabin (with no kitchen), and offering your guests breakfast and dinner in your home, as that would mean that the lodge would be subsidiary to the main house. Also if you let the "room" rather than "the lodge" it's less likely to be considered a separate dwelling. But somewhere like Cornwall I bet the planners (and the neighbours) are well aware of the regulations and any loopholes you might try.

Either way, it will still also need to comply with Building Regulations. The summerhouse/garden office type lodges aren't intended to be habitable buildings.

Wizzbang

Yes you do need planning permission for any garden building that is less than 2.0m from any boundary.

Jenks6598

Thanks for your replies, everyone has picked up on the planning bit, we will speak to planning, very confident however as in our Close people have been doing huge renovations etc.

The purpose of the post was more to hopefully contact people who had already done similar and to find out more about their experiences with it

Owain_Moneysaver

There is a world of difference between renovation/extension and creating a new dwelling.

Jenks6598

I fully appreciate that, I can’t help but feel you are being a bit pedantic when I’ve alrwady stated the reason for the post. Thank you

mikep22

Jenks6598 wrote: »

I fully appreciate that, I can’t help but feel you are being a bit pedantic when I’ve alrwady stated the reason for the post. Thank you

Getting funny with people is not the way to go when you have asked them for help, even if they are saying things you might not want to hear....