Putting a Mobile Home in your garden (up to 6.8x20m) falls under the same law as parking a touring caravan in your drive and normally falls within the primary use of the dwelling house. So long as it remains moveable and is not someone’s sole or primary residence, it will be acceptable. However, the use is important. There must remain a relationship between the main house and the Mobile, this means the people using the mobile home also have use of the main house. If a caravan is just used for sleeping purposes by a family member it is ancillary and you don’t need any approval. If, however, it is capable of being used as a separate residence, it is not. There must be an interaction between the two buildings that involves a significant degree of dependence on facilities provided from the main house. This means the people who stay in the building must also have access or a relationship with to the main house, like they take meals there, have their belonging stored there, use the facilities etc.
Legal Planning Definition for Caravans in the Garden…
A caravan (as defined in s.29 of the Caravan Sites & Control of Development) may be parked temporarily (in the same manner as a car) within the curtilage of a domestic property without the need for planning permission, unless there are limiting conditions applied when the house was built. This is more commonplace in modern housing estates.*
A caravan may also be used in a manner ancillary to the residential property; that is, in addition to the use of the house, but not as someone’s separate dwelling. You can use a caravan as, say, a granny annex, but it must not become someone’s “only or main residence”. There must remain a relationship between the caravan and the house, so, for example, meals could be taken in the house. Use the caravan simply in the manner of an extra room / bedroom. Make sure it remains moveable.
*Check to make sure your property deeds do not restrict this permitted development right; particularly on more modern estates or where the council has issued an Article 4 Direction – common in Conservation Areas.
