Retention Planning

allycavs

Hi Guys

Recently bought a house with a converted garage. converted garage is a granny flat. the back of the garge was extended to meet the back ot the house. At time of pruschase there was some anomaly with plannig permission. my own enginners exact words is that itll be round e100 to get the right planning permission by applying for retention.

I thought to have everything above board i will apply for retention. Now the retention fees same to be in a round the €1k mark. The extension has been there for at least 7 years. if not more.

To be honest the exact nature of this anomaly was never made clear to me and has been explained in different ways but basically its 2 issues:

1) I believe originally there was internal access between the house and converted granny flat. In 2007 this access was removed by the placing of partition wall therefore changing the purpose of the the flat. it is no longer extended living space but intent is to use as a flat. I think this is the actual issue.

2) This issue im not sure about. I think the correct planning is in place for the extendeding of the length of garage/flat. But my enginner has just now said for the first time the extended part of the garage also contradicts the planning permission. This he only said very recently with outhaving the paper work in front of him.

What are my possible options here? if a building stands for x amount of time is it possible to gain retention at a much lower cost?

my engineer has subsequently told me dont look for retention. as it would just mean if the council every do catch me they will just tell me to apply for retention at that time?

i want everything above board but 1k is not money i can stump up right now for the forseeable future.

Thanks

sydthebeat

some information here is 'fuzzy'

so are you saying that the converted garage is no longer used as part of the house, but is now a 'stand alone' dwelling unit?

if so then that definitely requires planning permission and could be significantly in contravention with the councils development plan.

individual 'stand alone' dwelling units are required to be provided with adequate resources such as open space, off street car parking, refuse storage etc in order to be accepted as proper development.

the council are entitled to charge 'development contributions' on this new stand alone unit, as it is to be considered an new housing unit.

Is the flat now being rented out?
why is this an issue now? is there an intention to try to sell?

granny flats by definition are not expected to exist for long periods of time, and when they are no longer 'granny flats' they are expected to be absorbed back into the main dwelling

mickdw

The way I would see this is that, sure, if you apply to retain this additional flat, the council will apply contributions etc and most likely tie you up in knots for reasons stated by Syd.
If you currently have need for this flat, I would do nothing considering its there 7 years or more at this stage. Going this route, you will have to return it to garage use in the future though and certainly if selling, you will be selling a house with attached garage. The extension to the garage might well need planning too but it would be much easier to retain a garage extension compared to the flat and I cant see contributions being an issue either for the garage.
On the other hand, if you think this flat will add value to the property as a whole, then you need to decide if you want to try to go the planning route for it and make it legal.

allycavs

Thanks for your replies guys.

Yes syd - this flat is now a single dwelling unit. The reason I bring it up now is Im not long in the house and i want everyting above board. but initial cost of doing this was quoted as a mear €100 now i face €1000. would ye think this right?
advertse on local papers for retention
get 7 sets of drawings done up
concil fees
get maps and planning docs

What are contributions and where can i check can the flat meet the rigfht criteria for a single unit dwelling...

Thanks
Alan