Converting garden shed to be lived in

I'm considering converting a block built garden shed to be "lived in". I'm not planning on being a slumlord, but will be using it mainly for a home office. It's plumbed and wired already.

I'm very much at the planning stages, especially around costs to install windows in the brick wall and any planning requirements. Is there a guide for dummies as to the steps necessary to ensure it's all above board?

Back Home

There are certain rules you must follow when building a garage or shed. They must not be:

• Lived in
• Used for commercial purposes
• Used for keeping pigs, poultry, pigeons, ponies or horses

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/planning-permission/planning-permission-for-altering-a-house/

dennyk

If the shed itself already has planning permission or falls under the exemption guidelines and you aren't doing anything to it that would violate the original permission or cause it to exceed the guidelines (e.g. extending it, adding a second floor or otherwise raising the height of the roof, etc.), you should be grand. You most likely wouldn't need planning permission to add windows to it, as long as those windows face your own garden and aren't overlooking your neighbours. If it's not going to be used for habitation (i.e. no one will be residing in it or using it as a bedroom), then there's no material change of use, so no need for planning permission in that respect either; from a planning perspective, using your shed as a personal office or studio is no different than using it for storage.

user060916

Surely it's possible to get planning to convert it to be lived in?

I know if I don't live in it I can install the windows and doors without planning

Back Home

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120726086#Comment_120726086

Its not possible.

dennyk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120726086#Comment_120726086

It's theoretically possible, but the chances are slim to none that planning permission would be granted.

Back Home

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120726395#Comment_120726395

the chances are none. It is not allowed in Ireland

arctictree

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120726077#Comment_120726077

I seriously doubt if anyone applies for pp to keep a few hens or pigeons in a shed.

RichardAnd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120726730#Comment_120726730

If the shed is already there, could one not just modify it for personal use? A few years ago, my mom's neighbour (who is a builder) extended a brick shed in his garden to make a habitable unit. I know for a fact that he had no planning permission, but the unit is still there ten years later. I've been in it once, and it's a fine little build.

ted1

You don’t live in a home office …

Murph85

Many people do it, it won't be legal if it has a bathroom and kitchen. I know a few people that have done it and have gotten away with it for years. Depends on your appetite for risk and how much it will cost... what size is the garage currently?

Peregrinus

The issue is not so much the physical changes that might be done; it's the change of use — change of use of land or buildings is a development that requires planning permission, unless its exempt. A change from use as a garden shed to use as a dwelling is not exempt; it needs planning permission, which is very unlikely to be given.

(Enforcement is another matter; if you do it up and start sleeping in it, probably nobody will object and nothing will be done to stop you. But don't assume that you can, e.g., move your cousin in, or start letting it out on Air BnB, or whatever. And when you come to sell the house the limited use that can properly be made of the shed may mean that you don't recover the money you spent doing it up in an uplift to the sale price — what you're selling is a a house with a massively overspecced garden shed, not a house with ancillary guest cottage.)

Yellow_Fern

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120726086#Comment_120726086

Sadly we live in an overregulated country. They will break the rules for refugees and people pretending to be refugees but in your own garden for personal use, basically impossible. Property rights are not strong enough in this country.

DownByTheGarden

Ive seen people build sheds or cabins to live in in gardens all over the place over the years.

Some gardens even have a couple of them. One for each child.

The very best one ive ever seen though is about 20 years ago a friend from college built a whole house (2 bedrooms, an office, living room, kitchen, broadband, electricity, plumbed, heating etc) inside his fathers shed on the farm. He has since moved out and his younger brother lives in it now.

It has insulation and a galvanised roof and plasterboard walls. No cladding bar plywood over rockwool, so it wouldnt stand up to the rain if it was outside. But its all inulated and you couldnt tell the difference once you enter the front door apart from only a view of the inside of a giant shed out the windows.

If I was looking for somehwhere to live id be happy to live in it.

DownByTheGarden

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120733489#Comment_120733489

I'll go further than that and say that of all the ones i know of who have done it not even one has had any issues from the authorities so far. And thats going back more than 20 years.

herbalplants

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120733704#Comment_120733704

Well said... The regulations imposed on the tax payers.

RichardAnd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120733724#Comment_120733724

That sounds class!

endofrainbow

Councils DO inspect and place enforcement notices.

https://evoke.ie/2023/06/16/news/irish-news/donabate-beach-shack

Murph85

That donabate one was put up daft... the media then had a field day with it...

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120726080#Comment_120726080

Funny enough, sheds don’t have limits on windows facing the adjoining gardens like extensions do. So for example, an extension needs 1m from the boundary it faces for a window, but a shed can have a window closer.

Agree with everything else.

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120726086#Comment_120726086

Nope, not possible to sleep in.

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120733489#Comment_120733489

Bathroom is irrelevant. It’s the sleeping use that’s prohibited.

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120736138#Comment_120736138

It’s worth noting, they will only inspect and issue an S152 warning if they receive a complaint. They don’t go out looking for these.

Ginger83

They are all over the country. I know people who live in garden cabins, converted garages and mobile homes without planning.

99.9% are never bothered

Toby22

Hi, I moved into my current home over 20 years ago. All houses in the estate had varying sizes of concrete sheds built, I don’t know if that was an option given at the time, 1970 build. Anyway shed was converted to a studio apartment and eldest son of the family lived there. If it’s a family member I don’t see an issue. I use it as a shed currently but can see it being reconverted to a studio soon if adult children don’t move on 🤫. No one outside family will ever know

DownByTheGarden

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120736138#Comment_120736138

There are a lot more than that one in Donabate. I suspect the only reason that one was inspected and asked to be removed is because it is falling down. Why have all the other ones all around it not been inspected?

DubCount

"ah sure it'll be grand" .... why bother to have planning laws, minimum standards on housing etc?

DownByTheGarden

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120737983#Comment_120737983

Clearly nobody is bothered. If they were you would see the thousands of theses sheds and cabins around the country removed.

I can tell you for certain that one of our neighbours who reports everything they see to the council has been reporting the dozens of "garden homes" around here for years.

There is even less chance of being told to knock one of these down than there is of having a house repossessed in Ireland.

We were in a place in Blessington selling them just for a nose. I asked about what planning permission was needed for these and the guy said "Strictly you need planning permission, but there is a dont ask dont tell policy about them so dont even apply".