Local Needs Question Regarding Building New House Beside Old One?

blobert

Hello,
My sister lives in a house she bought in Wicklow about 10-15 years ago, it's an about 30-40 year old bungalow in a fairly rural area about 1km from a town. They have kids going to school there locally, intend to live there into the future.
The house is built on a decent sized field/site and next door to it is a much bigger site/field that came with the house when they bought it. Several other people around them are trying to sell similar sites but all with the proviso that only people with "local needs" can buy it/build there.
They'd like to live in a bigger, newer house than the one they live in at the moment and expanding their current house is not really that practical/would turn out to be very expensive vs building a new house + selling their old one.
Would they be able to get planning permission to build a bigger house on the site they own next door, move in there and sell their current house?
Any advice would be much appreciated!
Thanks

BryanF

Difficult. Many councils would say they don’t have a housing need.

Recommend she speaks to local planning consultant

arctictree

She doesn't have a housing need as she already has a house. She may get planning for a replacement dwelling but would need to demolish her current house.

Metric Tensor

Yeah, my experience of similar situations has been as per the above. A second house would most likely be a problem but knocking the existing house and building a new one would be much more likely.

padohaodha

Tried this myself.No chance.

blobert

Thanks for the replies guys, that sounds a bit tricky alright.
What if they were to sell their house, but keep ownership of the site beside there?

They would then have a need for a home in the area and have no home. Might be messy if they would have to rent somewhere else in the meantime. And I guess whoever bought their house might object to a new house being built next door to them also.

kieran.

blobert wrote: »

Thanks for the replies guys, that sounds a bit tricky alright.
What if they were to sell their house, but keep ownership of the site beside there?

They would then have a need for a home in the area and have no home. Might be messy if they would have to rent somewhere else in the meantime. And I guess whoever bought their house might object to a new house being built next door to them also.

Councils generally look for details of all address held for the previous 10 years approx. So the above won't work.

arctictree

blobert wrote: »

Thanks for the replies guys, that sounds a bit tricky alright.
What if they were to sell their house, but keep ownership of the site beside there?

They would then have a need for a home in the area and have no home. Might be messy if they would have to rent somewhere else in the meantime. And I guess whoever bought their house might object to a new house being built next door to them also.

In Wicklow you must also prove that you have never owned a house in order to get PP for a one off in a rural area. To prove this they have asked applicants for a letter from revenue stating that they have never claimed TRS on mortgage.

arctictree

blobert wrote: »

Thanks for the replies guys, that sounds a bit tricky alright.
What if they were to sell their house, but keep ownership of the site beside there?

They would then have a need for a home in the area and have no home. Might be messy if they would have to rent somewhere else in the meantime. And I guess whoever bought their house might object to a new house being built next door to them also.

Also, any objections must be based on points of planning. The fact that an objection comes from a neighbour is of no relevance.

tradesman

It seems a bit ridiculous not to allow permisdion to build the new house as it will release their old house back into the housing stock for another family

Metric Tensor

On the other hand what's to stop every rural dweller with over an acre of land profiteering by selling one house and building another in the garden.

Areas where "local needs" clauses apply are areas that the council deem should have no houses in them but the rules are relaxed on once off bases for people who genuinely have to live there.

Any scheme that converts one house into two is not in keeping with what the planners deem to be appropriate development of the area.

garbo speaks

The only way you could get another house is if you applied in the name of one of your children if they were 18. That's how most people near me get the second house because people's kids always have a housing need.

Gumbo

garbo speaks wrote: »

The only way you could get another house is if you applied in the name of one of your children if they were 18. That's how most people near me get the second house because people's kids always have a housing need.

How will a mortgage work then considering the planning has a stipulation for the applicant to live there?

Will a lender provide funds to Person A bit Person B must be the named owner on the deeds.

arctictree

tradesman wrote: »

It seems a bit ridiculous not to allow permisdion to build the new house as it will release their old house back into the housing stock for another family

Your making the mistake of thinking that planners want houses to be built in rural areas. They don't.

garbo speaks

kceire wrote: »

How will a mortgage work then considering the planning has a stipulation for the applicant to live there?

Will a lender provide funds to Person A bit Person B must be the named owner on the deeds.

By your reasoning above, if a planning application for a house was granted lets say for a Mr. Smith and he suddenly died, then his wife, Mrs. Smith could not live in the house because her name was not on the planning application? Nonsense.

Planning conditions never state a specific person has to live in a house; the stipulation will be that the dwelling shall be occupied by "the applicant or a member of their immediate family". This is how many people get through the loophole to build a second house.

pixbyjohn

Just apply for outline permission for a dwelling on the site. You won't have to pay for plans etc. If you get outline permission then you can follow up on applying for full planning permission, go check it out and good luck