Is Planning Permission required?

[veedubmatt]

A motorhome usually counts for the same as a caravan or static for the purposes of legislation as it comes under any vehicle or structure adapted for the purposes of living in. The regulations are pretty catch all, and you can only stay for 28 days a year even if it is your land. There may be local exceptions on certain land, but that's the general rule.

However, you are right in practical terms, a motor-home is very mobile. It's very easy to leave for days and weeks and come back and very difficult to enforce. 3 months should be easy.

is that right ?? i owned a static caravan on a site for a few years and max time was 90 days is this not the same for motorhome ??

as for staying on your own land i would just do it it will take longer the 3 months to get you off the land

 

[Deleted member 967]

You can stay on your land for 28 days per year without residential planning permission! Hope this helps . Ps apart from the neighbours who actually knows when you stopped" parking" and stated" staying" no planning need for parking!!

Its not quite that easy.

1) You can stay in a caravan beside your or another persons house for an unlimited period provided you are using the house for amenities.

2) You can permit someone to stay (in one caravan) on your land for one or two nights at a time. The maximum nights that this can happen is 28 days without PP or a site licence. Note It is not one van on the site for up to 28 days as some try to interpret it.

In both 1) and 2) above there is presumed planning consent under the 1947 Planning act.

The Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960

THIRD SCHEDULE

CASES WHERE A SITE LICENCE IS NOT REQUIRED
Use within curtilage of a dwellinghouse

1. A site licence shall not be required for the use of land as a
caravan site if the use is incidental to the enjoyment as such of a
dwellinghouse within the curtilage of which the land is situaited.

Use by a person travelling with a caravan for one or two nights

2. Subject to the provisions of paragraph 13 of this Schedule, a
site licence shall not be required for the use of land as a caravan
site by a person travelling with a caravan who brings the caravan
on to the land for a period which includes not more than two nights—
(a) during that period no other caravan is stationed for the
purposes of human habitation on that land or any adjoining
land in the same occupation, and
(b) if, in the period of twelve months ending with the day on
which the caravan is brought on to the land, the number
of days on which a caravan was stationed anywhere on that
land or the said adjoining land for the purposes of human
habitation did not exceed twenty-eight.

A landowner (farm diversification) can have up to 28 caravans in storage (not for human habitation) without PP.

If there are no complaints then I can't see the planning officers bothering with your Motorhome "Parked" on your land. I doubt if they will be checking that it isn't occupied at night.

I occupied a caravan on a storage site I owned for 10 years without residential PP. The reason I was there overnight was "for security" and the local planners knew this and we advertised 24 hour on site security.

If travelers stuck to the one or two nights rule and didn't occupy land en masse then there would be no need for landowners to seek an injunction to move them on. I doubt if the Planning officers would be counting the nights unless it became obvious that it was exceeding the 28 day rule on a plot. It is the landowners duty to keep the record of the number of nights and if this is not done, then the planning officer has to determine if the rule has been broken, to bring a prosecution against the land owner.

John

 

[Firefox]

is that right ?? i owned a static caravan on a site for a few years and max time was 90 days is this not the same for motorhome ??

as for staying on your own land i would just do it it will take longer the 3 months to get you off the land

From the 1960 act. It's not definitive because there may be some local factors.

The definition of a caravan is provided in section 29 of the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 as follows:
In section 29 (1) of the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 ("The 1960 Act") a caravan is defined as

• "... any structure designed or adapted for human habitation which is capable of being moved from one place to another (whether by being towed, or by being transported on a motor vehicle or trailer) and any motor vehicle so designed or adapted but does not include:
  • Any railway rolling stock which is for the time being on rails forming part of a railway system, or
  • Any tent."
  
  

 

[sean rua]

There always seems to be many anomalies and variations. Perhaps this is all down to interpretation.
In the old days there was something known as "curtilage".

In some cases, a caravan was fine, provided it was "within the curtilage" of the main habitation. Even today, there are thousands of farms and racing stables where this still seems to apply.

Other areas, such as parts of Essex, allow hundreds of caravans to be parked on people's drives ( no doubt beside their owner's kin), but refuse to allow so much as a shepherd's hut for tenant farmers who wish to be near their stock. Even a summer house or chalet can be deemed illegal, if the councils so wish.

At the same time, they allow catteries and kennels to be erected, together with huge henhouses, massive tinbox farm sheds, tesco, and other things that do not really enhance the visual aspects of the place. All this in an area where it is deemed illegal to even sleep out in a sleeping-bag in your own backyard!

A " nanny state" gone stone mad, imo. All they really care about is increasing their tax revenue and covering their own backs, should any busybody with a loud bark threaten to bite their backside.

sean rua.

 

[tommy0121]

parking on land

Thanks guys for your input - very interesting and very different. Actually yes it is our intention to live in the motorhome until we leave about the end of September so a period of say 3 months.

Access to the plot requires us to drive onto a shared driveway from the highway so we are not as such creating another access to the road. We have written to the 3 neighbours who own the drive and they are quite happy for us to use the driveway.

Northerner you seem pretty adamant that you cannot live in the motorhome - I am surprised by that comment - is it any different to any other wildcamping that we do elsewhere? Are you saying that we can't live in our motorhome whilst it is parked on say our driveway outside our house?

The plot of land is owned by us, we have the necessary access and there is already a brick built shed there.

I do prefer the option of just doing it and see what comes............we're only going to be there a few months and if we have to move on then so be it.

Could be a way forward for all of us........... you have your nieghbours permission, why seek problems? what is the worsed that can happen if the council turn up and tell you not to park there? --you can have a thousand people tell you a different thing, suck it and see, the council will just tell you you move, if they come along, i have more than once put a caravan on my plot of land.

Channelcrosser

you have your nieghbours permission,.