Garage - change of use to office

Kaskade

I have a garage at my house that was built 8 years ago. At the time we initially wanted to build the standard garage where no PP was required but we went bigger 40m2.

We stopped the build and applied the retention which was granted.

The garage has always been used as an office and the attic has been used for storeage. It is plastered, plumbed, floored with a toilet on both floors. We now want to sell the house but a phone call to the planning dept has left me none the wiser.

The issues are:
1. The front of the garage had a triple width glass door instead of a garage shutter food.
2. The back gable has a glass door fitted at 1st floor level that is accessed through external steps that go along the side of the garage and a high deck to the rear.

What issues are these likely to cause when selling the house? Because this was done more than 7 years ago is there some sort of 7 year rule that means it is all ok now or did I dream that up?

The council told me most people just change the garage to an office and say nothing to the planners unless the have a cranky Neighbour who might complain 🙄

Any guidance would be very much appreciated. I did ring a couple of engineers but none got back to me.

Calahonda52

the 7 year rule is that enforcement proceedings cannot be brought, however non compliance is still an issue.

Did you change the facade etc after retention was granted? If not, whats the issue:

Kaskade

Calahonda52 wrote: »

the 7 year rule is that enforcement proceedings cannot be brought, however non compliance is still an issue.

Did you change the facade etc after retention was granted? If not, whats the issue:

When we applied for retention the doors were not in yet. The plans don’t actually specify the type of door. They show a black door and say “opening for garage door”.

The glass doors were out in as soon as we hit retention. The high deck and the back door to access the attic were added a few months later.

BryanF

Apply for rentention or wait and see if a buyer is willing to over look non-compliance’s

Kaskade

BryanF wrote: »

Apply for rentention or wait and see if a buyer is willing to over look non-compliance’s

What I’m worried about is if the council reject the retention. How likely is that?

BryanF

Kaskade wrote: »

What I’m worried about is if the council reject the retention. How likely is that?

Don’t know, will depend on several factors including how the current arrangement looks, precedence in the area, whether anyone complians

That’s the risk you take when you don’t build as per the planning permission

Kaskade

BryanF wrote: »

Don’t know, will depend on several factors including how the current arrangement looks, precedence in the area, whether anyone complians

That’s the risk you take when you don’t build as per the planning permission

We got bad advise at the time. We were under the impression that the deck was not something that required planning.