Neighbour might be splitting property without planning consent

liberty_lily

jrawle said:

There is also a house I walk past most days where it always looks to me that they have added an extension to the side, for which no planning permission exists, but it appears to be used as a self-contained property. It doesn't have an official address and there is no council tax band for it. This does trouble me, as I don't see why most people should have to pay £2000 or more a year while someone else avoids it, given that councils are strapped for cash and cutting services. If they are really splitting the house into two, this is another consideration.

There is a house like that near us - in this case an attached outbuilding/self-contained property that is let out but no separate council tax band or official address.

The owners own accommodation is considerably larger than the 'annex' but it appears they are paying council tax on something much smaller (even their online EPC descibes their house as a "single storey attached bungalow of 65 sq m" which it quite clearly is not 🤔

There is no record of them paying business rates on the 'annex' either. If our own (smaller than the neighbour's main house) house is anything to go by, they should imho be in a council tax band at least two higher than ours. I'm guessing that if they ever sell, an improvement indicator might appear but it hasn't so far.

When I posted elsewhere about this and the fact that they seemed to be defrauding the local authority by paying less than they should, I was advised to keep my nose out of other people's business! Which is exactly what I've done, although I too think it's wrong for some people to get away with stuff like this.