Lawful Development Certificate - is there an alternative? Do we even need one?

[redwoods44]

We're about 4 weeks from exchange on a house that has an outbuilding in the garden. On the face of it, it looked like the outbuilding/workshop would fall within permitted development - the footprint is 20m2 and the height of the roof at it's tallest is about 3.5-4m. As I understand it, this is fine so long as it's at least 2m's away from the property boundaries. However this looks to be nearer 1-1.5m away from the boundary on one side.

The owner said it's within permitted development, their solicitors are telling my solicitors it is and my solicitors are saying "Usually, we would just go on what the solicitors tell us as they have a duty to do the relevant investigations".

I understand a Lawful Development Certificate would be perfect in a situation such as this, however I also understand they can take at least 8 weeks to sort out, which would be a really iffy delay on the whole chain.

So I'm wondering if we can just rely on the old 4 Year Rule to protect ourselves from any potential action by the council instead? If so, what sort of evidence would you have to produce to prove it's been standing for 4 years? The seller works in the trade so invariably had mates build it for him and probably doesn't have a whole heap of paperwork (we have however asked him to have a hunt around for anything he has). We've found some historical google map images online showing the outbuilding in the garden in 2010, but don't know if this would be enough to cut it?

Or is there anything we can get in a shorter time period (would the council write a letter if requested?) that would cover us against the council wanting us to take it down? Or are we just worrying about nothing unecessarily...

 

[^woody^]

Or are we just worrying about nothing unecessarily...

Yes.

 

[Nakajo]

Nothing to worry about here. Move on. To the best of my understanding, a Lawful Development Certificate is entirely pointless in regards Permitted Development - unless you care about the quantity/quality of tipple provided at the Planning Department's Christmas do - but if anyone knows different...

 

[redwoods44]

Sorry Nakajo... *hangs head in grammatical shame* t'was written in a hurry before I left for work this morning!

Thanks for the responses though. Interesting as other advice I've had is to get the selller to get a Lawful Development Certificate pronto in order to avoid problems when we come to sell in the future. But if it only relates to planning application rather than permitted development, then like you say it's not really worth all the time and effort involved in getting it.

 

[^woody^]

Your conveyancer's advice is your protection

 

[Nakajo]

As far as I can tell, if a local authority is prepared to issue an LDC then, by definition, it's not needed. It would only be needed in an instance where the LPA wouldn't grant it! And in any case, those photos from 2010 would be more than adequate evidence.

 

[cjard]

Indeed as Navajo says, it's something you pay for if you're the sort of person who doesn't sleep at night for worrying about getting crushed in the gears of The System if you don't have a paper trail permitting everything. Or if you have a neighbour who likes to make your life hell with every available authority just for the fun of it

 

[Nakajo]

I'm not sure that I agree with that. I am the sort of person who lies awake worrying about this stuff - and I still don't think an LDC would serve any purpose here.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

I'm still waiting for a sensible reply to my last post in this //www.diynot.com/diy/threads/rear-extension-under-pd-for-parents-property.440273/ thread .......

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

 

[Nakajo]

A reply from whom? In answer to what? I don't understand your point/concern - although even if I did, I'm still not confident that I could address it

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

It's not complicated, look in the thread I linked to and answer that question, not necessarily you, anyone else can answer if they wish.