Officer Report

Application No.: 25/00439/LAW Applicant: Paul Steven Ormond-Smith Proposal: Certificate of Lawful Use as a House in Multiple Occupation Site Address: Ardlui Guesthouse 4 Woodville Terrace Douglas Isle Of Man IM2 4HA Planning Officer: Peiran Shen Expected Decision Level: Officer Delegation Recommended Decision: Certificate of Lawful Use Approved Date of Recommendation: 29.07.2025 _________________________________________________________________ Notes for Approval There is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the HMO in the submitted information has been in situ since at least 2004. ## Plans/Drawings/Information; This decision relates to the documents, location plan, site plan, floor plan, statutory declaration, landlord registration, tenant statements, rent statements, which have all been received on 25th April 2025.

_________________________________________________________________ Officer’s Report

1.0 INTRODUCTION - 1.1 The application seeks a Certificate of Lawful Development in respect of the change of use from guesthouse (use class 3.1) to House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) (use class 3.5). The application seeking the Certificate of Lawfulness was submitted on 25th April 2025. This means the relevant 10 years for consideration is from 24th April 2015. - 1.2 In accordance with the provisions of Schedule 4, Part 1, paragraph 3 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1999 ("the Act"), a development carried out in breach of planning control shall become immune from enforcement action after a certain period of time, provided that formal enforcement action has not already been taken. The relevant time periods are set out below:

• a) in respect of a breach of planning control consisting of the carrying out without planning approval of the building, engineering, mining or other operations in, on, over or under land, after the end of the period of 4 years beginning with the date on which the operations were substantially completed;
• b) in respect of a breach of planning control consisting of the change of use of any building to use as a single dwelling house, after the end of the period of 4 years beginning with the date of the breach;

• c) in respect of any other breach of planning control, after the end of the period of 10 years beginning with the date of the breach.

1.3 Section 24 of the Act makes provision for the submission and issuing of a Certificate of Lawfulness to establish the lawfulness of a breach of planning control. - 1.4 An application for a Certificate of Lawfulness is determined based on fact. Unlike an application for planning approval, it is not concerned with land-use planning considerations or the impacts of the development upon the public realm. - 1.5 The principal test is whether, on the balance of probabilities, the breach of planning control occurred in excess of ten years ago. If the Planning Authority has no evidence of its own to contradict that provided by the applicant, then provided if the applicant's evidence is sufficiently precise and unambiguous, a Certificate of Lawfulness may be issued. It is not usually necessary for the Planning Authority to corroborate the applicant's evidence.

2.0 The SITE - 2.1 The application site is 4 Woodville Terrace, Douglas, a mid-terrace residential building.

3.0 THE PROPOSAL - 3.1 The planning application seeks approval for the Certificate of Lawful Development for the change of use from guesthouse (use class 3.1) to House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) (use class 3.5).

4.0 PLANNING HISTORY - 4.1 Conversion from guest house to four self contained apartments was APPROVED under PA 06/00455/B.

5.0 REPRESENTATION - 5.1 Douglas City Council has no objection to this application (24.06.2025). The comment asks the applicant that bin storage should meet their standards and property to be registered.

6.0 ASSESSMENT / SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE PROVIDED - 6.1 The evidence provided are:

• o two letters from previous tenants that confirming HMO use has taken place between 2004 and 2017
• o one letter from an existing tenant that the HMO use has taken place since 2015.
• o landlord registration that the building was a b&b with two flat in 2013.
• o rent statement between 2013-2025
• o applicant statement of the history of the site

6.2 In terms of whether the change of use from guesthouse to HMO has been more than 10 years from the date of submission, the Department considers that it has. The owner has confirmed that the HMO has been operate for about 20 years and signed statements from previous and existing tenants had been for a decade. The evidence proves that the HMO has been in use for 10 consecutive years.

7.0 CONCLUSION - 7.1 On the balance of probabilities, the evidence demonstrates that the change of use from guesthouse to HMO have been in situ for more than 10 years. - 7.2 As such, the Department may not issue an enforcement notice due to the provisions of Town and Country Planning Act 1999 Schedule 4 Part 1 paragraph 3(a) and it is recommended that a Certificate of Lawful Development is granted.

- 8.0 RECOMMENDATION

8.1 It is recommended that the application for a Certificate of Lawfulness is agreed.

9.0 INTERESTED PARTY STATUS - 9.1 As the application is for a CLD this is not required to be assessed. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________

I can confirm that this decision has been made by the Head of Development Management in accordance with the authority afforded to that Officer by the appropriate DEFA Delegation and that in making this decision the Officer has agreed the recommendation in relation to who should be afforded interested person status, and/or rights to appeal.

Decision Made : Certificate of Lawful Use Approved Date : 29.07.2025 Determining Officer

Signed : S BUTLER Stephen Butler Head of Development Management

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