Full Version: Brilliant property scheme that didn't quite work
QUOTE
Amidst a veil of astonishing secrecy, Graham Head spent six years covertly constructing a three-bedroom bungalow camouflaged by carefully placed straw bales.
In a bid to avoid having to get planning permission, his hope was that he could keep the home hidden for so long that the council would have to approve it - even though he was building it on green belt land.
It was a plot that, to his dismay, was to ruin his marriage and leave him facing the prospect of knocking the entire £300,000 construction down.
Head has been ordered to pull down the £300,000 structure
Yesterday stud farmer Mr Head told of his disappointment after his local council ordered him to tear it down. He claims his bungalow improves the area and is "devastated" by the decision.
"This is terrible news," he said.
"I don't know where I am going to live now.
"I think it is disgusting how the council has treated me. They have tried to ruin my life.
"My bungalow is not hurting anyone and I find it hard to understand that they would not like someone like me living on the site.
"It is government policy at the moment to encourage equestrian breeding in the countryside.
"They are trying to encourage it and yet the council have given me a hard time because they don't want me and the business up here."
Mr Head bought the farmland in the picturesque North Downs in Surrey in 1998.
However, it had no farmhouse and was situated in the protected green belt and was deisgnated an area of outstanding natural beauty.
Fearing strict planning guidelines would prevent him from constructing a new home, Mr Head decided to go ahead and build one without permission.
As the three-bedroom bungalow took shape, he went to extraordinary lengths to keep it a secret.
The foundations of the home were built under an open barn and he used huge piles of straw bales to hide it from passers by. He and his wife used a secret entrance through the bales to get in and out.
Mr Head had hoped to live in the finished bungalow on Ranmore Common near Dorking for four years without being detected.
But neighbours and regular walkers began to suspect that a house was hidden behind the straw and got in touch with the local council.
What followed was a protracted planning dispute between Mr Head and Mole Valley District Council.
In June 2004 the farmer applied for a 'certificate of lawfulness' application, claiming he had lived in the completed bungalow for four years since buying the land in 1998, and should therefore be allowed to keep the house.
But the council rejected his application and ordered the building to be demolished because its construction had never been given planning permission.
The farmer appealed, but this was dismissed after a public inquiry in 2005.
Last week he appealed again, but once more the council refused to grant him permission and ordered the home to be destroyed within six week.
Councillor Neil Maltby, who helped local residents fight Mr Head's applications, described the council's decision as a victory for rural England.
"Mr Head built the bungalow without planning permission in one of the most sensitive areas in the country," he said.
"It is part of the greenbelt, an area of outstanding natural beauty and of great landscape value.
"He knew that he would never be able to get planning permission so he deliberately deceived us. If the council did not take a strong stand against people like him then there would be no more greenbelt left."
During the long-running dispute, Mr Head's wife grew tired of the continuous sneaking around and this led to their break-up.
Planning bosses have threatened to apply to the High Court for an injunction to knock the building down themselves if Mr Head refuses to cooperate.
A spokesman for Mull Valley District Council said: "The owner has made three attempts to retain the bungalow and all have failed.
"The unauthorised bungalow must now be demolished. The council works very hard to protect its greenbelt and will not tolerate breaches of planning control."
In a bid to avoid having to get planning permission, his hope was that he could keep the home hidden for so long that the council would have to approve it - even though he was building it on green belt land.
It was a plot that, to his dismay, was to ruin his marriage and leave him facing the prospect of knocking the entire £300,000 construction down.
Head has been ordered to pull down the £300,000 structure
Yesterday stud farmer Mr Head told of his disappointment after his local council ordered him to tear it down. He claims his bungalow improves the area and is "devastated" by the decision.
"This is terrible news," he said.
"I don't know where I am going to live now.
"I think it is disgusting how the council has treated me. They have tried to ruin my life.
"My bungalow is not hurting anyone and I find it hard to understand that they would not like someone like me living on the site.
"It is government policy at the moment to encourage equestrian breeding in the countryside.
"They are trying to encourage it and yet the council have given me a hard time because they don't want me and the business up here."
Mr Head bought the farmland in the picturesque North Downs in Surrey in 1998.
However, it had no farmhouse and was situated in the protected green belt and was deisgnated an area of outstanding natural beauty.
Fearing strict planning guidelines would prevent him from constructing a new home, Mr Head decided to go ahead and build one without permission.
As the three-bedroom bungalow took shape, he went to extraordinary lengths to keep it a secret.
The foundations of the home were built under an open barn and he used huge piles of straw bales to hide it from passers by. He and his wife used a secret entrance through the bales to get in and out.
Mr Head had hoped to live in the finished bungalow on Ranmore Common near Dorking for four years without being detected.
But neighbours and regular walkers began to suspect that a house was hidden behind the straw and got in touch with the local council.
What followed was a protracted planning dispute between Mr Head and Mole Valley District Council.
In June 2004 the farmer applied for a 'certificate of lawfulness' application, claiming he had lived in the completed bungalow for four years since buying the land in 1998, and should therefore be allowed to keep the house.
But the council rejected his application and ordered the building to be demolished because its construction had never been given planning permission.
The farmer appealed, but this was dismissed after a public inquiry in 2005.
Last week he appealed again, but once more the council refused to grant him permission and ordered the home to be destroyed within six week.
Councillor Neil Maltby, who helped local residents fight Mr Head's applications, described the council's decision as a victory for rural England.
"Mr Head built the bungalow without planning permission in one of the most sensitive areas in the country," he said.
"It is part of the greenbelt, an area of outstanding natural beauty and of great landscape value.
"He knew that he would never be able to get planning permission so he deliberately deceived us. If the council did not take a strong stand against people like him then there would be no more greenbelt left."
During the long-running dispute, Mr Head's wife grew tired of the continuous sneaking around and this led to their break-up.
Planning bosses have threatened to apply to the High Court for an injunction to knock the building down themselves if Mr Head refuses to cooperate.
A spokesman for Mull Valley District Council said: "The owner has made three attempts to retain the bungalow and all have failed.
"The unauthorised bungalow must now be demolished. The council works very hard to protect its greenbelt and will not tolerate breaches of planning control."
Such a deal! The damn gov't will make the poor guy tear a finished house down!
He should have had a bigger barn!
I did in fact build my whole homestead without a single permit and got away with it. The tax man usually leaves post cards about a half mile away, asking folks for updated information. Seems he doesn't like to get shot at!
Finally, last year the feller did drive up. My wife met the guy, wearing her big Glock on a low slung gun belt around her hips. She said the guy just wouldn't get out of his truck and kept staring at the gun!
But he did say " yer gonna have to pay for this place now!"
Good thing I wasn't there, I may have shot him dead on the spot when he said that!
I mean when did we, a free people, decide the become slaves?
Why do we let "Them" get away with such crap? Doesn't it make your blood boil? Am I the last feller on the planet that feels this way? Sometimes I think so.
I generally meet with noting but compliance, excuses, and apathy everywhere I go!
Anyway, before I built my cottage, I was talking to a feller who was the maintenance man for a small near by town. I noticed that the towns "city hall" ( a single wide trailer ) had been burned down, along with an old cop car.
The guy said noting was proven, but everyone was sure it was torched by a local pissed off about property taxes, permits and regulations.
I complained that I feared a big battle getting a permit to build a straw cottage, even in a rural area.
They guy told me to just go and build whatever I wanted to. He said it was always easier to beg forgiveness later, then beg permission from our overlords before the fact. He was right!
If you build, just do it out of sight of the road. Get moved in as fast as you can, and in most places of rural america, they will just add you to the tax rolls and let it go at that, so long as you don't fool with "wet lands" and other crap like that.
I wanted to build a shack on our place when we bought so that we could get up out of the ticks.
Ozarks?
I called the court house to ask what building code to follow.......
BOCA?
UBC?
Whatever?
The babe at the courthouse says "What's a building code?"
Get outa town as soon as possible.
Yessir How High
Ozarks?
I called the court house to ask what building code to follow.......
BOCA?
UBC?
Whatever?
The babe at the courthouse says "What's a building code?"
Get outa town as soon as possible.
Yessir How High
Same here. We don't have no stinking building codes out in rural unincorporated areas. There is always the threat of the tax man discovering you and making you pay, though. But here in Texas, the tax man cannot legally go through a locked gate. So if you decide to build guerrilla-style, just put it out of sight and slap a big padlock on the front gate. The only way they'll be able to find it is from the air.
I'm with ya, big guy! The very idea that the government (i.e. your fellow nosy/greedy citizens) can charge you a tax, and take your property away for refusing to pay it, sickens me. At the very core level, it is a violation of property rights. We do not own our property as long as it can be taken away for refusal to pay a tax. All that means is that we are RENTING our property from our fellow citizens. And with 'eminent domain', they even reserve themselves the right to take it from you for no reason at all, except that they think it's in the public good.
And the only recourse you have against it is to go out shooting. You will most certainly die or be thrown in prison for having the gall to defend your property rights.
Humans suck.
QUOTE
I mean when did we, a free people, decide the become slaves?
Why do we let "Them" get away with such crap? Doesn't it make your blood boil? Am I the last feller on the planet that feels this way? Sometimes I think so.
I generally meet with noting but compliance, excuses, and apathy everywhere I go!
Why do we let "Them" get away with such crap? Doesn't it make your blood boil? Am I the last feller on the planet that feels this way? Sometimes I think so.
I generally meet with noting but compliance, excuses, and apathy everywhere I go!
I'm with ya, big guy! The very idea that the government (i.e. your fellow nosy/greedy citizens) can charge you a tax, and take your property away for refusing to pay it, sickens me. At the very core level, it is a violation of property rights. We do not own our property as long as it can be taken away for refusal to pay a tax. All that means is that we are RENTING our property from our fellow citizens. And with 'eminent domain', they even reserve themselves the right to take it from you for no reason at all, except that they think it's in the public good.
And the only recourse you have against it is to go out shooting. You will most certainly die or be thrown in prison for having the gall to defend your property rights.
Humans suck.
i did have violent thoughts a few months ago when i paid my property 'rent' to the machine for my home.
it may be a while before i can fully break with the city life completely, mainly because of children and work.
bob, i've never heard you mention it, but do you have kids? are you and heidi 'empty-nesters'? i'd really like to hear about how you made the transition to your current lifestyle and location. you're also a very lucky man to have a woman willing to do what you two have done. i'll be able to get my wife out to the country, but off the grid? at least i have some time to work on her. i've managed to turn her into quite the budding libertarian, although she does still hold onto a lot of the feel-good, socialism that was ingrained in her . . . .
frye
it may be a while before i can fully break with the city life completely, mainly because of children and work.
bob, i've never heard you mention it, but do you have kids? are you and heidi 'empty-nesters'? i'd really like to hear about how you made the transition to your current lifestyle and location. you're also a very lucky man to have a woman willing to do what you two have done. i'll be able to get my wife out to the country, but off the grid?
at least i have some time to work on her. i've managed to turn her into quite the budding libertarian, although she does still hold onto a lot of the feel-good, socialism that was ingrained in her . . . .frye
No Fryeg, we don't have any children.
Neither of us ever wanted any. The planet is getting just to durn filled up for my tastes. We do have uh, a dozen of more nieces and nephews.
We're the cool aunt and uncle who let the kids run around in the woods like little Indians, shoot guns, play with knives, build camp fires, forage for wild edibles, all that neat stuff.
When we've had enough kids for the time being, we send 'em home!
This way we get to spoil 'em and tweak their little brains, then send them away so we can enjoy the peace and quiet.
How did I make the transition? I dunno, we just did it!
I had been planning on moving up into the woods for a few years before I was married. I even bought a used travel trailer to live in when I happened upon a good deal.
I think the primary motivation for me was that I knew the only way I'd ever own a house was to build one myself. I am just to durn cheap to pay hundreds of thousand of dollars for a tacky frame dwelling, and I am just the kind of guy who simply could never sign onto such a huge debt like a twenty year mortgage. It would make me feel like a slave, and I would forever worry about paying off this huge millstone around my neck.
I don't want to be any kind of slave, even a wage slave.
Before we were married, Heidi and I talked over the kind of life style we would like to have together.
She was all for moving out into the woods. I don't think she really thought much about the full implications. The subject of living off grid never even came up.
She was just 18 when we married. As a teenager, she still Knew Everything.
This was a good thing because it gave her unbounded confidence. She never once looked back.
It's all us grownups that lack confidence in our own abilities to do something different.
She grew up pretty far back in the hills. They don't have phone lines up there, but they do have power. Most of the time.
She was used to the isolation, and the woods. I'm the ex-city slicker in the family!
When we bought the property, it was Heidi who was very impatient to move there.
I even did delay the move one year. We got the land in the fall one year and just managed to get the trailer up before the real snow hit.
That winter we drove up to visit from time to time. First time, we made it twenty feet from the truck. The very next visit, we came back with snow shoes and made it the 1/2 mile up to the trailer!
Spring came, and I did manage to gut the trailer and make it livable by putting in a wood stove, removing the useless bathroom, building a real bed inside, and building a shed roof over everything.
But we didn't move in that year. I was very busy at work all summer and all my spare time went into rebuilding her fathers old international td-18a dozer. We were gonna do our excavating with this huge old monster. ( I did give up on it eventually and hire someone to do the excavating )
Winter came and went. Spring came, and just as soon as the snows were melted off enough to drive up, Heidi insisted we get rid of our apartment and move up to the land.
But we'd just wrecked our new Toyota 4x4! This left us with an old 400 dollar junker toyota two wheel drive pickup!
I was even making noise about living in town while we built the foundation and so forth.
But Heidi practically grabbed me by the ear and dragged me up!
So up we went. The snows were still melting off and we had a stream running under the trailer!
The long commute was the first thing I had to adjust to.
The fact that I could no longer work long hours ( sometimes 24 hours straight! ) was the first thing my boss had to adjust to!
But we didn't mind living in the trailer one bit. Sure we didn't have electricity, but who needs it?
We had a propane fridge in the camper, and a good propane range.
For lights we had candles ( my wife is the biggest candle bug ever! ) and kerosene lamps.
We had a shower rigged up outside and an outhouse.
We had limitless warmth from our wood stove. The well with a hand pump on it was twenty feet away from the trailer.
We had a .22 rifle, a .45 automatic, and a Mosin M44. What more can two people want?
We look back at the year and a half that we lived in that trailer as the most idyllic of our lives.
Neither of us ever wanted any. The planet is getting just to durn filled up for my tastes. We do have uh, a dozen of more nieces and nephews.
We're the cool aunt and uncle who let the kids run around in the woods like little Indians, shoot guns, play with knives, build camp fires, forage for wild edibles, all that neat stuff.
When we've had enough kids for the time being, we send 'em home!
This way we get to spoil 'em and tweak their little brains, then send them away so we can enjoy the peace and quiet.
How did I make the transition? I dunno, we just did it!
I had been planning on moving up into the woods for a few years before I was married. I even bought a used travel trailer to live in when I happened upon a good deal.
I think the primary motivation for me was that I knew the only way I'd ever own a house was to build one myself. I am just to durn cheap to pay hundreds of thousand of dollars for a tacky frame dwelling, and I am just the kind of guy who simply could never sign onto such a huge debt like a twenty year mortgage. It would make me feel like a slave, and I would forever worry about paying off this huge millstone around my neck.
I don't want to be any kind of slave, even a wage slave.
Before we were married, Heidi and I talked over the kind of life style we would like to have together.
She was all for moving out into the woods. I don't think she really thought much about the full implications. The subject of living off grid never even came up.
She was just 18 when we married. As a teenager, she still Knew Everything.
This was a good thing because it gave her unbounded confidence. She never once looked back.
It's all us grownups that lack confidence in our own abilities to do something different.
She grew up pretty far back in the hills. They don't have phone lines up there, but they do have power. Most of the time.
She was used to the isolation, and the woods. I'm the ex-city slicker in the family!
When we bought the property, it was Heidi who was very impatient to move there.
I even did delay the move one year. We got the land in the fall one year and just managed to get the trailer up before the real snow hit.
That winter we drove up to visit from time to time. First time, we made it twenty feet from the truck. The very next visit, we came back with snow shoes and made it the 1/2 mile up to the trailer!
Spring came, and I did manage to gut the trailer and make it livable by putting in a wood stove, removing the useless bathroom, building a real bed inside, and building a shed roof over everything.
But we didn't move in that year. I was very busy at work all summer and all my spare time went into rebuilding her fathers old international td-18a dozer. We were gonna do our excavating with this huge old monster. ( I did give up on it eventually and hire someone to do the excavating )
Winter came and went. Spring came, and just as soon as the snows were melted off enough to drive up, Heidi insisted we get rid of our apartment and move up to the land.
But we'd just wrecked our new Toyota 4x4! This left us with an old 400 dollar junker toyota two wheel drive pickup!
I was even making noise about living in town while we built the foundation and so forth.
But Heidi practically grabbed me by the ear and dragged me up!
So up we went. The snows were still melting off and we had a stream running under the trailer!
The long commute was the first thing I had to adjust to.
The fact that I could no longer work long hours ( sometimes 24 hours straight! ) was the first thing my boss had to adjust to!
But we didn't mind living in the trailer one bit. Sure we didn't have electricity, but who needs it?
We had a propane fridge in the camper, and a good propane range.
For lights we had candles ( my wife is the biggest candle bug ever! ) and kerosene lamps.
We had a shower rigged up outside and an outhouse.
We had limitless warmth from our wood stove. The well with a hand pump on it was twenty feet away from the trailer.
We had a .22 rifle, a .45 automatic, and a Mosin M44. What more can two people want?
We look back at the year and a half that we lived in that trailer as the most idyllic of our lives.
QUOTE
But neighbours and regular walkers began to suspect that a house was hidden behind the straw and got in touch with the local council.
Jerks. English jerks.
QUOTE(EtdBob @ Mar 8 2007, 06:58 PM) [snapback]10602[/snapback]
No Fryeg, we don't have any children . . . .
thanks for sharing, bob. you do indeed have a fine woman. i'm going to have to drag mine to the woods kicking and screaming
frye
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