Planning permission refused - is it worth appealing?

Mortgage_Moog

I recently applied to my local council for planning permission to run a business from home and have been refused on one thing.

I want to appeal this decision but would like to hear from anyone that has experience of this sort of thing as to whether my appeal is likely to be accepted.

My work involves just talking to people. I currently visit them at home or work from a rented office but it would be much more convenient to run it from my house and that's how the majority of people in my line of work operate.

People would come into my house, sit down, talk to me and then leave so I thought it would be a very simple application that couldn't be turned down. The council even said in the first email that it looked like a simple application and it should be fine but I'd have to go through the full application procedure.

After 3 months of waiting I have had the case rejected on the grounds that using my house for business would change it's use from that of a dwelling property to that of a commercial property.

The only reason citied for the rejection was that if I was to be sitting talking to a client in my living room, the rest of the house would be unusable as a dwelling and anyone passing through the room would disturb us.

I replied saying that if that is the case then I could instead use a bedroom as my work space, shut the door and the rest of the house could still be used without any interference. I also pointed out that I live alone so there would never be anyone else walking around the house.

They have now said that whichever room I use it would be the same and living alone doesn't make any difference as other people walking around the house could still disturb my work. I pushed them to explain who these people walking around my house would be but they wouldn't say.

All I need to do is sit in my house quietly talking to people. I'm not hiding anything here – that's all there is to it! No machinery, no deliveries, I only see 1 or 2 people a day and I have a drive that I own for parking.

I don't understand how so many other people run their businesses from home. Many of them I spoke to have told me that they just didn't bother with permission and have been doing it for years without any trouble but I like to get things done properly.

Do you think it's worth me appealing?

PS – I posted in this forum because if I can't get permission it could result in me having to buy another house and I couldn't find any other thread more suitable. From what they've said though, any house would be treated the same.

daveyjp

Planning permission is rarely personal, it applies to the property. You will be permitted to carry out a use within a particular use class, for your business it will probably be B1 or possibly D1.

Should you ever sell the property it could be sold with the benefit of that use and another business could operate which isn't a single person visiting.

G_M

Mortgage_Moog wrote: »

.....
I don't understand how so many other people run their businesses from home. Many of them I spoke to have told me that they just didn't bother with permission and have been doing it for years without any trouble but I like to get things done properly.

Well you've answered your own question!

The problem is that changing a property from residential to commercial use means that going forwad that's what it is. What if you sell next year and the next owner, relying on the commercial use catagorisation, does have multiple people living with them. Or starts running some other business that is much more disruptive locally?

Your personal specific circumstances are irrelevant - the issue is whether that property is suitable as a commercial property.

Mortgage_Moog

G_M wrote: »

Well you've answered your own question!

The problem is that changing a property from residential to commercial use means that going forwad that's what it is. What if you sell next year and the next owner, relying on the commercial use catagorisation, does have multiple people living with them. Or starts running some other business that is much more disruptive locally?

Your personal specific circumstances are irrelevant - the issue is whether that property is suitable as a commercial property.

Wouldn't that apply to any property though? Surely nobody would ever get planning permission based on the fact the next owner could radically change the business use?

cooltt

Mortgage_Moog wrote: »

I recently applied to my local council for planning permission to run a business from home and have been refused on one thing.

Do you think it's worth me appealing?
.

No, and you shouldn't have told them busybodies anything in the first place. You're doing counselling from home, geat, there's no law that says you can't do that. It's not a business if you ask for a minimum donation for your time....you get the idea?

Davesnave

Mortgage_Moog wrote: »

I don't understand how so many other people run their businesses from home. Many of them I spoke to have told me that they just didn't bother with permission and have been doing it for years without any trouble but I like to get things done properly.

Getting things done 'properly' has possibly resulted in you placing the council in an invidious position, Officially, they may have to refuse, despite a real world understanding that many people do exactly as you wish to do.

This was the case where commercial neighbours of mine were reported for making cob bricks for repairing old houses. It was a minor part of their business and caused no problems for immediate neighbours, but someone further away with a grudge found out. As they only had a licence for storage, not manufacture, the council had to act and the brick making ceased.


I wouldn't move. I'd carry on as before until someone from the council told me to stop, which might be never.

onwards&upwards

Mortgage_Moog wrote: »

Wouldn't that apply to any property though? Surely nobody would ever get planning permission based on the fact the next owner could radically change the business use?

It does apply to any property, so permission is only granted quite rarely where the location will most likely always be suitable as a business, whether that’s a counsellor, a hairdresser, a shop or a cafe or anything else that would fit on the premises.

If you lived on a main road with other businesses on the same street, and a fully separate work and living area, they might have granted it.

G_M

Mortgage_Moog wrote: »

Wouldn't that apply to any property though? Surely nobody would ever get planning permission based on the fact the next owner could radically change the business use?

Whether a particular property does or does not get 'Change of Use' (we are not here talking about planning permission to build an extension or convert a garage) will depend on the specific circumstances. As extreme examples

* a residential property in the middle of a busy High Street, surrounded by shops,pubs etc, which an owner wished to convert to a chippie, would quite likely get permission.


* a similar residential property in the middle of a quiet suburban street of semi-detached homes, might well not.


In the former case, yes, the chippie might close/get sold, and the next owner open a kebab shop (or other business that fell within the class of use the property now had) but that would not be disruptive.

daveyjp

Mortgage_Moog wrote: »

Wouldn't that apply to any property though? Surely nobody would ever get planning permission based on the fact the next owner could radically change the business use?

It does apply to any property, which is why you need permission.

The granting or not of permission will take into account future potential uses which won't need further permission.

For example you need no permission to change a church into a health centre, school, nursery or a museum.

When granting permission for a new church the potential for future uses within the same use class therefore needs to be considered.

davidmcn

cooltt wrote: »

You're doing counselling from home, geat, there's no law that says you can't do that. It's not a business if you ask for a minimum donation for your time....you get the idea?

Think that's one from the Baldrick book of cunning plans, along with "no, I don't need a licence, I'm just selling £4 bags of crisps which each come with a free pint of beer".

G_M

davidmcn wrote: »

Think that's one from the Baldrick book of cunning plans, along with "no, I don't need a licence, I'm just selling £4 bags of crisps which each come with a free pint of beer".

David - which uni did you go to? I brewed my own beer and did exactly that.............


Happy days! :beer: