Defaulting on Planning Permission Occupancy Clauses

sas

Not something that curently affects me. Just something that came up in a discussion this morning.

Lets say you get planning with a 5 year occupancy clause. Should you move out of that house my understanding is that the planning is no longer valid and the council could theoretically knock it.

Ok so I'm 2 years into my 30 year mortgage i.e. 2 years into the 5 of the clause. Disaster strikes and we can't afford the mortgage. The bank chucks us out. The property could now be flattened by the council leaving you with a bad debt and the bank with nothing to sell to cover the mortgage.

What would happen in this situation?

Cushtie

I'm not 100% on this but I once heard that those clauses are not legally enforceable. I think there was a case taken somewhere that set a precedent.
again it is just something that is there in the back of my mind that I once heard / read about so don't take it as gospel.

(so I was no help really....sorry!!)

sas

I'd imagine myself the clauses were unenforceable. If they were iron clad I would expect mortgage companies to turn their back on anyone building their own home with such a clause.

oneillk

at the end of these clauses it now states that the bank or lending company has the right to sell the house if payments have defaulted on it.

sas

oneillk wrote:

at the end of these clauses it now states that the bank or lending company has the right to sell the house if payments have defaulted on it.

That answers that so.

Cheers

SAS

Salmon

Are there any other circumstances where one could sell a house before the occupancy clause has expired. If two single people built two houses with occupancy clauses and then got married, what would happen then? Would they have to keep the houses until the clauses had expired?

tred

oneillk wrote:

at the end of these clauses it now states that the bank or lending company has the right to sell the house if payments have defaulted on it.

Correct there is a new letter that goes in wtih planning stating that bank can sell house if needed.

oneillk

Are there any other circumstances where one could sell a house before the occupancy clause has expired. If two single people built two houses with occupancy clauses and then got married, what would happen then? Would they have to keep the houses until the clauses had expired?

(If you could get the council to view this as an exceptional circumstance, and not you trying to make money it might be possible)
If this happenned there might be a case for allowing the sale. The person selling would have to get agreement from the planning authority. This would probably include letters stating reasons for wanting to sell and you would have to show (i imagine) where you intend to live and with who and why.
I also think that the authority will state that you can only sell the house to the local need category. i.e. the person buying the house would have to qualify under normal planning critera.

lomb

sas wrote:

Disaster strikes and we can't afford the mortgage. The bank chucks us out. The property could now be flattened by the council leaving you with a bad debt and the bank with nothing to sell to cover the mortgage.

What would happen in this situation?

nothing happens, the bank can sell the property.
also if u dont live there its just u cant sell it,except to another local needs person or it can stay empty. the house cannot be flattened.

beolight

look in your county development plan under the section rural housing/local needs

at the end of this section dealing with local needs there will be a section dealing with this scenario

basically you must write to planners telling them either your not in a financial position to live in the house anymore/able to complete the development or that personal circumstances have changed which will force sale of house

decrrrrrr

Currently building at the moment. My wife was talking to the engineer last week and this came up in discussion (they were talking around planning and how the laws were tightening up even further).

They are looking to extend the period from 5 to 10 years but, one of the loopholes they are looking to close, is to stop people selling before this term expires. Seemingly you can sell 95% of the house and retain 5% - that way you can get around the occupancy clause. How this would work, I'm not sure - I'd say a 2nd agreement is drawn up saying you have no legal entitlement to the 5%.

A guy in the area has also been able to build two houses in the past five years and has successfully sold them on. How he did not, I do not know...