Planning Condition

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cosy

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I recently got planning on a site for a house but the local council put a condition that I or any member of my family must be first to occupy the house for 5 years. Is there any way around this if I want to sell this site or build a house to sell??
 
No, a solicitor will search and find it in the planning conditions and will advise their client not to buy it from you.
 
cosy said:
I recently got planning on a site for a house but the local council put a condition that I or any member of my family must be first to occupy the house for 5 years. Is there any way around this if I want to sell this site or build a house to sell??
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Hopefully not.
 
As a practising solicitor, I made a decision about 5 years ago that my firm would not purchase sites encumbered by such a condition, nor would we be party to a sale of them. (and no, we weren't buying lots of them before that - such conditions were once very rare). However, at least once a year I will have a client looking to buy or sell such a site. Although I always refuse to act, they always find a solicitor prepared to deal with it, as indeed does the person on the other side of the transaction.

The reality is that these planning conditions do not seem to be in any way policed; there is also, apparently, some small doubt about their legality\enforceability and this seems to be enough for many solicitors to feel happy to ignore them. I wish it were otherwise, but that is the reality.
 
Thanks MOB for your Advice, but they have asked that the first occupier sends in a copy of a Bill, ESB or phone to them, this must be a way of checking occupancy or else they want to pay the Bills!!
 
If "they" are the council, hopefully they have a better means of determining if the house was indeed occupied by the developer for the first 5 years.
 
They are the council, and put 4 conditions on the planning one which states that the house must first be occupied by a family member, and the council to be notified when the house is first occupied, and a copy of utility bill sent to occupier, to be forwarded to council.
 
cosy said:
I recently got planning on a site for a house but the local council put a condition that I or any member of my family must be first to occupy the house for 5 years. Is there any way around this if I want to sell this site or build a house to sell??
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will the bank not have an issue selling if one defaults on the loan on a propery with this condition ?
 
No in short there is not. This is a condition that is applied to almost every house in the countryside. if you tried to sell the house a purchasers solicitor would be likely to advise against buying. Once the 5 years is up you can sell but up to then it would not be easy. the reason for applying this condition is to stop people selling houses specultaivley as the Planners thinking is that you will be back in looking for planning for antother one.
 
Thats fine but lets say I live in the house for a year and I have to move to another location (job) where do I stand. Surely I can sell then or rent it???
 
The Council will lift this condition if the seller has a good enough reason. I sometimes wonder why they bother to put conditions on at all. I think this is done all the time.

Builders build houses to sell not to put their families in.
 
Etel, I would not like to argue on this point but do all Councils operate the same policy? I only know what I was told when I asked at the local department why a newly built house (which I had seen had this five year condition) was up for sale in the Auctioneers window and I was told that the seller had probably had this clause removed by the planner for some reason. I had to assume by that reply that this was something which would be possible given the right reason.

Has anyone else come across this? I am not an expert on planning and can only go on my own experience on what I see and hear.
 
Swallows, you can now track planning applications on most county council websites, and if they get planning that is conditional you can view the conditions, I tracked 2 applications in my area over the last few months and both got occupancy conditions as did mine. Surely planning means that a house is suited and can be built on a plot of land and irrelevant who lives in it.
 
"Surely planning means that a house is suited and can be built on a plot of land and irrelevant who lives in it."

Some people live and work in rural areas, for example farmers. It is perfectly rational to have a planning policy which states (for example)

"because of poor infrastructure\delicate environment\etc. we do not want to encourage building in area x, but we will of course make an exception for the people who have to live there in order to farm the land there, or to look after their aged parents, or who have lived there all their lives adn have need of a new house".

Unfortunately, this being Ireland, such planning policies are abused wholesale. You have an unfortunate situation where the planning policy is far too tight, and the policy implementation is far too loose....... someday, one or other is going to have to move. because wholesale disregard for a law is bad for a society.
 
To answer Swallows, I have heard of the council issuing comfort letters in circumstances where a family builds a house with the restrictive planning clause, then for genuine work reasons have to move- the letter would be along the lines that the council will not enforce the clause. Mind you, I've never seen such a letter.
 
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