Article 4 fee is a money grabbing exercise

Article 4 fee is a money grabbing exercise

15:25 PM, 12th March 2018, About 6 years ago 2

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The National Landlords Association (NLA) is calling for the Government to repeal the fee that councils can now charge when an Article 4 Direction has been implemented.

Article 4 Directions removing permitted development rights in specific areas can be actioned by local authorities so anyone, including homeowners, wanting to change the use of a property or make alterations would need to apply for planning permission. According to the Government, these are put in place in certain limited situations where it is necessary to protect local amenity or the wellbeing of an area.

In December last year, an amendment was made to the Town and Country Planning Acts to allow local authorities to charge a £462 fee to anyone applying for planning permission to make alterations to their property where permitted development rights have been withdrawn. This amendment was not widely publicised and is only applicable where an Article 4 Direction is in place.

Alterations that would need planning permission could include adding a conservatory, an extension or a porch. It also means that a landlord wishing to convert a property to or from a house in multiple occupation (HMO) will need to apply for permission and pay the fee. However, this does not guarantee a successful application.

In areas where there are no Article 4 Directions, planning permission is not required.

Richard Lambert, CEO of the NLA said:

“Article 4 Directions have long been a bugbear for landlords wanting the ability to change the structure of their portfolios. The introduction of the fee is nothing more than another revenue generating exercise. Councils are effectively removing permission and then charging people to get it back.

“This will not result in shared properties reverting back to family use, as councillors repeatedly say when introducing Article 4 Directions.  It’s more likely that the existing tenures will be set in stone, as HMO landlords won’t let to a single family if it means losing the option to go back to letting to sharers later on.”

The NLA’s podcast discusses this issue in greater detail and is available to listen to at http://insideproperty.org.uk/.


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Comments

Mike

12:21 PM, 13th March 2018, About 6 years ago

This is shear stupidity, it is like saying if you qualify as a HGV driver then you cannot drive cars. Truly speaking something is just not right with our law makers, if a dwelling has been given planning permission to be used as an HMO, then there should be no need for it to be changed into a single family unit assuming a family wants to move in instead of individual, our system needs overhauling, we need a leader who is like UK's Donald Trump .

Paul Shears

22:43 PM, 21st July 2019, About 5 years ago

I have just been informed that the idiot home owner across the entire city of Winchester (If you can actually believe this) want to introduce an Article 4 restriction across the entire city.
This impacts on a current major investment that I have here.
Has anyone ant idea of how this nonsense can effectively be opposed?

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