Hi again,
Is it necessary to get planning consent for a change of use from domestic to commercial as far as use for a FHL is concerned? And what would the implications be if one didn't? I ask because my local council want £100 before they even tell me whether planning consent would be required, which seems to be a bit unfair....
thanks.
Planning consents?
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johnandtahra
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French Cricket
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Depends whether it constitutes a 'material change of use', which, if it's a commercial holiday let rather than an occasional one it probably does.
What almost certainly will concern you (if I'm remembering correctly that yours is a listed building) is listed building consent, which is separate from planning permission and needs to be applied for as well. If you're renovating, you're probably already into that anyway, but as I'm sure you know you can barely so much as fart in a listed building without getting permission
We lived - and ran a restaurant with rooms - in a grade 2 listed building for 9 years, and had the pleasure of spending much time and money in favour of the planning authorities when we applied for listed building consent four times - once when we bought, to change use; once when we changed category; once when we renovated a bedroom and bathroom, and again when we sold to revert to domestic use only!
What almost certainly will concern you (if I'm remembering correctly that yours is a listed building) is listed building consent, which is separate from planning permission and needs to be applied for as well. If you're renovating, you're probably already into that anyway, but as I'm sure you know you can barely so much as fart in a listed building without getting permission
We lived - and ran a restaurant with rooms - in a grade 2 listed building for 9 years, and had the pleasure of spending much time and money in favour of the planning authorities when we applied for listed building consent four times - once when we bought, to change use; once when we changed category; once when we renovated a bedroom and bathroom, and again when we sold to revert to domestic use only!
On the issue of planning consent, have a look at
this thread: viewtopic.php?p=290120
and you'll find a post where I referenced an interesting court case regarding the use of a holiday let for a family as opposed to an unrelated group.
There's lots of other relevant stuff in the thread as well.
A key thing to remember is that building control (who are completely separate from planning) will want to stick their oar in regarding the impact of any changes on fire risks etc etc.
this thread: viewtopic.php?p=290120
and you'll find a post where I referenced an interesting court case regarding the use of a holiday let for a family as opposed to an unrelated group.
There's lots of other relevant stuff in the thread as well.
A key thing to remember is that building control (who are completely separate from planning) will want to stick their oar in regarding the impact of any changes on fire risks etc etc.
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johnandtahra
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- Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2014 9:50 am
- Location: United Kingdom
Thing is, at what point does one become officially a commercial holiday let as opposed to an occasional one (in the eyes of the council, that is)?Depends whether it constitutes a 'material change of use', which, if it's a commercial holiday let rather than an occasional one it probably does.
At the moment, we haven't committed to anything - and if it looks like it's going to get horribly complicated we may keep it as a second home which we happen to let out to paying guests, keep the council tax and therefore it should be okay. However, the reality is that we bought this with the intention of it 'paying its way' and to do that it will need to be let out for (by my calculations) at least 15 weeks in every year to break even.
On the subject of the listed building consent - we're not changing anything external and nothing inside is listed (the entire building was essentially rebuilt in the 80s so there are no original internals left, sadly, but this gives us more freedom to update the slightly tired kitchen and bathrooms...)
john