Unauthorised Development Question

Yeah right

And some people are going to believe this garbage post.

Geometric shapes are picked up in aerial photography,

Considering I know somebody actively doing similar in rural Kilkenny would leave me to believe that this poster could well be genuine. In that case there's a cluster of farm buildings among which he's building a 200sq m new house, it's well nestled and can't be seen from any public road, or adjacent private road.

I suppose drone photography would show this up fairly quickly however.

If it is genuine, then check out the case in navan. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/high-court/couple-in-legal-saga-over-house-built-without-planning-permission-agree-to-leave-in-2022-1.4363965

Enforcement Officers within Planning Authorities have powers of entry which gives them the right to enter your property without consent for the purposes of carrying out their job.

More and more local authorities are not utilising drone footage for the purposes of inspecting unauthorised developments.

Ordnance Survey Ireland flyovers will also pick up the shape of the building when surveying and this will be included on future mapping as well as GeoHive aerial imaging.

What are you doing for an ESB or water connection? Both ESB and Irish Water will request a planning reference number before connecting your property as far as I'm aware.

They don't need to. They use Google Earth imagery, but the high resolution commercial version.

I agree and I also know people not a million miles from me who built without permission, in one case evidence produced included Google maps footage, taken in 2008/9, clearly showing no dwellings from the road that ran along side the site in question, it was a log cabin structure which I thought looked lovely but eventually it was removed at enormous expense including legal fee's. Seperately, it also occured to me that the land registry maps are pretty up to date, albeit I noticed when searching my Folio, site it still shows a structure, which was infact a mobile home I had in situ during restorations of my cottage, the mobile home long gone and removed in 2012.

There's numerous ways to identify existing or non existing structures on land or sites.

Honestly it's really not wise to contemplate building without permission, this 7 year rule is a nonsense and anyone depending on it to retain an unauthorised dwelling won't find much sympathy in the courts I'm afraid.

Land Direct mapping is based on Ordnance Survey mapping. OS might not survey some rural areas that often (some OS maps have complete housing estates missing from them). The next time they survey, it should update the fact that the mobile home is long since removed.

I think some of the most recent surveys being done were Geological Survey Ireland surveys. It may well have been OSI though.

Yes, the original Google Streetview imagery was captured around 2008/2009. A lot of rural areas haven't been updated since but most major towns would be done very 3-4 years. I can go onto google maps and look at the imagery from my local town from 2008, 2011, 2015 etc

How do you have an Eircode? Are you sure it’s not for a different property? understood they were only assigned through the pre-planning and planning processes.

One question why did you do it? Why didnt you just apply for planning permission and see what happened? You may have got planning. Thats a fairly large house you built and it wont be unnoticle despite how well you think its hidden. I do sincerely hope you get to enjoy a long life living there but you will always risk someone realising you didnt adhere to planning and will report you. Believe me it could be one of your closest friends that does it.

Just on 7 year rule, I am aware of a bungalow that was developed without planning here in Roscommon near Athlone, that had to be knocked when the land was sold after the owner died. The sale didn't go through until all buildings were gone. However the foundations remain. The house had been standing for over 13 years with no action by council, despite complaints by neighbours of it being built illegally. 3 planning requests were turned down by council. And the land/site had at least 3 buyers and eventually sold at half its valuation... I'd say because development potential has been wrecked.

Anticipated what ?

The OP three hundreds of thousands of money into a building that now has no value.

He defrauded the state via claiming for this through his company.

He can't get house insurance and he can't sell it.

As he put it he was always going to build without permission.

The OP clearly has funds and means and could have purchased a house anywhere or built within the existing processes but he's better than everyone else it seems.

Personally I hope he's found out and the book is thrown at him. There's nothing cynical about it it's classic self interest.

I'm sure his neighbours think he's great , what about when he decides he's got away with this and looks to extend more or make a bit of wedge building more to sell. Where does it end....

Your car insurance is invalid, given that you are being untruthful about your actual home address.

is there a risk that Revenue makes the connection between the house and the company books?

on top of this, i thought the demolition cost was at the owners expense. Is it correct?

it may be cost neutral for house cost versus rent but the 2 points above could make it costly overall.

Has to be a troll. The sort of person who does something so brazen is generally not the sort of person who would become concerned enough to ask advice from strangers on the internet. This ticks several boxes for a windup - large house, no planning, no insurance, potentially dodgy tax, architect knew there was no planning. Come on!

If it is genuine what I'll say is the Councils are an under resourced shambles. When it come to enforcement they react to complaints and are often inept even at that. BTW complaints will often come from relatives. If I had built that house I would be constantly on the defensive about not drawing attention to myself and wouldn't trust anyone, no matter how friendly they might seem, not to report me.

Regarding drones, every so often I hear scare stories about helicopters, planes and drones flying over the countryside being used to catch people for various transgressions such as planning and "pollution", While there may be a very limited amount of proactive use of drones, much more likely that if one is used (which is still unlikley).it would be for an initial aerial survey after a complaint or incident. And yes they do have the right to fly over anyone's land taking pictures of unauthorised developments etc.

You are rationalising the decision to drive without insurance, in order to allow you to breach planning laws for your own financial gain. That is fairly anti-social behaviour.

Your questions about drones or compliance activity are meaningless. It doesn't matter what actions the Council take today. The real question is what actions the Council will take in five years time. Unless someone has a crystal ball or a time machine, they won't be able to answer the question.

There's also a good chance that you will trigger an exception in some Revenue report, when they compare your declared income to your outgoings. You're choosing to build your family home on very flimsy legal and financial foundations.

Lots of people use parents address as home address & might not live there full time. Also students who live in digs can have different addresses, people live part time with partners, holiday homes, living in hotels for job etc. How is the insurance invalid?

i have a friend that did same, cant remember what year it was but I think he's past the 7 years now. It just becomes a house that has no value except as a home that you cant sell except with out the purchaser needing credit and there are issues as the property doesn't have a folio but you can just transfer the land and the house is sorta there. Obviously rural `probably near enough to you. We have proof of the building in the form of detailed photos and video and google maps images all emailed with time stamp and i think he even got some legal stuff on it as well.

I think OP is only concerned that council will make him knock it after it's built. That is definitely the case in a case in meath and there was a house in kerry that was demolished in an area of scenic beauty a few years back. My experience of roscommon coco is that they are super slow to get things demolished that have no planning. IMHO chances of council making you knock it are low in near term, but are very high long term.

There's definitely problems for mortgage access and house insurance without planning.

But in mean time I don't see any reason why you can't get an eircode and OP can regularise his tax affairs with revenue in terms of income tax on the "drawings" and pay property tax when new tax is rolled out this year. Then use it for car insurance and be fully legal from day 1. He'll be paying electricity and bin charges from day 1, so he'll have proof for "7 year" reason...

And on the "7 year" rule I think we've established that it will have little significance when it comes to the building eventually being dealt with by the council.