planning:- abandonment of use

sydthebeat

Has any one any experience in cases of "abandonment of use" and how its viewed by local authorities or Bord Pleanala?

Specifically if a building ie public house, hasnt been used as a public house for a certain duration because say, the license has been sold, then when does it loose its planning status as a public house?

thanks

muffler

I read something about this some time ago and for the life of me I cant recall what or where. I'll see if I can dig something up.

Poor Uncle Tom

I would imagine you will find out more about that in the Valuation Act (rates) than in the Planning Act, but I'll have a look as well.

muffler

I was in touch with one of the admin staff in the local planning office and she tells me there's nothing in the regs that covers this type of situation, at least not that she's aware of.

She had a vague recollection of a case a long time ago where the use of a vacant/unused building was deemed to have been "abandoned" but thinks it was possibly a precedent established in case-law. That may be the same case I'm thinking about myself but cant recall the details either.

Poor Uncle Tom

Very similar to you muffler, there isn't anything in the regs about it, but if any LA wants to pursue an abandoned site they do it through the Derelict Sites Act
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1990/en/act/pub/0014/index.html
different to what you are talking about.

A good example of how the planners deal with it is to see what they consider to be a derelict dwelling house in terms of a re-application. Different LA's treat it differently.

muffler

5 years sticks in my mind for some reason or other which may not be relevant to the topic but I think the last use or approved use of a property would probably disappear after time or at least its a reasonable period to argue for or against.

As PUT linked to above the issue of a derelict building is probably relevant though.

sydthebeat

yes, theres nothing based in planning legislation to cover this, but there are some case law examples. I think a lot of it depends on if there was a replacement use, and was the actual use 'intended' to be abandoned or continued.