DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Am new to this forum and would appreciate advice from more knowledgeable folk than I.

My house is about a mile from the overcrowded city of Cambridge. Demand for property still greatly exceeds supply. My garden (c 170 ft long) has rear access (one of very few on my road) along a private drive shared with 2 other houses. Planning permission 18 months ago raised some generally spurious and unpleasant objections from neighbours (par for the course). Planning permission was refused with bog standard reasons (not in keeping with the area, detrimental to neighbours enjoyment, increased use of the drive – the latter was particularly nonsensical).

Now the kids have flown am looking to sell up and give planning one more go. Options are:

• Sell land without planning permission to a small developer
• Demolish the garage and build a small 1-2 bedroom bungalow for one of the kids to live in and rent/sell the main house
• Sell the house with potential PP

Does anyone have experience or advice on garden infills that the local authority appear to particularly hate?

Thanks

"Sell land without planning permission to a small developer"

You mean fence of part of the garden and flog that part between the fence and the private drive? That's an option and because there is access to the portion of land that will increase the value of the land considerably over it's intrinsic value which will be negligible. However any sensible developer will look into whether there have been previous planning applications, see the history and run a mile! You'll probably also reduce the value of the main house marginally.

"Demolish the garage and build a small 1-2 bedroom bungalow for one of the kids to live in and rent/sell the main house"

You'll still have the same objections from the council and the neighbours to deal with so it seems you've discounted that one already.

"Sell the house with potential PP"

But you'll have to reveal at some stage (like when searches are done) that PP has already been refused. Don't see any advantage to you at all.

You forgot a 4th option. Just sell as is. That would be the simplest.

Cheers