Trading with incorrect planning

[naffesa]

Hi i have been trading as a hot food business since 2010. I habe jsut recieved a letter from the department of environment confirming that my landloard does not have concent for hot food and now i need to vacate the property in 3 months. My lease is not due to expire until 2020. Can i take legal action against my landlord?

 

[Socio South West]

That all sounds very incorrect!

1) A Planning Enforcement notice would NOT be served by the Dept of the Environment
2) You would have had a visit from the Local Council Enforcement officers before any enforcement notice was served
3) An enforcement notice would not tell you that you should vacate the property - it would merely instruct you to cease activities not compliant with the Planning Classification.
4) An eviction notice for breach of lease would usually be served by the Landlord or his solicitor - the Dept of Environment would certainly not be involved.

Was a solicitor involved with your lease? They should have checked the Planning classification as part of the legal work, and advised you of it.

If you have correctly understood the letter and repeated it as above, it sounds more like some small minded person is attempting to harass you: Keep the letter as evidence should this be the start of a campaign of destabilization aimed at your business.

 

[naffesa]

Hi yes sorry i worded it wrong in that sence that yes they have asked us to stop trading in this business. And this is the only nature of business that i know. Yes there was a solicitor involved so i am very upset and concerned about what will now happen. Can i go on to sue the solicitor and/or landlord for incorrect information and the incovenience we have been faced with? This business was our livelihood.

 

[wispafish]

Dont stop trading just yet, Submit a planning application for change of use. The chances are you have just received a letter and not an actual enforcement notice. Councils planning enforcement officers are under so much pressure at the moment due to cutbacks they cant actually take people to court due to cost. So they give people a chance to submit retrospective applications, if it goes through then fine but worst case scenario is it doesnt and you then have to appeal. This takes time and in that time just continue trading.

 

[ethical PR]

OP when you took on the premises did you check to see it had the right planning permission for the activities you wanted to carry out?

Speak to your solicitor about the situation.

 

[Socio South West]

Hi yes sorry i worded it wrong in that sence that yes they have asked us to stop trading in this business. And this is the only nature of business that i know. Yes there was a solicitor involved so i am very upset and concerned about what will now happen. Can i go on to sue the solicitor and/or landlord for incorrect information and the incovenience we have been faced with? This business was our livelihood.

Dont get too excited about sueing anyone just yet... As Wispafish said, keep trading and sort this out: The first things to do are to find out from your local council what classification is on the premises and check your lease and see what that says. It may contain clauses relating to applications for change of use that will be relevant.

You have some time.... but you need to get moving on this.

If you don't feel confident tackling this yourself, get someone, such as an independent Planning Consultant, to look at it for you and advise you - it may be the best money you spend.

 

[ThePublisher]

A car wash local to me has no planning permission. They traded for a while before anybody noticed. Then they were told they needed permission, so they applied. Then they withdrew their application. I think this has been about buying themselves time. So far nothing has happened to stop them trading, they've been there about 4 years so far. These things can grind on for a good while if you know how to play the system and the council have better things to occupy themselves with. I think it could be a different situation if somebody had complained about them but that doesn't appear to be so.

 

[DavidJohn]

You shouldn't be thinking about suing anyone until you know what's going on. Pick up the phone and speak to people - solicitor, landlord etc. For every problem there's a solution. Keep your cool and find out the facts!