Do you want a Planning Permission or permanant Criminal Record ?

A criminal court appearance may await a property owner who attempted to  pull the wool (or in this case “hay”)  over the eyes of his local planning department.

The proprietor submitted a planning application to build a barn to store hay. This was granted on the proviso that use was restricted to the storage of hay or some other agricultural purpose. When the building was constructed, it looked, from the outside, like a hay barn. However, internally it was fitted out as a house. The owner moved into the property, using it as a home from August 2002 onwards. In 2006, he applied for a certificate of lawful use on the ground that the house had been used for 4 years as a dwelling.

After a period of time the owner of a owner may apply for ‘lawful use’ provided the property has been occupied for long enough. The appropriate time limit is four years where there is a breach of operational development or change of use of a building to use as a single dwelling.

The council declined the certificate of lawful use. The home propietor appealed the decision and the building inspector upheld the appeal. The council then appealed that decision.

In court, it was accepted that the home propietor had intended to mislead the council from the outset regarding the true use of the construction. This, as it turned out, may have been an unwise admission, as the court implied that the home owner may face charges for obtaining planning permission by deception. If the crime of deception were proved, then the profit from the illegal act could be subject to confiscation under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. This may also affect the owners conveyancing lawyer if the lawyer was aware of the owners intentions. There is nothing to suggest that the conveyancer would have known about this.

It was ruled that the certificate would not be awrded. Firstly, the construction of the barn was unlawful. The planning permission meant it was able of being used for the predetermined purpose. Therefore there was no breach of operational development. As it has always been used as a dwelling there was no change of use to a dwelling Accordingly a certificate of lawful use could only be correctly applied for after ten years and the council has until August 2012 to issue an enforcement notice. In the circumstances, home owner~the home owner will be made an example of.}