Sold to a company for assisted living - is planning needed for change of use

BargainJunky

Single storey property is currently sold subject to contract to a company who are intending to use it for assisted living.  Would planning be required for them to use it for this purpose?  Is change of use needed?  It would only be for the use of one person or a couple.

Sorry for all the questions and thanks for any advise.

lincroft1710

Not if it the building was and will still be in use as a single dwelling

user1977

Why are you asking? Have they only raised the point now? If a sale was subject to planning I'd expect the parties to have agreed that upfront.

What's the current use of the "single storey property"?

BargainJunky

lincroft1710 said:

Not if it the building was and will still be in use as a single dwelling

Property was home for an elderly relative and as far as I can tell from conversations with the buyer will only be used for one service user (plus support staff).

lincroft1710

Is the intention for the support staff to live permanently in the property or work in shifts and leave when their shift has finished, e.g SS1 09.00  to 17.00, SS2 17.00 to 01.00, SS3 01.00 to 09.00.


If a prospective buyer wishes to use a property for other than its current permitted use, then it is usual for them to deal with any planning application, not the vendor.

elsien

BargainJunky said:

lincroft1710 said:

Not if it the building was and will still be in use as a single dwelling

Property was home for an elderly relative and as far as I can tell from conversations with the buyer will only be used for one service user (plus support staff).

This is quite a common scenario in supported living where a company  buys a property and then the person living there takes it on as a tenancy and has support coming in.

It’s no different to anyone renting a flat or a house and having  domiciliary carers coming in so it’s not a change of use and no planning permission needed. Even if the person has 24 hour care, which some people do.
  The property itself doesn’t need to be registered with anyone in the same way that care homes do although the company providing support will be registered as a domiciliary care provider but that is separate to the tenancy. 

I know a few people where this is happened and they’ve just rented flats or houses the same as any member of the general public would. General public don’t need to ask permission so why would the person needing support?

BargainJunky

lincroft1710 said:

Is the intention for the support staff to live permanently in the property or work in shifts and leave when their shift has finished, e.g SS1 09.00  to 17.00, SS2 17.00 to 01.00, SS3 01.00 to 09.00.


If a prospective buyer wishes to use a property for other than its current permitted use, then it is usual for them to deal with any planning application, not the vendor.

I 'think' the plan is to staff it in shifts.  Our agent called me earlier basically hyperventilating as buyers solicitor has mentioned a planning application and is unavailable today so they cannot clarify what is meant.  Unlike them I did a big of digging before I hit 36000 feet .  From what I have found out I do not think planning or change of use is needed thats assuming they do not intend to do a massive extension but we will only find that out tomorrow.