Stories of Enforcement action

[ipsographic]

AFter a chat with our solicitor, in which he said that he personally had never heard of Enforcement action being successfully taken, and in fact related a story in which the council had taken someone to court and lost, plus countless stories from other people regarding listed buildings being pulled down by developers without permission (I'm not so convinced that many of these are true tbh):

Does action reach court, these days at least?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

you'll find a database of prosecutions here
http://ihbc.org.uk/prosecutionsDB/Prosecution Table 1 Size of Fines.pdf
these will in most cases be examples where the guilty party has failed to put right unauthorised works when told to - so they are the tip of an iceberg.

 

[Flyfisher]

Enforcement seems the wrong word to use in cases where historic property has been destroyed and cannot be replaced, only replicated. Perhaps this is why so many cases go unpunished?

It's good to see so many prosecutions, though I can't help but feel 4-figure fines are not much of a deterrent.

We used to live in an wooded area entirely protected by tree preservation orders - basically every tree. Until the fines were increased from £2000 to £20000 for removing a tree, there were many trees cut down by new owners who simply factored in an extra £10k or so on their purchase. The fines have to be punitive in relation to the property if they are to be a deterrent.

 

[88v8]

Enforcement seems the wrong word to use in cases where historic property has been destroyed and cannot be replaced, only replicated. Perhaps this is why so many cases go unpunished?

This must be particularly so with interiors, which often are not described in the listing in any detail if at all.
In France, I vaguely believe houses are inspected by the Govt whenever they are sold to check for electrical safety (and other things?), and it would seem a good idea if the CO had the same right when a listed property is sold over here. A fine at that point, and more so a enforced stop on the sale, would have a salutary effect. Of course that would necessitate establishing a starting point with a full detailed photographic record, so it would be the next sale where enforcement would really begin to bite.

In practice, can't see our Govt putting any real money into enforcement so it will never happen. Which for someone like me, quietly undoing 1970s 'improvements' under my own steam, is not unwelcome.

Ivor

 

[MatthewC]

As I've said recently in another thread, enforcement around here seems to concentrate on enforcing the conditions of approvals, put in by conscientious people, rather than checking on the very visible modern works done by people who don't even apply (whether through ignorance or sheer contempt!).

Having said that, there was one person who proceeeded to rip out the interior of a very visible local pub in the market place, to convert it into a curry house, with scaffolding outside and an empty shell inside; no applications were made for Planning Permission (Change of Use), Listed Building Consernt or Building Control! Then Enforcement did do something and work stopped for almost 8 months while all the applications got sorted out, clearly at great expense to the entrepreneur. Serves him right. I guess it was so obvious that they had to do something... NB It was the BCO who told me this!