Domestic Curtilage HELP! (Extending My Garden)

[RuthLouise]

Hello,


I have bought a piece of the woodland next to my detached house and fenced off my new land as to extend my garden.


I have just received a letter from the local planning office saying that I need planning permission to put up the fence and even if I put planning in they would reject it for this reason:


We take the view that the extension of your domestic curtilage and would need planning consent. The initial view is that extension of the garden into the woodland would result in its domestification. As such, it is considered unlikely that an application for change of use of the woodland would be determined favourably.


I have no idea what they mean about "Domestification & Curtilage" as I am not an expert in this field.

All I have done is put up a fence around the land I own!

Please could anyone help me out by making some sense of this?

I have gone back to the planning office and asked them to let me know what I need to do to MY land which does not need planning permission, but they simply refuse to advise me and said that I should come back to them with alternatives and they would then say yes or no!

After doing research on the internet it seems that I have a few options:

(1) Put back my original fence and simply leave a gate to the new piece of land then I would not be extending my domestic curtilage

(2) Add a chicken pen (Livestock) to the land then this would be classed as agricultural which I would not need planning for.

(3) Instead of a garden fence I can replace with HEDGES which I do not need planning for

Please do let me know your thoughts as I have already spent £900 on putting the fence up so I need to make the next move the right one.

Thank you
Ruth

 

[Nakajo]

It's very confusing. It seems unlikely that you have extended your 'domestic curtilage'; you've simply increased the amount of property you own (i.e. the size of your 'planning unit'). Therefore, the LPA are (in my view, and based upon my limited knowledge, and the limited information provided) correct in their view that development of this land (including the erection of a fence) would not fall within the Permitted Development rights associated with the residence. Does that therefore make the 'development' unlawful? I'm not sure - bur a hedge seems like a reasonable solution.

 

[Nige F]

FWIW and being a country boy, I would say that an agricultural post and wire fence would have been acceptable ( is that what you have done? ) as you need to mark the boundary of your woodland. You could make use of the woodland by coppicing for firewood if nothing better, and keeping chickens is not a bad idea. Curtilage is just a name for a boundary AFAIK.

 

[bernardgreen]

Curtilage is the boundary and the enclosed area of land associated with a building.

It is not clear cut as to whether a curtilage can be extended when adjacent land is purchased by the owner of the building

 

[^woody^]

All land has a designated use under planning law, and just because you annex land to a garden, does not mean that the land can be used as a garden, or becomes garden land.

Curtilage is a property term to denote the boundary of land around a building that belongs to that building. The term does not come under the remit of planning law, they just use the word to mean land boundary around a building.

Domestification (is that even a word?), is changing land to residential use. The potential is that residential land can be developed on, and then used for other purposes.

There are two issues here.

Join the two bits of land to make one plot, but with different uses - domestic garden, and woodland. This should not require any planning permission.

Join the two bits of land to make one plot, but with a single use - domestic garden. This would require planning permission.

The council are wrong that a fence equates to "domestification" , and they have badly worded their comment.

What they are saying is that if you are intending to extend your garden into the woodland by fencing the new land off, then that would need permission which they might resist - but might not be able to refuse.

But if you just want to fence your new land off (for privacy or security) and not alter it's use, then you should not need permission for this - although you may need permission for the fence, depending on local policy and its design.

So you need to be clear exactly how you want to use the land.

 

[RuthLouise]

Thanks guys and especially "Woody".

Woody, all I want to do is make my land secure and safe and yes I am keeping it as woodland as it's lovely in the summer.

I will not be altering it in anyway apart from a general "tidy up". So yes this would be my option that you mention:

Join the two bits of land to make one plot, but with different uses - domestic garden, and woodland. This should not require any planning permission.

So do you think that I simply tell the council this?

What if they still say I need planning permission?

Regards
Ruth

 

[^woody^]

Yes you should tell the council that it is not intended to change the use of the land, and their assumption is incorrect. Safety and security implications would be a valid consideration.

But check that the fence does not need permission.