Planning - Lob Cabin behind House - Carlow

Thank you Furze.

When people have no other options to rent or buy & council’s Havent got the houses to house people what are we expected to do!?

We can’t keep throwing money down the drain on rent or live with The parent’s forever!

It’s not a perfect solution but what is the alternative? Wait and hope?

Or let people build one of these and house themselves?

The way I see it is that in general people will build as big of a house as they can, as cheaply as possible with little regard for how it looks or whether it bothers anyone else.

If you relax building and planning regs to allow back garden "log cabins", they'll be all over the place in a couple of years and then impossible to remove, because these regs are only enforceable at the point of construction.

We may not be building enough housing, but at least what is being built is of good quality.

The government is perfectly capable of setting policy to achieve whatever level and quality of house building it wants, within reason. Nothing was built in the years after the crash because that's what the govt of the day wanted. Michael Noonan is on the record saying exactly that - he wanted to get property prices up and was deliberately setting policy to achieve it. This isn't a political point, I'm neither for or against FG particularly.

If the govt wants cheaper housing it can achieve it at the stroke of a pen by (for instance) cutting VAT or development contributions.

If the govt wants to solve labour shortages in the residential construction industry it can achieve that at the stroke of a pen, for instance by giving residential construction workers a 50k income tax threshold.

The housing market we have is a result of deliberate policy, not accident. The solution is better policy, not sheds.

Yes they should, if they can’t build more permanent homes fast enough then this is a viable alternative than throwing money down the drain on HAP, homeless centres or hotels, b&bs etc

And if people have a site that’s suitable & not going to cause conflict with neighbour’s etc then they should be allowed do it.

And your last paragraph is pretty much what is happening in the housing market right now, but you have no problem with that if it’s built out of concrete or modular.

I’m guessing you in the im alright Jack brigade so you haven’t a clue the struggles people like me are in.

You want to lower the quality of house, allow people to be exploited, and support committing property fraud. And you think this helping people.

And no it doesn’t happen now in the housing market as there are building regulations to prevent scams like that.

Keep throwing the insults if you like, it’s clear you haven’t a clue what you are talking about, so won’t faze anyone.

I agree the solution is better policy.

But what good is that to people like me who can’t afford these new houses. Can’t get on the council list. Paying over 10k per year in rent down the drain & can’t save a deposit.

This is the real world & reality.

People are already being exploited in substandard accommodation already around the country you don’t have a problem with that?

what scam are you on about? People having their own property like a log cabin & trying to make a few Bob from it when they have moved out?

Go away

Given the choice of course i would rather good quality adorable permanent.

But cheap & good quality in my experience is hard to achieve.

Plus time it takes to build something these days is far too long.

All im saying is, log cabins could be used as tool to take pressure off the housing situation & it can be done quickly & cheaper than what’s happening now.

Maybe look into what the process is to get you to remove it if you build it. You never know, it might take so long before you have to remove it, if ever, and you would be winning by the time it had to go.

Seriously though, I have only ever heard of one person actually having to go through with removing a building when told to by the council and that took many, many years. But at the end of the day I think if its for a family member and its not visible from the road I wouldnt have a problem with it at all. I know one couple who sold their house and bought her parents house and they built one of these in the garden for the parents to live in. They are all happy with the arrangement.

Am I seriously the only person who sees these going up all over the place for years now and not being taken down? Hell I have even stayed in a few over the years at back of pubs and on campsites. The last one this summer in Hidden Valley. I had the choice of one with a separate bedroom or a studio or a studio with no bathroom. We took the 1 bed one. I would happily live in it if I had to to be honest.

Hidden at the back, not visible, used by the family. You are alluding to potentially good, respectful planning. That's possible right now. If it meets regs.

What others are asking for is permission for unrestricted, do what you want, screw everyone approach. That's many who would take advantage of that if the risk of punishment was removed. It's naïve to assume that the cabins that happen today, are as far as it would go with the rules removed - for a fact it is not.

People also tend to focus on the wins. I'd ask you the same question as the above. There's a electrical fault from a uncertified install, a cabin goes up in flames, and an elderly parent or a kid dies due to the build not meeting fire regs. You honestly think whoever ever sold it or built it carrys no blame, and that's the risk they took. I can't imagine you do. If they happened in a council development, people who be cring for blood, the same people who are not complaining that the council won't allow it. Irony.

short memory

See I think you are trying to twist things here because you are set in your ways. Afraid to be wrong. And now you are just arguing for the sake of it. You are just exaggerating everything that MIGHT happen for dramatic effect.

Log cabins are here. Log cabins have very good build quality, electrics and plumbing installed by qualified tradesmen, at least the ones ive seen. The people ive spoken to living in them are happy. The councils seem to be happy (its almost as if they have even been instructed to not follow up on planning issues about them). There hasnt been an outbreak of fires in them as far as i have seen. As much as you want to say they are impractical, they seem to be doing a job for people who have somewhere to put them. They are all over the place at this point. Id love to see the sales figures from those companies. I bet they are huge compared to a few years ago. Its not like anyone is advocating buying a €500 shed in woodies and moving into it.

One thing you are right on is that they are not a solution to a countrywide issue, but they sure seem to be a solution for some people who have nowhere to live and have the money to buy one and somewhere safe to put it.

Now fair enough if someone planted one in a field in the middle of nowhere or threw up a few of them to rent in the garden instead of one for their kids the council might be knocking on the door. But where is that happening?

I never mentioned perfection? I’m saying maybe aim for something above mediocrity.

Seems a bit lazy to do nothing if you can’t be perfect. Odd life strategy.

Absolutely not build what you want. That’s stupid. Build within the requirements of planning permission. you can still build houses & apartments away like we are as now. Just accommodate log cabins also.

If you have a problem with the standard of them, legislation. Tell the manufacturer what spec they need to be.

The plan whenever people have finished their use for it is what do they want to do with it. That’s their choice & nobody else’s business.

There’s 10s of thousands of people all over the country being exploited as is because we have no other option but to either pay extortionate rent, live with the parents or pray to god bit a house which is becoming harder & harder. More option’s for people will stop that exploitation. And an example this is my own situation.

Iv paid nearly 50K in rent over the past few year’s living in worse conditions than any log cabin iv seen. If i had been allowed put a log cabin up like sharks example id be housed myself, out of my own resources, not on a council list & have money to spend elsewhere on the economy or bein a better position to buy more appropriate accommodation. As it stands for all the money iv wasted i still have nothing. I’m still at 0.

You have no problem with that?

So your grasp of what’s happening in the real world is appalling.

What if people can’t afford to build a house to the required specs? Gone very expensive now.

And your whataboutery about fire etc

Plenty of fires happen & happened in property’s made of concrete built within planning.

Plenty of accidents & tragedy’s have happened in houses & apartments that weren’t log cabins.

Build log cabins to a desired fire safety standard, same as houses. Simple

And the accommodation crisis isn’t going away for a very long time under the current system. So we need accommodation of all types to suit everybody’s needs & financial abilities.

Have you seen the cost of new builds?

Need a doctor’s salary to afford them!!!