Do I Need Planning Permission To Sleep In A Garden Room?

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There's a few important words in the planning system of the Permitted Development Rights Order that you need to understand. The first one is the difference between 'ancillary' and 'incidental' accommodation. An incidental use is something that you wouldn't normally do in a house, for example a workshop, a swimming pool, an office. You wouldn't normally expect to do those things in a house necessarily, and so they are considered to be incidental to the enjoyment of the house.

Ancillary is an extension of the house, so you would normally sleep in a house and so to sleep in an outbuilding would render that structure as being an ancillary outbuilding rather than an incidental outbuilding. That difference may seem a bit nuanced, but it's really important, because only incidental uses are covered under permitted development rights in outbuildings.

So unless we're talking about folding out a sofa bed and occasionally someone sleeping, or a guest sleeping there. If we're talking about a building that was erected for the purpose of overnight accommodation in particular or something like an Airbnb type use, then that would require planning permission and it's a very common cause of enforcement inquiries which are typically reported by neighbours.

Obviously each case is assessed on its own merits. If you do come to make a planning application, how that outbuilding sits in relation to your house, whether it has a separate access, separate parking, if it has a kitchen in there, what other amenities are still used in the dwelling - all of those will have a bearing on whether or not that ancillary accommodation is acceptable to the council.

Those will all have a bearing on making a decision, but each case is assessed on its own merits. However bear in mind that around 90 percent of householder applications are approved, which should give you some confidence in going forward. But you should definitely be taking advice and you may well want to recruit the services of a chartered planning consultant to assist in the application.

And finally around sleeping in a garden building - you need to think about that reasonably necessary test. Even though the Permitted Development Order is pretty generous in allowing you to erect some pretty large structures - covering around half of your your plot minus the house - you should also bear in mind that there is a reasonably necessary test. There was a case in the courts of a gentleman who erected a 10,000 square foot leisure complex in his garden but that wasn't considered reasonably necessary.

That obviously doesn't answer the question about sleeping but should give you a picture around some of the key words that are necessary and to to be aware of in the regulations.

For more information, see our other videos featuring Planning Consultant Mark Doodes.

Recorded February 2023. This content does not constitute formal advice from New Garden Room Company or Mark Doodes Planning.