This was an very interesting case where our clients had bought a property in Wiltshire that had been significantly extended by the previous owner and a new garage with annex accommodation in the roofspace had also been built. Unfortunately it turned out that the extended house was much bigger than the planning permission attained by the previous owner allowed and the garage should also only have been single storey.
The council picked up on this due to another issue on site and they advised the new owner to either apply for retrospective planning permission or face enforcement action. RCC were asked to get involved and review the matter for the new owner. It quickly became apparent that all the building works had been completed more than 4 years ago and as such we recommended that a certificate of lawfulness route was preferable as the council were then not able to consider the planning merits of the work undertaken.
RCC prepared the application submission that included affidavits from the previous owner and a neighbour plus other documentary evidence and were delighted when the certificate of lawfulness was issued with very little delay. Our clients can now take comfort that their house and garage buildings are now lawful and immune from enforcement action.
