Living in your own wood - legal issues?

[Seabeggar]

I am wondering what legal issues there would be if I bought say 5 acres of woodland & "dwelt" lightly in it. Thinking I could rent out my house to pay the mortgage & give me a little extra to live on. I guess there are all sorts of laws to stop folk doing this ?
As a maximum a simple shelter (even just a tent) wood burning stove, rain water collection, solar PV/thermal panel, composting toilet. Any advice ?

 

[jmagee]

Interesting question. If there are laws could you try and register the land as a camp site to get around them?

 

[British Red]

You are only permitted to camp for 28 days a year on your own land. After that you need to register as a camp site and pass all relevant inspections for that or apply for residential planning permission.

 

[ged]

Red's right certainly for England, I don't know what the situation is in Scotland but I doubt it's very different.

My advice is don't tell anybody, and don't let anybody see what you're doing. You've already failed to take it of course.

The planning regulations are being knocked about a bit at the moment because the government is terrified of something or other.
You might get planning permission nowadays for something that wouldn't have stood a chance five years ago.
You still won't get it for something that's completely beyond the pale but I don't know what you have there.

Doesn't the weather sometimes get a bit unpleasant in the highland?

 

[Pete E]

I seem to recall something of this sort happening a few years pack. IIRC a family bought a small bit of woodland either in, or on the edge of a National Park and not too far from a small village.

They then built a very low impact eco house in the woodland and lived there before the powers that be found out..The "house" was landscaped into the terrain and was not visible from anything beyond a few yards and certainly not from beyond their own bit of woodland. They were eventually found out because their heat signature was detected during some sort of aerial survey. Once the local council and the National Parks people got involved, the family was onto a hiding to nothing even though the applied for retrospective planning permission. They fought the case for a number of years, but eventually lost and had to remove the dwelling...

 

[boatman]

Scotland is different. "Living huts" have a long tradition and there seems to be a move towards accepting recreational huttage.
http://www.thousandhuts.org/?p=371

http://www.gov.scot/resource/doc/156526/0042031.pdf

 

[knifefan]

It used to be the case that if you built a "dwelling" and could prove that you had lived in it for 12yrs or more without any objections then you could apply for retrospective permission. However, I think they closed that loophole by stipulating that if it was in an area where no planning permission would ever be granted under any circumstances then none would be granted.
The guy who built his wooden house in his own forrest was allowed because he demonstrated that he needed to be there for his management of the wood. However, only he can reside there and if he sells the wood he has to remove his house

 

[nic a char]

TAs I understand the situation, these huts are cheap holiday homes, not permanent dwellings.

 

[nic a char]

It used to be the case that if you built a "dwelling" and could prove that you had lived in it for 12yrs or more without any objections then you could apply for retrospective permission. However, I think they closed that loophole by stipulating that if it was in an area where no planning permission would ever be granted under any circumstances then none would be granted.
The guy who built his wooden house in his own forrest was allowed because he demonstrated that he needed to be there for his management of the wood. However, only he can reside there and if he sells the wood he has to remove his house

utterly SHOCKING imho!!!

 

[nic a char]

Useful Hemingway quote! I also like "never argue with fools"

 

[nic a char]

Y'all will have noticed woodlands for sale with the specific caveat NOT FOR LIVING IN... It's very difficult to live secretly in these islands.
Bilston SSSI outside Edinburgh had lots of people living there as a protest against bad development & didn't get much hassle - except from bossy site residents! Unfortunately their website was not regularly updated and I don't know the current situation.
There were many self-built tree-houses, benders, tents, immobile homes etc, a wee watermill powering laptops & mobiles, some VERY committed & skilled people,
as well as once-a-month open days/parties to publicise the protest.

 

[nic a char]

TAs I understand the situation, these huts are cheap holiday homes, not permanent dwellings.

 

[nic a char]

I don't know your personal circs, but if you built something moveable, and moved it frequently, and spent some nights at your own rented-out house to break up the 28 days, (even camping in your own house garden) you could have fun with the bureaucrats... You see farmers moving advertising trailers around their fields to beat planning regs and of course travellers move constantly for the same reasons.
The trouble with planners is:
1. they bring their own personal design ideologies to bear on issues, so you can get different decisions from different planners, re the same issue - which is NOT professional behaviour btw
2. they are obliged to deal with complaints, and are legitimately able to keep the complainer/s incognito. People LIKE complaining...

 

[Pete E]

We have a local farmer who is a bit of an eccentric to say the least. Over the years he seems to have been battling local Government and the Courts over a number of issues. The most recent I know of is his Car Boot sale..It seems farmers are allowed hold so many in a year after which it becomes a Sunday Market and subject a whole raft of additional regulations and red tape. This guy has got around the loop hole by holding X car boots sales on one field, and then his wife holds another X number of car boot sales in a near by field.

I obviously don't know the legal in and outs of the situation, but the op might look at whether he is better owning 4 x1.25acre woodland plots (all next to each other) rather than one 5 acre plot...he could then perhaps move between them..?

 

[widu13]

I understand the following is legally unchallenged (I don't know any more than that).

Split a plot of land into 14 pieces with separate titles and set it up so that no. 14 is an access land strip to the other 13 which is right of way to the remaining plots. The theory is that you can then lawfully remain for 28 days on each.

 

[Draven]

Wow, I had no idea that was so tight back in the UK. EDIT: of course, it's probably just as tight some places here in the US too

Anyone know the thought process behind these rules? As long as you're not endangering others, I can't think why it's an issue.

 

[Dark Horse Dave]

I read a book covering this and many other aspects of living off grid a while ago. I can't remember the detail but it might be worth getting hold of a copy:

How to live off grid by Tim Rosen

Lots of practical stuff in there, even a bit of bushcraft!

 

[Dave]

Buy a bit of woodland abroad, in a less stifling country, such as one of the scandinavian northern territories. You can get a summer cottage and land up there for £20k.

 

[boatman]

Seems a good idea to control development in woodlands and fields. We have several private allotment sites near us and imagine if the assorted huts on them were people's dwellings. One hut permanently lived in on 5 acres of woodland not much of a problem if any but multiply that by many and it would become one.

 

[Pete E]

Agree completely..there would not be much green space left in England if it weren't for the controls..Its the downside of approx 55million people living in an area about the size of Alabama