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Hello everyone,
I'm new to this forum, posting this thread as I feel I have been the victim of local council incompetence which in turn has caused me massive amount of emotional stress and financial loss.
A little background about myself: I'm an ex officer in the Royal Navy, now still working at sea but in a private sector capacity. I'm used to working long hours in cold, stressful, unpleasant environments, being away from home and my loved ones for periods of up to 6 months at a time and most critically I'm used to dealing with infuriating bureaucrats.
Usually I'm the sort of person to let things slide, I believe in karma and usually feel that everything happens for a reason so it's safe to say it usually takes a lot to get me to really want to fight back but I have quite literally lost tens of thousands and my lifestyle has been massively affected by the events of the last 2 years.
I own a little one bed barn conversion in the country side which was originally converted in 1975. I bought it in 2017 as a "lock up and leave",somewhere to put my things whilst I'm working at sea and somewhere to call home. After deciding that I wanted somewhere a little larger and that I wanted to move closer to civilisation I put it up for sale at the beginning of 2019, fairly quickly receiving an offer for the full asking price. All was going well, but in the 11th hour when the buyer's solicitor made the land charge search the council planning department decided that the property was a listed building due to it's proximity to the original main farm house that the barn was originally associated with (curtilage listing).
The property is one of three properties that the original barn was divided into so this decision had potentially huge consequences for not just me but my two neighbours, as if it were the case then all of the modifications that were made to the building may have to be reverted (addition of 2 garages, French doors, velux windows, and extension on one of the properties) naturally all three of us appealed this verdict. Amazingly, despite very little evidence to support their claim other than an aerial photo showing the buildings are somewhat close together and generic "Historic England" guidelines the council decided to stick to their guns, contrary to all previous rulings. Naturally this caused the loss of my house sale as the new buyer didn't want the headache of dealing with any fallout and financial consequences, which I don't blame him for.
In the end between the three of us we gathered all the evidence we could to the contrary and presented it to a solicitor so they could draft an opinion and send to the council. The evidence was overwhelmingly in our favour and easily accessible, it took us a few days at most and the majority of it was requested from council themselves.
I won't list all the evidence presented but the most significant findings were:
1) The original planning application for the barn conversion, carried out in 1974. "Alteration of buildings of historical interest" was answered in the negative.
2) Every land charge search made on all three properties since that time, all answered in the negative. This includes the two most recent purchases made by myself and my neighbour in Dec 2017, and most notedly, the consent that was sought to renovate the end property that was gutted by fire in December 2018 and included replacement of the roof and the addition of an extension, all which were presided over by a planning officer and again listed building status was answered in the negative. (This work, which unbelievably had been approved literally a couple of months earlier, was around 50% complete when the council made their decision regarding the buildings suddenly being listed)
3) A statutory declaration by the brother of the deceased farmer who operated the farm up until his death in 1974, stating that the barns were used for animal fodder only and served no domestic purpose and were not associated in any way with the farm.
After turning it into a concise document referencing various sections of the land charges act and including some previous case law, the lawyers sent it to the council. The council immediately conceded the evidence was overwhelming and went back on their decision which although was a small victory had taken 9 months to conclude, had cost me my house sale and had made my house un-marketable for that period.
Although I put my house straight back on the market after losing the sale, the estate agent was obliged to tell any prospective buyers of the situation and the potential consequences and unsurprisingly all were put off and the house did not generate any interest and the listing become "stale" the longer it stayed on the market, particularly as the market I was targeting was more the holiday let or holiday home market which is highly seasonal. Meanwhile all my possessions and my car were in storage costing me £200 a month and I was staying in temporary accommodation for the few months of the year I was not at sea working. I had already moved out for the sale, and didn't want to move back in only to have to move back out again as my intention was to purchase a property in Hampshire as soon as I had the equity from my old house to use as a deposit.
After over a year of being on the market I accepted a low offer at the beginning of this year of 14,000 less than the offer the previous year just so I could get rid of the place and move on with my life. But now, due to Covid19 and it's potential effects on the housing market the buyer is asking for further discount to compensate for future potential value loss or he will probably pull out of the sale.
To add insult to injury the council tax people have just sent me a letter saying they are going to remove my 25% single person living discount and backdate the charges to when I moved my furniture out of the house to go work at sea, because apparently if I'm living mostly on a ship and only visiting for a few weeks at a time then this property is apparently a "second home" and therefore I'm not eligible for the discount. So they are now going to debit over £700 from my account on 1st June.
To say I'm fed up of these people is an understatement, this last claim by the council tax department has really galvanised me to stand up for myself and fight back so I'm looking for opinions on what my legal options are. I'm not a chancer looking for a huge payout, it would just be nice to be back in the financial position I would have been last year had someone at the planning office not decided to take liberties with the box ticking. I would estimate that combined expenses, storage costs, loss of sale etc has left me easily £25,000 worse off than I would have been otherwise. Factor in the hours spent spend dealing with everything, the stress incurred and the fact that I've been unable to buy another residential property and move on with my life and it's had quite a significant impact on my personal life as well as my finances. Because I work away so often it just doesn't make any sense to rent a property long term and "have a normal life" in the interim, (I can't afford it anyway as I'm still paying the mortgage for this house, without being able to rent it out) so as a result I haven't actually slept in my own bed since I moved my things into storage in November 2018 and have either been staying as a guest with friends/family or staying in hotels, airbnbs etc when not at sea working.
Having done some research I feel I may be able to claim compensation under section 10 of the Local Land Charges act 1975 for the losses and expenses incurred during the period my house was falsely considered a listed building by the council.
If anyone has any advice, or if anyone could suggest an expert in this field I would be very grateful. If anyone fancies taking a look at the documents that were sent to the council, and the correspondence that was sent by both parties I'm happy to furnish you with a copy with names/addresses removed.
Thanks in advance.
I'm new to this forum, posting this thread as I feel I have been the victim of local council incompetence which in turn has caused me massive amount of emotional stress and financial loss.
A little background about myself: I'm an ex officer in the Royal Navy, now still working at sea but in a private sector capacity. I'm used to working long hours in cold, stressful, unpleasant environments, being away from home and my loved ones for periods of up to 6 months at a time and most critically I'm used to dealing with infuriating bureaucrats.
Usually I'm the sort of person to let things slide, I believe in karma and usually feel that everything happens for a reason so it's safe to say it usually takes a lot to get me to really want to fight back but I have quite literally lost tens of thousands and my lifestyle has been massively affected by the events of the last 2 years.
I own a little one bed barn conversion in the country side which was originally converted in 1975. I bought it in 2017 as a "lock up and leave",somewhere to put my things whilst I'm working at sea and somewhere to call home. After deciding that I wanted somewhere a little larger and that I wanted to move closer to civilisation I put it up for sale at the beginning of 2019, fairly quickly receiving an offer for the full asking price. All was going well, but in the 11th hour when the buyer's solicitor made the land charge search the council planning department decided that the property was a listed building due to it's proximity to the original main farm house that the barn was originally associated with (curtilage listing).
The property is one of three properties that the original barn was divided into so this decision had potentially huge consequences for not just me but my two neighbours, as if it were the case then all of the modifications that were made to the building may have to be reverted (addition of 2 garages, French doors, velux windows, and extension on one of the properties) naturally all three of us appealed this verdict. Amazingly, despite very little evidence to support their claim other than an aerial photo showing the buildings are somewhat close together and generic "Historic England" guidelines the council decided to stick to their guns, contrary to all previous rulings. Naturally this caused the loss of my house sale as the new buyer didn't want the headache of dealing with any fallout and financial consequences, which I don't blame him for.
In the end between the three of us we gathered all the evidence we could to the contrary and presented it to a solicitor so they could draft an opinion and send to the council. The evidence was overwhelmingly in our favour and easily accessible, it took us a few days at most and the majority of it was requested from council themselves.
I won't list all the evidence presented but the most significant findings were:
1) The original planning application for the barn conversion, carried out in 1974. "Alteration of buildings of historical interest" was answered in the negative.
2) Every land charge search made on all three properties since that time, all answered in the negative. This includes the two most recent purchases made by myself and my neighbour in Dec 2017, and most notedly, the consent that was sought to renovate the end property that was gutted by fire in December 2018 and included replacement of the roof and the addition of an extension, all which were presided over by a planning officer and again listed building status was answered in the negative. (This work, which unbelievably had been approved literally a couple of months earlier, was around 50% complete when the council made their decision regarding the buildings suddenly being listed)
3) A statutory declaration by the brother of the deceased farmer who operated the farm up until his death in 1974, stating that the barns were used for animal fodder only and served no domestic purpose and were not associated in any way with the farm.
After turning it into a concise document referencing various sections of the land charges act and including some previous case law, the lawyers sent it to the council. The council immediately conceded the evidence was overwhelming and went back on their decision which although was a small victory had taken 9 months to conclude, had cost me my house sale and had made my house un-marketable for that period.
Although I put my house straight back on the market after losing the sale, the estate agent was obliged to tell any prospective buyers of the situation and the potential consequences and unsurprisingly all were put off and the house did not generate any interest and the listing become "stale" the longer it stayed on the market, particularly as the market I was targeting was more the holiday let or holiday home market which is highly seasonal. Meanwhile all my possessions and my car were in storage costing me £200 a month and I was staying in temporary accommodation for the few months of the year I was not at sea working. I had already moved out for the sale, and didn't want to move back in only to have to move back out again as my intention was to purchase a property in Hampshire as soon as I had the equity from my old house to use as a deposit.
After over a year of being on the market I accepted a low offer at the beginning of this year of 14,000 less than the offer the previous year just so I could get rid of the place and move on with my life. But now, due to Covid19 and it's potential effects on the housing market the buyer is asking for further discount to compensate for future potential value loss or he will probably pull out of the sale.
To add insult to injury the council tax people have just sent me a letter saying they are going to remove my 25% single person living discount and backdate the charges to when I moved my furniture out of the house to go work at sea, because apparently if I'm living mostly on a ship and only visiting for a few weeks at a time then this property is apparently a "second home" and therefore I'm not eligible for the discount. So they are now going to debit over £700 from my account on 1st June.
To say I'm fed up of these people is an understatement, this last claim by the council tax department has really galvanised me to stand up for myself and fight back so I'm looking for opinions on what my legal options are. I'm not a chancer looking for a huge payout, it would just be nice to be back in the financial position I would have been last year had someone at the planning office not decided to take liberties with the box ticking. I would estimate that combined expenses, storage costs, loss of sale etc has left me easily £25,000 worse off than I would have been otherwise. Factor in the hours spent spend dealing with everything, the stress incurred and the fact that I've been unable to buy another residential property and move on with my life and it's had quite a significant impact on my personal life as well as my finances. Because I work away so often it just doesn't make any sense to rent a property long term and "have a normal life" in the interim, (I can't afford it anyway as I'm still paying the mortgage for this house, without being able to rent it out) so as a result I haven't actually slept in my own bed since I moved my things into storage in November 2018 and have either been staying as a guest with friends/family or staying in hotels, airbnbs etc when not at sea working.
Having done some research I feel I may be able to claim compensation under section 10 of the Local Land Charges act 1975 for the losses and expenses incurred during the period my house was falsely considered a listed building by the council.
If anyone has any advice, or if anyone could suggest an expert in this field I would be very grateful. If anyone fancies taking a look at the documents that were sent to the council, and the correspondence that was sent by both parties I'm happy to furnish you with a copy with names/addresses removed.
Thanks in advance.
