Couple who disguised their £500,000 home as a hay barn to outwit planners face eviction

Published 21st Apr 2009

A couple who disguised their £500,000 home as a hay barn in a bid to outwit planners face eviction.

Property developer Alan Beesley and his wife Sarah were granted permission to build a barn for agricultural use only but fitted it out as a luxury two-storey house.

From the outside, the property looks like any other hay barn with a curved roof, no windows, and surrounded by farmyard machinery.

But inside it was equipped with three bedrooms, a study, bathroom, lounge, reception area, utility space, storeroom and even a gym.

The couple had planned to rely on a legal loophole which grants immunity from eviction to homeowners who have lived in a property for more than four years - even if they failed to obtain the correct planning permission.

But following years of legal wrangling, the case was brought to the High Court in London where their scheme was branded a 'fraud'.

Mr Justice Andrew Collins has now given council officials the green light to decide whether or not they want to evict the pair from the property in Northaw Brook Meadow near Potter's Bar, Hertfordshire.

The saga began in 2001 when the Beesleys were granted planning permission by Welwyn and Hatfield Borough Council to build a barn for agricultural use only.

But they tried to trick planners by building a barn's shell and transforming its interior into a luxury home - worth £500,000 on north London's wealthy commuter belt.
Northaw Brook Meadow barn

Mr Beesley, 38, and his 35-year-old wife moved into the completed property in 2003 and applied for a 'certificate of lawfulness' that would make their secret residence legal four years later.

That was refused in August 2007 but a Government planning inspector upheld their appeal in July last year and ruled that they were entitled to stay at the property.

But at the High Court earlier this month, Mr Justice Collins overturned the planning inspectorate's decision, saying the pair had simply intended to take advantage of the four-year rule.

He said: 'It seems to me that the four-year protection does not apply in the circumstances of this case.

'Otherwise Mr Beesley would have got away with a plot to get around the planning laws and obtain a dwelling house in breach of Green Belt policies, a development he would never have been able to achieve if he had gone about things in an honest fashion.'

The hearing on April 7 heard that Mr Beesley admitted to a planning inspector that he had always intended to live in the building.

Mr Justice Collins ordered the Government to pay a third of the council's legal costs.

But on Monday Mr Beesley, 38, remained undaunted by the defeat - and vowed to lodge another appeal within the next eight weeks.

He said: 'We will submit another application and just move on to Plan B as I understand the planning inspector's decision was overturned on a tiny technicality.

'This is a very political issue for the local authority and obviously I don't want to rub their faces in it.

'It has taken us seven years to get this far so we are not giving up hope yet. It was a bit of a surprise when the decision was overturned in the High Court.'

The couple are still living in the house - to the surprise of other residents living nearby.

One neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said: 'I am shocked there is a house down there. I thought they just kept horses in the fields.

'I have been here two years but all you ever see is lights in winter sometimes when they go to feed the animals.

'You can't even see the barn from the road. It's incredible to think there's been a house there all this time.'

A spokesman for Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council spokesman said the council was delighted with the judge's decision.

He said: 'We are very pleased with the High Court ruling. The owner created a home within a barn to avoid the council taking planning enforcement action.

'Such deliberate breaches of planning are taken very seriously. We are awaiting the response of the Planning Inspectorate.'

Source: ' Daily Mail '

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