Planning permission refused - is it worth appealing?

Mortgage_Moog

Thanks for all your help but I have come up with the perfect solution. I'm going to work from home but do it all online and over the phone so it's easier for myself and clients. They can't stop me answering my phone!

Davesnave

Mortgage_Moog wrote: »

I'm going to work from home but do it all online and over the phone so it's easier for myself and clients. They can't stop me answering my phone!

Nobody is stopping you now. No one may ever 'stop you.' These are just council employees doing their job; it's not the Stasi!

Seriously, are there that many services where it really doesn't matter whether your clients are seeing you face to face or on the end of a phone? I have a friend who teaches music via Facetime, and that's difficult enough.

Thrugelmir

Mortgage_Moog wrote: »

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.

Your neighbours need to be considered as well. Increased traffic flow, parking etc.

pimento

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Your neighbours need to be considered as well. Increased traffic flow, parking etc.

What, two people a day who park on the OP's drive?

davidmcn

pimento wrote: »

What, two people a day who park on the OP's drive?

I doubt there's a realistic planning mechanism to restrict the visitors to two a day.

Ozzuk

If this is counselling, then common advice is not to do it at home - especially if you live alone as it can be very risky. My partner was doing this for a while but it can cause issues so in the end she focussed more online and rented office space - maybe rent several drop in style areas to increase your geographic availability.

Your supervisor should also be warning you about dangers of working at home - that said some of the centres you rent are often unmanned so do also look into personal safety.

Thrugelmir

pimento wrote: »

What, two people a day who park on the OP's drive?

Thought it was a business.

eddddy

The planning portal gives the following guidance:

You do not necessarily need planning permission to work from home. The key test is whether the overall character of the dwelling will change as a result of the business.

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/56/working_from_home

I'd guess that 1 or 2 visitors per day wouldn't change the character of the dwelling, but 10 or 12 per day might.

You'd also have to check your home insurance policy to see if you're covered, and perhaps upgrade it to "regular business visitors".

letitbe90

Tbh if it is only two people a day, you was better off not applying and pretending you had friends coming over regularly .

I say pretend but lets be honest, who is checking...

Freecall

Assuming that your house is your principle private residence, are you sure you really want to formally convert its use to business and give up all that valuable CGT exemption?