Application for a certificate of lawfulness to confirm the lawfulness of the use of a building as a self contained residential dwelling

Why Was This Approved?

• ✓Chalet used as self-contained residential dwelling since at least 2001 with no planning permission for that use
• ✓Four-year enforcement time limit under Schedule 4 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1999
• ✓Attorney General's Chambers confirmed the four-year period need not immediately precede the application date
• ✓No enforcement notice had been issued in respect of the use
• ✓Previous refusal of change of use for the nearby farm cottage in 1995 formed part of the planning history

The applicant, who has owned the site since 2001, sought to establish that a separate chalet building within the farmyard at Lower Glentramman Farm had been used as a self-contained residential dwelling since that date. No planning permission had ever been granted for the chalet's use as a dwelling, tourist accommodation, or ancillary living accommodation, and a previous application to change the use of the nearby farm cottage from a farm worker's dwelling to a private dwelling was refused in 1995. The key legal question was whether the chalet's use as a dwelling had continued for more than four years, after which no enforcement notice can be issued under Schedule 4 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1999. Advice from the Attorney General's Chambers confirmed that the four-year period does not need to immediately precede the date of the application — it is sufficient that the use occurred for four years at any point without an enforcement notice being issued. On that basis, the certificate was approved.

Under the Town and Country Planning Act 1999, a change of use to a single dwellinghouse becomes immune from enforcement after four years. The Attorney General's Chambers confirmed that this four-year period does not have to run up to the date of the application. The evidence was found sufficient to establish that the chalet had been used as a self-contained dwelling for the required period, making the use lawful.

Policies Assessed (1)

Planning History (2)

Documents (41)