Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

application for planning permission for conversion into flats - how to best object.

Hi,

our neighbour has applied for planning permission to convert a 5 bed family home into 3 flats (2x 3 bed and 1 studio). He's currently working on the property and is currently building a 20m2 extension plus a 60m2 outbuilding under permitted development. The 3 flats do not include the outbuilding, but we've got the suspicion that he will find a way of renting it out.

We've had loads of issues with the landlord in the past. The house was overoccupied (17 people sharing with antisocial behaviour), issues with landlord's building works (unsafe removal of asbestos, putting his drainage on our land repeatedly until we got an injunction from the court, building site left unsecured etc etc) however he always a kind of managed to 'pull a fast one'.

We're in a conservation area and a family protection area. Our road (Summerhill Rd) is a historically renown road. The landlord argues that the house looks 'tired' and needs renovation, but in fact if looks far worse since the current landlord bought it (2 smashed windows that have been unsecured for ages, forecourt looks utterly disgusting sprewn with rubbish and building materials).

The landlord argues that by putting in a 'family unit' on the ground floor he fulfills the Family Protection Area requirement. Does anyone have experience with this? And what the minimum requirements are in regards to space? We couldn't find any clear guidance on the Haringey website. The 'Family Unit' contains 2 8m2 bedrooms and one double room. The bathroom is tiny - about 4m2 incl toilet.

The landlord also points out that only 12% of our road are houses in multiple occupancy and the council's target is to keep it under 20% (according to council tax records), so our road would be well under. In fact we've had loads of building of small flats recently, not just in our road but also behind us on Dorset Road. Is there any way we could check this (apart from counting)?

And would be occupier of the family unit with access to the garden be able to use the outbuilding to sleep in? It was created as a 'gym', but considering that the owner went through a lot of effort to put in water supply, the sheer size of it and the layout very much lets us think it has been built for residential use. We know he's not allowed to let it out separately, but letting it in conjunction with a flat might be a way around this.

We very much appreciate any advice how to best tackle this. Obviously we'll get as many neighbours together as possible to object.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on January 22, 2017 at 12:01

As you are in a conservation area some permitted development rights may not apply. You can see a guide to that here
http://www.haringey.gov.uk/planning-and-building-control/planning/p...

Below is some text from the Haringey website that might be helpful

Conversion of houses to flats

There are a number of considerations that the Planning department will make before granting permission for the conversion of a property into smaller flats, including impacts on neighbours, and the overall affect this might have on an area over time. Planning is concerned with ensuring that our towns and rural areas are designed in a functional way, and conversions of housing to flats can risk:
too many Houses of Multiple Occupation in one area, and reduce the number of family houses
adding pressure to local infrastructure (cumulatively, where lots of houses are converted into flats in one area)
These and other considerations are used to judge if an application will get planning permission or not. The decision will depend on the specific circumstances and planning history of an area, and as such it is difficult to provide general advice"

If you and your neighbours intend to object to the proposal you need to consider the issues outlined above as these will be material considerations taken into account when coming to a decision.

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Permalink Reply by Tina S on January 22, 2017 at 13:01

Hi, thanks. I saw above on the Haringey website. I think the landlord is trying to 'downplay' the impact, e.g. he indicates in the application that there will be sufficient space for 3 cars and 5 bikes and obviously the bins and I've got no idea how this shall work.

The permitted development has already been granted and the works on that are soon to be finished.

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Permalink Reply by 1vut8bf3om5m9 on January 22, 2017 at 12:47

I empathise and, although I don't work in this area of law I have tapped into my legal resource database. Per the other response there is likely an additional overlay because of the conservation aspect. But here are the grounds for objecting under the Town & Country Planning Act 1990. "LPA" means local planning authority, ie the council.

I think some of the grounds for objection below could be argued in your case.

On what grounds can an objection to a planning application be made?

When making a decision on a planning application the LPA must take into account a number of factors including material considerations.

Material considerations include matters such as:

Overshadowing.
Overlooking or loss of privacy.
Adequate parking and servicing.
Overbearing nature of proposal.
Loss of trees.
Loss of ecological habitats.
Design and appearance.
Layout and density of buildings.
Effect on listed buildings and conservation areas.
Access or highways safety.
Traffic generation.
Noise and disturbance from the proposed development.
Disturbance from smells.
Public visual amenity, but not loss of private individual’s view.
Flood risk.
Risk of creating a precedent

An alternative potential future use is capable of being a material consideration (Carroll v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and others [2016] EWHC 2462 (Admin);).

Factors which are not normally material considerations (and cannot usually be taken into account by the LPA) include:

Loss of value to individual property.
Loss of view.
Boundary disputes including encroachment of foundations and gutters.
Private covenants or agreements.
The applicant’s personal conduct or history.
The applicant’s motives.
Potential profit for the applicant or from the application.
Private rights to light.
Private rights of way.
Damage to property.
Disruption during any construction phase.
Loss of trade or competitors
Age, health, status, background, work patterns of the objector.
Time taken to do the work.
Capacity of private drains.
Building or structural techniques.
Alcohol or gaming licences.

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Permalink Reply by Tina S on January 23, 2017 at 6:58

Hi Knäuel, that's very useful, thanks. Do you know how many parking spaces are supposed to be provided for conversions? We read that in one of the Haringey policies that it would be I think 1 per 3bed flat and 0.33 for a one bed flat (studio was not mentioned). Does that sound right? And the width to be 2.4m ? I think we can tackle it best from the parking point. The yard is 8m wide, but I don't think it's possible to put 3 cars, 5 bikes and bins on there and then give disabled access - all with one dropped kerb.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on January 23, 2017 at 7:13

Tina, see point two of the supplementary planning guidance below. The default position is not to allow the creation of new parking.
http://www.haringey.gov.uk/sites/haringeygovuk/files/spg_1b_-_parki...

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Permalink Reply by Tina S on January 23, 2017 at 8:01

Thabks but the front yard is already hard surfacesd so he is not planning to do external changes, so I think this doesn't apply, does it?

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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on January 23, 2017 at 9:21

Sadly, yes

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Permalink Reply by JJ B on January 29, 2017 at 10:32

The house is down at the West Green rd end of Sumerhill road?

There a several rogue landlords and developers that know that Haringey is an 'easy touch' and have been 'preying on our neighbourhoods for some time now. There has no doubt been council 'ineptitude' and other stuff too! They get around they ignore the law and regulations by blatantly ignoring these until they can get retroactive planning permission.

It's one of my theories as to why the place had escaped gentrification to date really.

So you need to arm yourself with as much amunition as possible by getting councillors on board and as many neighbours as possible. Haringey Council has refused even permitted development in the past if a neighbour has objected on the right grounds. But the council is faced with such serious cuts that its has resorted to rationing its efforts.

You need to object using material grounds i.e specific national and local planning policy . Go through similar applications on the Council planning portal to see how these are applied by Haringey's planning officials and what grounds the Council has refused or accepted similar schemes and use the same arguments to strongly object. Get your councillors on board if they are so inclined. And as many neighbours as possible to make individual objections - NOT ONE GROUPED ONE as this will count as one objection.

And follow it up.