if you're thinking about buying or selling a property then one of the issues that you need
to be very much aware of and you need to perhaps do a little bit of advanced planning about is the
question of planning obviously if you're buying a house and there's any issue or any problem in
relation to planning or any extension or any development that might have been carried out
then you can walk away and buy a house in a different house essentially
but if you are the vendor if you are the owner of the property and you have your heart set on moving
and moving uh selling your property moving on well then any problem to do with planning
is going to cause you some serious grief i suggest and
a three-step approach to planning problems that might arise and to put it in context
the planning difficulty in relation to a house could be something to do with for example
the construction of a garage it could be an extension it could be a porch to
the front or the rear of the house it could be perhaps a greenhouse it could be a garden shed
indeed it could be an unauthorized use for example the conversion of a front room into some sort of a
meeting room or surgery for example or something of that nature
so planning has a very wide definition in the planning laws in ireland
and that's the first thing you need to be aware of and that is something that you need to
accept might pop up when you are going to sell your property so let's take a look first thing
you need to find out whether development was cut out or not if a development was carried out then
there's planning information is required unless it's exempt now if it was done pre-1963 in other
words prior to the commencement of the planning act in i think october of 2000 or of 1919 or 1964
if the development was carried out then prior to that then the development will be exempt and
there's nothing to worry about there are other exemptions then as well for example
a local authority would have exemptions in relation to carrying out development in its
local authority area so if dublin corporation or dublin city council
or keller county council or meet county council built a house or perhaps a replacement dwelling
arising from a road widening or something like that well then no apply information is required
because once they build the property in their own jurisdiction as a where their own planning area
then they are exempt there are a number of exemptions and they all arise in the
or they're set out in the planning and development act of 2000. now if there was a development and if
it's not exempt then there's a couple of things you need to consider one it's
a fairly drastic solution but it is a solution nevertheless that is to
demolish the unauthorized structure that may or may not be possible
and it may or may not be prudent second solution is to apply for retention permission to two
difficulties with retention information one does not guarantee that the permission will be granted
and two it's going to be a slow process so if you get your house sold and you discover then that
there's a problem with planning then looking for plan information retention information it's going
to be such a slow process that it's unlikely that your purchaser is going to hang around
finally there's a thing called the five year or seven year rule or seven year rule
it's set out in the planning development act of 2000
in section 157 and it basically says that if the planning authority has not served you with
a notice or taken any action or proceedings against you within seven years of the the
unapproved unauthorized development well then they can't take any further action against you
you might say that's fine if it's after seven years then we're in the clear with nothing to
worry about but that's not the case it simply means that the local authority cannot pursue you
cannot serve a notice it doesn't mean that you get plan information by default you don't get
planned information by default what difference will that make down the line one situation or
one scenario which it could occur is if there was for example a road widening scheme and there was
compensation to be had for losing perhaps this particular structure then if it was unauthorized
and if it didn't have plan information then no compensation would be payable so that's a problem
there's also a problem obviously for a purchaser who's borrowing money from the bank the bank
is going to be concerned about an unauthorized development and the solicitor is also going to be
concerned in other words the solicitor acting for the purchaser because he or she has the certified
title for the bank if that's the case he's going to be writing to the bank saying look i'm going to
have to qualify my undertaking because here's the situation there's no applying commission for this
garage or massive garden shed or massive statue out the back or porch out the front
or greenhouse or conservatory or whatever it was built 10 years ago nothing can arise
insofar as the council pursuing or serving notices but nevertheless there's no plan
information and there won't be or else there will be only after we apply for retention permission
so that's one broad category of problem that might arise in your property sale or in your property
purchase it's probably a bigger problem though for the vendor for the seller because obviously
they only have the one house and they are anxious to sell it and they need to solve
the problem whereas the purchaser can move on and simply buy another property the second problem or
second area of problems you need to be concerned about is building regulations and by-law approval
is the property located in an area where by-law approval was required if it was well then
there's no certificate of compliance with by law approval you might be able to get an
architect or an engineer to certify that even though no certificate was issued at the time
that the work was carried out from an inspection that he's carried out from an inspection he takes
the view that had a certificate or had approval been applied for in respect of bylaw approval then
there wouldn't have been a difficulty the other issue then is to do with building regulations
building regulations come in in 1990 again there's either a certificate of compliance with building
regulations or not and if a building regulation is applied to the development then there is
a requirement for a certificate of compliance with building regulations
and if there's no certificate of compliance with building regulations
and building regulations did apply to the development then quite frankly there's no solution
second or thirdly then do you need to be concerned about architects certificates of compliance with
plan information building regulations so all developments unless they're exempt will
need a certificate of compliance with applying permission and a certificate of complaints with
building regulations and even if you're claiming that the development was an exempt development
you'd still need a certificate from an architect or an engineer who will certify his in his opinion
that the development was an exempt development and will heal set out then in his certificate the
basis on which it was exempt in conclusion then i'd be saying to you that planning is
something that can trip you up it can trip you up particularly when you're selling
sometimes there's solutions sometimes there isn't solutions i've looked at three broad categories
or three ways to approach the problem and the different types of problems that might occur
whether there is development or not whether there is an exemption or not whether um
there are certificates or not so they are the type of things that you need to look at
and again you may rely on the seven year rule in respect of an unauthorized development or you may
knock the development or you may seek retention permission but retention permission obviously is a
slow process and there's no guarantee of success then the other issues are to do with building
regulations if a property was carried out or developed in say the year 2000 or 2010 or 15 and
there's no certificate of complaints of building regulations well then strictly speaking there's
no solution because nobody can certify that the property was built in accordance with the building
regulations anyway i hope you find this video useful if you do i would appreciate if you gave it
the thumbs up down below and you may be interested in subscribing to my youtube channel thanks a lot