A developer has been told to rip down a house which was built with an extra basement floor not on the approved plans.
Michael Deller says he has found himself in this situation after following a planning officer’s advice on how to avoid being landed with a tax bill for £40,000.
The council originally approved plans for what was then planned to be a three bedroom above-ground house in the back garden of 23 Shirley Drive, Hove, in September 2020, just weeks before its community infrastructure levy (CIL) came into force.
The site’s then-owner Maria Higgins, whose planning agent told councillors she had intended to live in the house herself, sold the land to Mr Deller in June 2021 for £648,000.
He then started building, and says when discussing his plans for a basement with the council, he was advised that if he put in a new application for a house with a basement, he would be charged CIL on the whole building.
Instead, he says he was told to start work, including the structural work for the basement, then put in a retrospective application on the basis the basement was an extension to the approved plans.
He did this, and in September 2022 submitted the basement plans then finished the building work. But, he says, he was then advised that this application was likely to be rejected because of another technicality, and so he withdrew it.
He says the council is now telling him to put in a fresh application for the whole development, including other more minor discrepancies from the approved scheme such as render instead of brickwork and a lack of bee and swift bricks – which will be liable for the full CIL bill.
Meanwhile, the house – which now completed has six bedrooms – now has tenants living in it.
Mr Deller said: “I’m being treated very unfairly. I did this totally transparently with the knowledge of the planning department.
“I have offered to pay CIL tax on the basement area only. Paying CIL on the whole development feels like a stealth tax, on top of all the other fees builders pay.
“I’m not the first and I won’t be the last to be blindsided by this. It’s a real shame, as I’ve had a good working relationship with the council for many years.
“I’m confident when I submit a new application it will be approved – I’ll just have a rather larger tax bill to pay.”
A council spokesman said: “The house which has been built is completely different from the plans which were approved, so it does not currently have planning consent.
“We have given the owner the opportunity to attempt to resolve the situation by submitting a retrospective planning application, but despite having had months to do so, they have so far not done so.
“Since the building does not have planning consent, the only other option open to us is an enforcement notice requiring demolition.
“We have been clear with the owner, however, that the current timeline does still allow them the opportunity to try to resolve this matter with a retrospective application.”
This is not the first time the council’s planning enforcement team has stepped in where there are disputes between developers and the council over CIL.
In February this year, the council issued a stop notice on a house in Hill Brow, Hove, after developers Habib and Jade Esmaeili failed to pay a bill of almost £80,000.
The bill was then paid within days, and work resumed.
Worlds tiniest violin playing for a parasite landlord who wanted to get round the rules and pay his fair share. Pay up like everyone else.
Harsh, but ultimately fair. Sounds a bit like a Trump self Pardon, “Being transparent” about breaking an agreement. Ask the seller who made a financial planning gain ‘for her personal use’ to pay it.
The old adage, an oral agreement is not worth the paper it’s written on.
Well done to the Council for actually doing something positive and necessary. Wonder how much rent he is earning from this illegal building?
Lol so basically clown here decided he was an exception to the rules and wanted to tax dodge by using some loophole but the loophole turns out to not work, my heart bleeds it really does lol. Yeah a 6 bedroom is a tad different to what was approved. Hope he has to pull it down and learns an expensive lesson in being a good citizen
So he didn’t have permission to do the extra bits, and didn’t follow the plans on various aspects anyway. Now has to go through the process of doing it correctly. Mr Deller is being treated very fairly in this case, despite his protests.
Perhaps he should have been honest.