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reliqu

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  1. Well, a large part of the reason why you can't just buy land and start building legally is because if you could, plenty of land would be ruined, eyesores would be created, other homeowners would be impacted without much say in the matter. People would be grabbing plots and throwing up their monstrosities. (I mean to be real, the other large reason is a stable housing market). If you can go 4 years without being noticed, with neighbours not noticing or just being fine with what you're doing, then you're unlikely to be having a negative impact on the area. Further from it, you're likely living more sustainably and quietly than most. Living quietly also isn't the same as purposely hiding where you're living, which is why I used quotes, I wouldn't build a bunker buried in the ground or cover a hut in branches everytime I went out. The 4 year rule is more or less an allowance for low impact living - if you can live somewhere for 4 years without being noticed, by definition it's low-impact. It's not quite comparable to building a hut in your garden and renting it out to a student for £400 a month, or building a giant house and surrounding it with hay bails only to unveil it Year 5 Day 1. There's only so much you can respect planning laws. After paying off an absurd amount of student debt, then paying an absurd amount of rent in a renting market where landlords are barely if ever actually held accountable because there's such a demand in areas like London, I'm not a massive fan of going into further debt to buy a house and continue to be rinsed. So I think there comes a point where I'd have to decide: okay, if I can build something safe, with neighbours that are okay with it, while looking after the land I'm on, not changing the landscape much, living quietly and sustainably, while also still contributing to society through my career - Maybe planning laws just aren't set up for people like me, and I'm not really willing to wait the 40 years for them to get close, when land will be completely unaffordable anyway (and I'll be creaky and old).
  2. I'd be curious to see how it turns out too, my understanding is it comes down to intent, simply wanting a house in a forest isn't equatable to wanting to hide a house from the authorities and deciding to put it in a forest.
  3. For 1, it's deliberate concealment, such as purposely hiding a property such as the guy with haybails did. Simply building something small and going unnoticed wouldn't be classed as deliberate concealment because you're not going out of your way to conceal it from the property line. As far as I'm aware, something being concealed by trees as the example above is more often than not, not enough grounds to claim 'deliberate concealment'. Simply living quietly and having a dwelling that's not easily seen isn't the same as purposely hiding it. I read about a case where someone had a dwelling 'hidden' by trees - eventually he won, but was then only overturned because he'd applied for planning permission to build an agricultural building, while all along planning to live there to build his dwelling. So had he just built the home in the trees without being sneaky by building a barn first, he would've been fine. 2. I've seen a few of these, in a lot of cases these are in fairly built up areas though, I've been looking for plots going on 6 months now and haven't seen one yet that fits the bill, but I imagine it'll take time to see something worth going to see with my own eyes. 3. Yea I'm totally aware, I know they can be built for fairly cheap, but being somewhat mobile takes away a lot of risk. But knowing that 'If you need to you can move' is a bit counterproductive to the reasons why I'm looking for alternatives, so I think I'm unlikely to go this route, although it'd be a good idea in the future should I get a large enough plot of land, with planning permission for a substantial build, a cheap tinyhouse to live in while working on the build wouldn't be the worst.
  4. I totally agree, and I'm aware alot of the headlining "Look I live off grid in a beautiful luxury cabin I built for £50,000 in materials" embraced the rat race for long enough to build up a very tidy bank account, to the point they could afford a large parcel of land, the free time to work on it, and the cost of jumping through the many hoops to make it all happen. I suppose my fear of it 'not feeling like mine', is largely due to the fact that owning an actual house would mean moving out of my current area, a compromise for something that I'm not all excited about in the first place (a mortgage with more bills). Otherwise it'd likely be a flat, and with a flat comes the maintenance/building fees, as well as restrictions to what I can and can't do, even down to things like flooring. So that's what I find hard to swallow, besides just the idea of owing money. Communities are definitely something I should look into, but didn't really know where to start. I'll have a browse at some of the ones you've mentioned, thanks.
  5. Haha I've watched all of those videos as well as a bunch of others, and that would be ideal, but it does seem like something that's unique to Wales, as their planning offices seem a lot more liberal..
  6. Hello all, In short I'm in my late 20's, moved out of London and no longer want to rent - but also don't like the idea of having a 25 year mortgage despite being able to afford it and have a decent paying career. I've always wanted to build my own home or have something that's entirely mine, rather than buying a flat in a crowded block or a terraced house and it never quite feeling 'mine'. I realise plenty of people are happy with this, but for me the idea of such a large mortgage for a very small space with expensive bills ontop and it never feeling truly like my own is a hard pill to swallow, and however difficult or unlikely, I'm continuing to look for an alternative. There has to be a different way of carving out a life beyond forever renting, or being in a mortgage for at least 10-15 years. I'm still in the dreaming/researching stage in trying to figure out what my options really are, but at some point in the near future I'll need to decide on a route. Currently it seems.. Buy a small plot of woodland, build something small and green, use the 4 year rule to retroactively apply for planning permission/change of use for the land, assuming I'm not noticed by the council. This is risky, and expensive given the cost of land, but the plot would only need to be fairly small, the rest comes down to relationship with neighbours/other land owners being happy with what I'm doing. Find a piece of land at reasonable cost with no PP, enter into an option contract, apply for PP, and proceed if I get it (which by the looks of it seems rare unless it's already a residential plot which would defeat the purpose, as they often run 100k-200k+), build a small home. Build a tiny house, rent or buy land, this is also risky but not so much if it's moveable on a flatbed or trailer as worst case I can move on, and at least in my current area there are plenty of farms, at least a few of which likely wouldn't mind me being tucked away in the corner. The problem with this is it'll never feel like a permanent, secure situation which is what I'm looking for. I'd like to stay in East Anglia, but it seems only parts of Wales are more sympathetic to this way of living and have a good record of approving planning permission. I'll be stealing ideas from this forum and hopefully taking in all the advice I can! Though my goals are probably a little different from most here.
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