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Showing results for tags 'certificate of lawfulness'.
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Hi all, we have an outbuilding that was approved to be rebuilt as a "Home Office and Gym". We are genuinely going to be using it as such for a while, but the reality is that we will then in due course apply for a change of use Cert of Lawfulness under PD for it to be classed as a Granny Annexe. I spoke to one planning consultant who said: "be careful that you actually execute the purpose the building was approved to be, before going for different planning opportunities". He said don't just try and swap it immediately for a granny annexe as they could argue you never used it as it was intended. His recommendation was to gather tons of evidence of it in use as an office, lots of photos etc and then "in due course" put in the app for the Cert of Lawfulness. I pressed him on how long "in due course" meant in reality and he slightly shrugged and said "6 months". But was very convincing. But has anybody gone through this process? How tough - if at all - were the council on requesting evidence of the building's use as originally intended? How long is long enough? How much evidence is enough? Thanks for any thoughts
