A lawfulness appeal has established a self-contained dwelling in the New Forest as lawful and secured a full award of appeal costs after the National Park Authority continued defending its refusal.
Inspector Elizabeth Pleasant allowed appeal 3354335 on 28 October 2026 for Little Bourne, a converted former garage in Brockenhurst. The Inspector also ordered New Forest National Park Authority to pay the appellants’ appeal costs, with the amount to be agreed or assessed separately.
The decision turns on two important questions: what proves four years of residential use when people occupy a property for different lengths of time, and when a planning authority should reconsider a refusal after discovering it overlooked evidence.
Why the lawfulness appeal concerned a former garage
Little Bourne was previously a garage before conversion into a compact dwelling. The single-storey accommodation had a living space, a dining and kitchen area, a double bed and bathroom, with additional sleeping space on a mezzanine. A dedicated parking space was available outside.
The owners sought a certificate of lawful existing use on 24 April 2024, arguing that the building had been used as a self-contained single dwellinghouse since 30 March 2020. The National Park Authority refused that application on 5 September 2024, saying it was not satisfied that the necessary four-year period had been demonstrated.
The lawfulness appeal was not a fresh application asking whether a new home would be acceptable on planning merits. It concerned whether the existing use was already lawful under section 191 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. That distinction matters because a certificate records the legal position established by evidence, rather than granting discretionary permission for a development.
Planning Geek’s guide to certificates of lawfulness for existing development explains the different test and why documentation of dates and use can be decisive.
How the owners proved four years of dwellinghouse use
The Inspector looked at statutory declarations from two former tenants, bank statements, WhatsApp messages and records of bookings and payments managed through Travel Chapter and Airbnb. The tenant evidence established residential occupation from spring 2020 to the end of February 2021. The property underwent maintenance during March 2021 before further bookings were arranged.
Travel Chapter’s records covered 8 April 2021 to 29 February 2024 and showed registration information, customer booking entries and payments, with at least one booking recorded each week. Airbnb information also showed occupancy and payment at the beginning of March 2024. The Inspector acknowledged that the booking log did not itself specify every arrival and departure date.
What mattered to the lawfulness appeal was the evidence viewed as a whole. The records were sufficiently clear, in the absence of contradictory evidence, to show use of the premises as a single dwellinghouse without significant interruption for at least four years before the application. The owners did not need a perfect day-by-day set of occupancy records to meet the balance-of-probabilities test.
Nor does this mean every holiday property automatically has a lawful independent dwellinghouse use. The Inspector made a finding about this particular building, its physical and functional independence and the evidence of how it had been occupied. The conclusion does not replace the separate factual test applying to another site.
Why missing council tax and utility bills did not defeat the claim
The National Park Authority accepted that Little Bourne contained the facilities needed for everyday living, but argued that it was not an independent planning unit. Its reasons included the absence of its own council tax account and separate utility bills, and what the authority regarded as a relationship with the neighbouring main house.
Inspector Pleasant was not persuaded that these administrative arrangements decided the planning question. Separate dwellings can share utilities, and the inclusion of services within a rental payment does not necessarily make one property dependent on another. Equally, no separate council tax record does not prove that residential occupation has not occurred.
For the lawfulness appeal, the relevant distinction was whether Little Bourne was physically and functionally a separate unit of occupation. The Inspector found that it was, applying the established planning-unit approach associated with Burdle and the understanding of a dwellinghouse in Gravesham.
Neither point was a ruling on whether council tax should have been charged, whether any tax had been correctly assessed, or whether a different property with shared services must be a separate dwelling. Those are not the questions this Inspector was asked to decide.
Why the former four-year rule still applied
The timing of this lawfulness appeal is significant. The application was made on 24 April 2024, the day before England’s new ten-year enforcement period for changes of use to a single dwellinghouse came into force. The Inspector found that the relevant residential change of use occurred in 2020 and was therefore governed by the former four-year rule.
England changed the enforcement limitation period from 25 April 2024, but transitional provisions preserved the earlier four-year period for dwellinghouse changes of use that happened before that date. The relevant distinction is when the change of use took place, not simply the date on which someone eventually applies for a certificate.
That means this 2026 decision should not be read as restoring four-year immunity to newly created homes. Planning Geek’s explanation of the 2024 enforcement change and its current certificate guidance cover the transitional position. The government also published a summary of the enforcement appeal changes when they commenced.
Why the lawfulness appeal also brought a full costs award
The costs decision makes this an especially useful case for councils and applicants. The National Park Authority’s original officer report had not considered some of the material lodged with the certificate application. Missing from its review were booking records, bank statements and a tenant’s statutory declaration. The authority later acknowledged that it had not seen all the submitted evidence.
The Inspector did not say that the original refusal was automatically unreasonable. Because important material had been missing from the officer’s consideration, the authority could initially have been entitled to say the claim was not proved on what it had actually reviewed.
The problem came after the appeal was lodged. The owners, through their planning consultant, drew the omission to the authority’s attention and offered to resubmit the application without charge in exchange for withdrawing the appeal and costs claim. Correspondence showed that a possible resolution was considered, but none was achieved.
Instead, the authority continued defending the case, relying on the separate utilities and council tax points even after receiving the evidence establishing occupation. In the separate costs decision the Inspector wrote: The NPA continued to defend the appeal when, given the appeal evidence before them, it was unreasonable to do so.
This is a quotation from the Planning Inspectorate’s costs decision, reproduced under the Open Government Licence.
The Inspector concluded that this behaviour caused the owners unnecessary appeal expenditure and made a full costs order.
The contrast with the Barnet basement appeal, also decided on 28 October, is instructive: that council lost on planning merits but avoided costs because members had defensible grounds. Here the problem was persisting with a defence after the missing evidence was identified.
The order does not state a cash amount. The parties must agree the costs or have them assessed by the Senior Courts Costs Office. Planning Geek’s guide to costs in planning appeals explains the difference between losing an appeal and unreasonably causing avoidable expense.
What applicants and councils should learn from this decision
This lawfulness appeal shows why accurate evidence-handling is more than routine administration. Records can arrive in different formats, but if the authority receives them it needs to ensure the officer considering the application has actually examined them. A mistake at validation or during an internal handover can have serious consequences if the council fails to revisit its position during the appeal.
For applicants, the lesson is to build a clear timeline, with evidence that links use of the premises to the particular dates that matter. Statutory declarations, payment records and booking information may each help, but no single category guarantees success. The Inspector must consider whether the combined evidence is sufficiently precise and credible.
For planning authorities, the stronger lesson from the costs award is about continuing case review. An initial refusal that was defensible on an incomplete officer record can become unreasonable to defend after the missing material is identified. A council should consider whether its case still has substance before making the other party spend more on an appeal.
The result is a certificate recognising an existing dwellinghouse use at Little Bourne and a separate full costs award against the National Park Authority. It is an Inspector’s appeal and costs determination, not a new court judgment or a general right to convert garages into houses.
Appeal and costs decision
Read the official Planning Inspectorate appeal case for APP/B9506/X/24/3354335, including the separate costs decision dated 28 October 2026. The appeal decision is also available on AppealBase.
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