Converting garden shed to be lived in

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/

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

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

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

You don’t live in a home office …

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.)

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.

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

Councils DO inspect and place enforcement notices.

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

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

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?

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".