Knocking garage - exempted development?

Casati

Hi - query with a 3 bed house garage which has original flat roof garage in place joining the property - no access from the house to the garage is present, and the garage does not touch the neighbours boundary at all.

Other neighbours have converted the garage to a room, but I'd prefer to knock it completely and make the front garden larger- the garage is too small to fit a car into and up and over door is broken and roof leaking so I don't want to invest in it - also I have another decent sized garage behind the house accessed from a laneway.

Looking at the DCC website I found the following - which would make me think that knocking the garage would be an exempted development but Im not 100% sure?

Can I demolish an old building?
You can demolish without permission a building other
than:
• a habitable house, or;
• a protected structure or a proposed protected
structure;
• a building in a terrace, or one which is attached to
another building in separate ownership.
However, it does not automatically follow that you will
get permission to build a replacement.
A habitable house is a house which is:
• used as a dwelling;
• is not in use, but when last used it was a dwelling and is
not derelict;
or
• is provided for use as a dwelling but has not been
occupied;
• it also includes a building where the last permitted use
was as a house, even if it has been in unauthorised use
since then.

Angry bird

Providing it does not abut a building in separate ownership you can demolish a building within the curtilage of a house, ie your garage up to a max of 40 square metres without planning. Class 50 exempted development of the planning regs.

Casati

Yeah it doesn't go within 20 metres of the neighbouring buildings so it looks like it falls within the exempted rules