Why you can’t just ignore planning laws
As Britain’s richest man finds he couldn’t ride roughshod over the rules...
MONEY can open many doors, but it won’t necessarily impress planners at New Forest National Park Authority. They ruled that Sir Jim Ratcliffe, one of Britain’s richest men, worth an estimated £6 billion, breached planning laws by building two barns on his Hampshire estate — which he says are used to process honey produced on site.
He now has to apply for retrospective planning permission and if he fails may be required to demolish the buildings.
If Ratcliffe can fall foul of planning laws, so can any of us. But what can you and can’t you build without permission?
I ONLY WANT A SMALL EXTENSION. DO I NEED PERMISSION?
IN MANY cases homeowners can extend their homes through permitted development rights.
These may apply, for example, when a development does not take up more than 50 per cent of your garden.
However, if your property has already been extended since 1948 you may have lost those rights.
You can’t assume an extension is acceptable — as 70-year-old Gloucestershire businessman Graham Wildin found to his cost. When he refused to demolish his 10,000 sq ft ‘man cave’, including a cinema and bowling alley, in the Forest of Dean he was jailed for six weeks.
Check first with your local authority — although many now charge to tell you whether or not you need to apply for planning permission.
MY EXTENSION ISN’T VISIBLE. HOW WOULD ANYONE KNOW?
IF YOUR local planning authority fails to take enforcement action against a breach of planning regulations for four years — and you can prove that the building or extension has been there that long — you can apply for a certificate of lawfulness.
This means that while the structure doesn’t formally have permission, the authority’s deadline for taking action has passed and so it is deemed to be lawful.
Surrey farmer Robert Fidler thought he had found the perfect ruse by building a castle hidden inside a giant haystack.
But when, four years later, he removed the hay bales and claimed the structure was lawful, Reigate Borough Council successfully argued in court that the four-year period in which it could take action only began once the bales had been removed.
Fidler had to demolish the building under threat of a prison sentence.
WHAT ABOUT TURNING MY BASEMENT INTO A KITCHEN?
MOST likely you won’t require planning permission, but you need to be careful.
If your property is listed as being of important historic interest you are forbidden from undertaking even interior alterations without having listed buildings permission.
... AND PUTTING UP A SHED, OR A TREE HOUSE FOR THE CHILDREN?
OUTBUILDINGS can be built under permitted development rights — assuming they do not take up more than 50 per cent of your garden.
But there is no exemption for buildings just because they are made of wood and not designed to be lived in.
Two years ago Eddie McIntosh, 54, was jailed for 28 days for ignoring a fine for refusing to demolish a tree house and other ‘eco’ structures that he had built on his 12-acre farm in Powys.
This was despite, paradoxically, being granted retrospective permission by his local council earlier.
I HAVE FOUND A FIELD FOR SALE. CAN I BUILD MY DREAM HOME?
SINCE the Town and Country Planning Act came into force, landowners have not automatically had the right to build whatever they like on their land.
Save for a few exceptions, they have to apply for permission from the relevant planning authority — in most cases a borough or district council. National parks, where the laws are stricter, have their own planning authorities.
WHAT IF I CAN’T BE BOTHERED TO GET THE OFFICIAL GO-AHEAD?
IT CAN become expensive. In most cases it is not an offence to put up a building without planning permission, but if you are caught out then you will have to apply for retrospective permission. If refused, you can be ordered to demolish it.
In March five £1 million mansions on the edge of Bolton had to be pulled down despite protestations from their owners. Sparkle Developments had had planning permission for five new homes but had built larger ones and in slightly different positions.
CAN I CLEAR THE SITE BEFORE APPLYING FOR PERMISSION?
NOT so fast. That is what developer James Barney did, clearing trees from a plot he had bought at Horton Heath, Hampshire, in anticipation of building two holiday homes.
But the 100-year-old oak trees had a tree protection order. Last week he was ordered to pay £68,031 in fines and legal costs. If he fails to do so within six months he could be jailed for up to 12 months.