Log cabin in garden - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)
Log cabin in garden
Hi
I have a large garden that has a caravan in at the moment. My son would like to put a log cabin in place of it somewhat larger than the existing caravan. Our property borders fields ( not ours)
He would want to use utilities from the house electric water etc. he eats with us most evenings his postal address is our home address.
Obviously the cabin as the caravan does will have a kitchen and bathrooms.
Will this be allowed under the caravan act.
We have had to apply for an extension of the curtilage as I rented the caravan out Airbnb for 3 years out of the 26 years we have had a caravan in the garden. It has always other than the 3 years been used for family and friends ancillary to the main house
Any advice appreciated. I don't want him to build the cabin to them have to remove it
Ask your local planning office for advice as this is very tricky and you don't want to waste money
It does not mater how long the caravan has been in place it's still a caravan and can only be replaced by a caravan without planning permision
to be a caravan it can be up to 60 ft long and made in up to 2 parts which must bolt and be capable of unbolting together and other restrictions such as internal hight
so you can make it bigger but it must be movable
it may not need wheels but this attribute has not been tested in the high court and you don't want to be the one who pays for this
I would always recommend wheels
also if you replace it with something which is not a caravan you need to comply with the building regulations which is very expensive
you say you have been using it for Airbnb for years
i hope you understand that this is a major planning violation and requires seperate approval
Understand that originally it was not in your curtalage and you applied to have it included in the curtalage
this could have been a bad move as if it had been in place for 26 years it outside your curtalage it would have enjoyed automatic approval which would have given you a better precedent
if you had an easy run getting the council to accept it was in your curtalage when it clearly wasn't this is the reason
if it's not had Airbnb approval specifically in your certificate of lawfulness or new approval you need to stop advertising it immediately as you may loose it altogether
Also do not knock the van down until you have a replacement preferably on site as demolishing the caravan could remove it's right to exist
to be strictly correct you need to bring the repacent on site and then remove the old one within 28 days
Hope this helps
ted