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Turning granny annexes into separate homes

To use an ancillary annex (often known as a “granny annex”) as a separate home almost always needs planning permission.

By using the annex as a separate home, we mean that the annex is occupied by people who are independent of the people who live in the main house. This might be because the annex is rented out to tenants or (sometimes) holiday makers, or it may just be because the people living in the annex are completely independent from the people who live in the main house.

They don’t necessarily even need to pay rent. If the annex received planning permission in the first place, then there is likely to be a condition on the planning permission restricting the use of the annex to purposes ancillary to the main house, or something similar. The use of the annex as a separate home is likely to be a breach of that condition.

If you converted your annex from an existing residential outbuilding, then that conversion might not have needed planning permission, but if it is now used as a separate home, this does need planning permission. If you don’t have planning permission for this, that is a breach of planning controls too.

However, the good news is that if the annex has been occupied continuously as a separate home for at least 4 years, then this breach can become lawful. This means that the Council can’t take enforcement action against the planning breach.

To confirm that this is the case, you should submit a certificate of lawfulness to the Council. If this is approved, it will give you certainty that the independent use of the annex is now lawful, so you can carry on renting it out to tenants, or even sell it separately from the main house if you want to.

We have prepared plenty of successful certificates of lawfulness in this situation. You will find some examples here.

We work with clients to make sure that we have sufficient evidence that there has been a breach of planning controls, that the breach has been going on for at least 4 years and that the breach has been continuous (there can be gaps, but they should be quite short).

However, the Government plans to change the rules around all this so that this type of planning breach will only be lawful after 10 years, and not 4 years. This hasn’t happened yet though, so if you think you have been using an annex as a separate dwelling for at least 4 years, please get in touch quickly.

If you think you have been using an annex as a separate home for more than 10 years, there is less of a rush, but we can still help you make things lawful, so please do still get in touch.