Planning Permission- change of use

[unmissable]

I am not sure whether this is the correct area, but I was wondering what people do about getting planning permission for a change of use.

I am in the process of buying a property in the Lake District which has been used before as a holiday let. However, my solicitor is saying that we need to see that planning permission for a change of use has been granted. I am fairly sure that it hasn't. The property is and end terrace has been let before (but not in the last 12 months) and most of the neighbouring properties are let as holiday lets. Does anyone ever get this planning permission? The property does NOT have any local occupancy clause on it.

I did a search on the Lake District website for planning applications and I could not find any such requests in a 5 mile radius (including all of Ambleside) in the last 25 years. Does this mean that all the holiday lets are 'unofficial? My solicitor says that without the permission being granted, the local authority could serve an enforcement notice and prevent letting. Does this ever happen?

I am worried it could scupper my purchase.

[Mountain Goat]

Why not visit the relevant planning office and ask them? They're normally helpful and a proactive approach might be in your favour.

MG

[goosie]

I've not heard this before but that isn't to say it won't happen! You will need to register it as a business with the local council (where as it turns out business rates are usually lower than council tax rates so worth doing). I would check with the Council - you really don't want to buy a property with the intention of letting and think you can do it without anyone noticing and therefore enforcing anything.

[Marie-Ann & Paul]

I do not know whether it is directly equivelent to your situation or helps but we have recently had some experience regarding "change of use" and planning permission.

We are in the process of buying a property in Wales and our bank (who we were applying for business loan) advised that the banks underwriters had hit a "showstopper", that they required evidence that the property had the required planning permission for use as a "holiday let business". We phoned the local planning authority who said immediately that change of use was only required for a hotel or guest house and that no planning permission was required for use as holiday let. They subsequently and quickly put this in writing (via email) to the satisfaction of the bank. We do now need a solicitor to confirm this but this is not seen as a problem at all.

Good luck.
Paul.

[greenbarn]

We would actually have the opposite problem - the planning consent for the conversion of our barn specifically states it's for holiday lets only; if we wanted to convert it to a dwelling, we'd need change of use consent, which would be refused.

Some of these planning issues are regional (like ours), so MG's suggestion of an exploratory visit to the appropriate local authority is a good one.

[greenbarn]

I had a quick think about what we went through and what we were told at the time, and I'm pretty sure that a property that is to be fundamentally or exclusively a holiday let classifies as "change of use". This will normally require planning consent, and also building regs control.

There's a lot more information here

May well be different in Wales?

[unmissable]

Thanks for all your replies. I called the Plannning Dept today (petrified I would get an answer I did not want to hear) but they told me that provided that the property was to be let as a single complete unit (ie not letting part of eth house) then that was permitted without 'change of use' planning permission. The theory is that there would be no additional 'footprint' on the local area. ie no diiference between a family living their permanently and changing a family every 2 weeks.

Relief on my part!

[greenbarn]

A good result!

Good luck with the process and welcome to the madhouse.

[harcourtv57]

Glad to hear this as well - must say I had never heard of needing planning permission for use as holiday lets. Greenbarn my brother had this issue when he was looking to find a barn for conversion near his home in Somerset - seems that if all or part of the property was for business use he could do it, but not for residential. Wonder if using it for part of the time for holiday let and living in it the remainder would have worked?

[Marie-Ann & Paul]

Another observation from this. We too were petrified to call the planning office in Wales and yet they could not have been more helpful and open and confirmed very quickly in writing what they had told us on the phone. I appreciate I may have a different view had they given us bad news but they really were genuinely clear and helpful. In fact much clearer and helpful than the bank who declared we had a "showstopper" which after one phone call was easily sorted directly with the planning office.

Best Regards
Paul.

[sarahp]

Just reading this thread has made me think about our situation - our cottage has a buy to let mortgage and we let it out on a weekly holiday basis, so the mortgage company I assume cant have any complaints.
However we have not registered it as a business with the local council and are paying council tax on it - should we register it and pay rates then??
Sarah

[greenbarn]

we have not registered it as a business with the local council and are paying council tax on it - should we register it and pay rates then??
Sarah

Have a look at this for a bit of information from VB

[sarahp]

Greenbarn - thats really helpful, thank you
Sarah

[greenbarn]

Greenbarn - thats really helpful, thank you
Sarah

Aw, Sarah - don't say that. I'll have to take back everything I've ever said about Visit Britain.......

Although the Accommodation Knowhow site, known as AKH or The Pink Booklet Online, does have some helpful stuff. This is balanced out by the most irritating, censorship dominated, self-serving forum you could possibly find. (Although I confess to having contributed to topics other than DVD Licences!)

[sarahp]

Ok then , its 'fairly' helpful - does that make you feel better?