beestafford Posted September 5, 2020 Share Posted September 5, 2020 hi, we are working on building a caravan act compliant home in my inlaws garden! since lockdown we want to simplify our lives and build something fairly inexpensive and get our living expenses as low as possible so we dont have to kill ourselves to pay the mortgage! we currantly live in margate , we are awaiting a quote from a builder and have a quote from a company for basically a watertight box which we will then insulate and do the internals ourself... obviously our hope is the builder will be able to get us closer to a complete home... our main issue is sewage! the plot is quite small and ideally i would like something eco like an Aquatron, but we still have the issue of grey water and how to dispose of it. i have been going round in circles trying to work it out. we have no room for reed beds and any liquid would need to be pumped up to be dispersed into the inlaws garden... im worried that the cost will be too much. our budget is tight which is why i was initially drawn to the aquatron... im am now continuing my research into sewage treatment plants.... any leads towards a solution would be very helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted September 5, 2020 Share Posted September 5, 2020 Hi and welcome. Have you looked at treatment plants with a pumped output to pump ap to a drainage field at a higher level? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Jimbo Posted September 5, 2020 Share Posted September 5, 2020 Welcome. Well done for making the effort to try and stick it to the Big Society. Mortgage etc. How many water outlets will your caravan have ? Sinks, toilets, showers, baths etc ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted September 5, 2020 Share Posted September 5, 2020 Welcome to the forum. Interesting project. Hope this won't scare you off but better the devil you know.. Where are you with planning permission? You don't need planning permission to park a caravan or genuinely mobile home in a garden but you do to live in it separately/independently to the main house. So the planners may take an interest if it has everything you need to live there such as a kitchen and bathroom. If its missing one of those (so you have to use the one in the house) you might get away without needing planning permission. I've also got a feeling North Devon has introduced the Community Infra Structure Levy (CIL). Mobile homes are normally exempt from the CIL but I wonder if a sewerage treatment plant would be considered too much of an "attachment to the land" for a mobile home? See this case. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/733411/2018-07-18_Redacted_report.pdf The owner won his appeal but the drainage was mentioned as a potential factor. Perhaps make it look part of the "site" rather than part of your home? Self builders are also normally exempt from this but only if they apply for the exemption and get the paperwork done before starting work on the site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beestafford Posted September 5, 2020 Author Share Posted September 5, 2020 22 minutes ago, Big Jimbo said: Welcome. Well done for making the effort to try and stick it to the Big Society. Mortgage etc. How many water outlets will your caravan have ? Sinks, toilets, showers, baths etc ? we will have one toilet, sink and shower in the bathroom, and a sink and washing machine in the kitchen. these will most probably come in time with us using a compost toilet and showering at the inlaws house for sometime until we can afford whatever system we settle on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beestafford Posted September 5, 2020 Author Share Posted September 5, 2020 (edited) 18 minutes ago, Temp said: Where are you with planning permission? You don't need planning permission to park a caravan or genuinely mobile home in a garden but you do to live in it separately/independently to the main house. So the planners may take an interest if it has everything you need to live there such as a kitchen and bathroom. If its missing one of those (so you have to use the one in the house) you might get away without needing planning permission. we are just going down the certificate of lawfulness route , as applying for planning terrifys us and im pretty sure we wont get it. as for facilitys we will be using the bathroom at the house to shower for at least the first year, and we may be using the kitchen for sometime too. Edited September 5, 2020 by beestafford Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Jimbo Posted September 5, 2020 Share Posted September 5, 2020 How far from the main house soil drainage will you be ? and it it uphill or down to the house drainage ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beestafford Posted September 5, 2020 Author Share Posted September 5, 2020 we are downhill! the main house has a septic tank but we are 25/30 metres away from that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted September 5, 2020 Share Posted September 5, 2020 14 minutes ago, beestafford said: we are just going down the certificate of lawfulness route , as applying for planning terrifys us and im pretty sure we wont get it. as for facilitys we will be using the bathroom at the house to shower for at least the first year, and we may be using the kitchen for sometime too. The certificate of lawfulness route should work as long as the caravan isn't capable of being "separately occupied". It must be seen as an annex to the main house. If you are doing the application yourself make sure to point out you are all one family and don't go showing bathrooms and kitchens or it may be declined. An extra bedrooms that you can later convert (with planning permission obviously ? is the way to ensure adequate space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted September 5, 2020 Share Posted September 5, 2020 I thought a certificate of lawful development is basically an admission that you got away with something for long enough that it can't be enforced. e.g i thought you already had a caravan there that has been in residential use for a certain number of years. If you had the lawful development would allow you to replace it with a new one. Are you saying it's an empty garden at the moment? tread carefully, I am not sure a certificate of lawful development will be issued. Are there any other options for drainage? e.g a stream? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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