Caravan in garden

[Leigh0403]

Hi everyone,

First post so bear with me I have planning just waiting for my conditions to be discharged. (taking forever) had the dreaded archeological dig done. Nothing of any interest thank god. My question is we are planning to live on site whilst the build is done. If we wanted to invest in something nice thinking a caravan say 38 x 14 that was cladded so looked more like an Annexe and we wanted to keep it in the curtilage of the garden after. Could we under 'the caravan act' this would be used for when we have visiting family?

[joe90]

You can but it must not be “self contained “ I.e. the occupants must use the main house for example “kitchen” or “bathroom” it can be used self contained during the build and will be council tax band A.

[kandgmitchell]

Well the Caravan Act 1960 says:

 

Cases where a Caravan Site Licence is not required

Use within curtilage of a dwellinghouse

A site licence shall not be required for the use of land as a caravan site if the use is incidental to the enjoyment as such of a dwellinghouse within the curtilage of which the land is situated.

 

So during the house build it is incidental to the site operations (i.e the house) and is permitted development under one class and after, it becomes an outbuilding used within the residential curtilage and is permitted development under another class. Comply with the rules for those and as @joe90 says don't use it as a fully self contained dwelling for others then you'll be ok.

 

[ProDave]

I got this written into the planning for ours, that I wanted the static caravan to remain after the build as a "garden building".  This overruled the usual clause saying the static caravan must be removed.  Instead they inserted an alternative clause "habitational use of the caravan shall cease upon occupation of the house"

 

They are just ensuring you don't end up with the caravan as a second separate dwelling.