Part of the barn/shed building at The Paddock, Magpie Hall Road, Stubbs Cross, ASHFORD, Kent, TN26 1HF

Authority: Ashford Borough Council
Appeal type: enforcement · Enforcement Notice
Procedure: Inquiry
Development: residential · Minor Dwellings
Inspector: Steen A

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

whether the barn was occupied as a single dwellinghouse, separate from the bungalow, at or before the time the notice was issued

What decided it

The appellant's evidence, given on affirmation and supported by witnesses and photographs, established on the balance of probability that the barn had been continuously occupied as a separate dwellinghouse since 2014, more than four years before the enforcement notice was issued, so the breach was immune from enforcement action.

Judgments cited: Valentina of London v SSE & Islington LBC [1992] JPL 1151

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