How to keep a long story short.......
We live in an older house in a relatively modern village in the 'grim north', most houses were built in the 70's, all are large 4/5 bedroom individual designed & stone built, an aspirational area with a great school etc, one of these is my mothers. It's a bungalow with a beautiful view down a long valley over a small town and has a substantial detached garage built into the hillside, single storey with two parking spaces accessed from the road above but two storey on the downward side of the hill, it also has great views from its elevated position.
When the garage was built in the 70's it was constructed as I understand it with the long term intention of turning it into a small 2 bed detached dwelling by putting another storey on top and separating the land from the main bungalow. It had outline consent in 1980 which lapsed as the previous owners got too old to undertake the work, then my father got outline permission 20yrs ago but this also lapsed as he became ill and passed away. The planning permission/notes etc are still on the councils website and based on them I see little problem having new outline consent granted albeit for a more modern variation on a past theme, before I get too old/pass.....away maybe it's cursed ?
BUT when the main village was expanded and new houses built in the 70's what I believe was a building scheme covenant was placed on each dwelling which allowed for only a single dwelling on each building plot so I believe I'm left having the covenant lifted or amended at the Lands Tribunal and likely paying some compensation to the immediate neighbours. They won't be impacted at all by the construction based on the planning officers notes from 20yrs ago but I believe that's how it goes.
So my first question to you all is have you experienced covenant issues, been to the tribunal, have knowledge of the process, pitfalls, must do's, should do's, words of guidance and wisdom ?
When discussing this all with my mother she dropped the bombshell of 'well why not knock my bungalow down and the garage, clear the whole site and build a small row of three storey terraces with garages underneath across the plot, they'll be worth over a million given the location, access to motorway and the views.....' well that was certainly unexpected Mum
My next question to you is, can there be more than one agreed outline plan in existence at the same time, the terrace idea is great but the council will have great reservations about this sort of development I suspect, can I apply for both, could both be granted, I guess the common sense answer is No, just one at a time ?
Finally, within 1 to 2 miles of the existing village are two new and huge 'garden village' developments in the planning hence why I think it's a good time to resurrect this little project, that and the fact I'm now semi-retired and can dedicate time, effort and some money to it.
Thanks and I really look forward to learning from you all.
