Agricultural Occupancy condition

[Rick2517]

Ok Thanks again for you're feedback,

So I think the answer is to get a copy of the Agricultural Occupancy condition and find out what I can and can't do and then find out what there definition of forestry is.

Right the next battle on my hands and changing the subject slightly but does anybody have any experience in using the business as a joint mortgage partner???

I would imagine if I was to per chase a house with this condition then it would be expected to be a commercial sale, so does this come with any benefits (less deposit needed, lower rates)

or negatives (mega high interest rates)??

[Rick2517]

Have you looked into mortgages yet? (assuming you need one)

 

You'll have a nightmare trying to find a company to take it on if there are any agricultural ties... You won't get the best rates, and the only option my financial guy could find, was a commercial mortgage at around 7% if i remember rightly!

 

Best of luck with it!

 

you beat me to my next question :big grin: I am contacting my mortgage adviser next week to start to look into it however he manly deals with your bog standard sales so was thinking of contacting the NFU for help!!

who did you use? I take it that it didntnt end up well for you then?

[Rick2517]

Dont Know how i missed this bit of info in the property description:

 

"The original planning consent restricts the occupancy of the dwelling to persons employed, or recently employed (retired) in Agriculture, Horticulture or Arboriculture. Any persons interested in the property should make themselves fully aware of the implications prior to the viewing of Hillview."

 

Interesting phone calls to be made next week I think!!

[codlasher]

DEFRA may help with this.

Is there a SBI number and a Holding number? If so then you can then do just about anything! Grow ragwort, keep masses of rabbits and have rusty machinery in your nettles.

To be honest I don't think it really makes any difference to your business except from the grant side. The Woodland Trust are offering a 60% grant towards Farm woodland schemes to help with shelter belt establishment and similar. Minimum planting area is one acre, good news there!

I'd go with the 'buy and enjoy' if you can afford it.

Can't help with mortgage though except to say that a watertight business plan will help :-)

Good luck.

Codlasher.

[Pedroski]

Dont Know how i missed this bit of info in the property description:

 

"The original planning consent restricts the occupancy of the dwelling to persons employed, or recently employed (retired) in Agriculture, Horticulture or Arboriculture. Any persons interested in the property should make themselves fully aware of the implications prior to the viewing of Hillview."

 

Interesting phone calls to be made next week I think!!

 

Sorted!

[Lee Winger]

To build an Ag restricted house you must prove to local planning that you have a need to live on site this usually means ''live stock'' and you must after 3 years be making minimum wage at least, sorry but that's as far as my first hand knowledge goes on the subject.

 

My advice would be to go a seek proper legal advice from a solicitor experienced in the subject,be preprepared to pay a few grand though..

Edited August 11, 2012 by Lee Winger

[treequip]

Hi Guys,

I have been doing a bit of research into buying a property which is under a Agricultural Occupancy condition. I am no expert in this field and I am struggling to get any straight answers by searching on-line so thought I would start this thread to see if anybody has delt or looked into this before.

My situation is this: I have a small tree surgery firm based in Bristol I employ 3 men inc myself and we currently rent yard space in a local farm, My dream scenario would be to by a property to live and run the business from, I have came across a fantastic looking house with just about enough land to run our business from and I am wondering if our trade "tree surgery" will comply with the Agricultural Occupancy condition? also as this property has this condition I am assuming that there are no problems with running our business in terms of noise pollution and everything els that us noisy and messy arb guys get up to in the yard (storing chip and logs etc...)

 

I am suspecting that there may be a clause as the business is not "farming a crop" on the land so I was wondering if I was to begin growing/farming a crop of Christmas trees would this qualify??

 

any thoughts/advise would be greatly appreciated and may benefit allot of other guys on here thinking of taking advantage of the perks of our trade!!

 

Many thanks in advance Rich

 

I would be a bit carefull about operating the business, you describe it as a house and just enough space, the occupancy condition relates to your occupation but it dosent mean you can run your business from the property.

 

Check with planning, you may be ok as long as no one complains, if anyone does, now or in the future you may find yourself submitting a retrospective application.

[Rick2517]

I would be a bit carefull about operating the business, you describe it as a house and just enough space, the occupancy condition relates to your occupation but it dosent mean you can run your business from the property.

 

Check with planning, you may be ok as long as no one complains, if anyone does, now or in the future you may find yourself submitting a retrospective application.

 

This is the thing that worries me the most, I know the area well as we have done work in most of the properties in the area, it is next to a working farm and looks to me that at some stage was part of the farm and has been separated and left with a really long but narrow rear garden, all surrounding fields are farmed and we have even been supplying the farm owner with woodchip and firewood for the last few years at no charge!!

So my strong feelings are that there will be no issues with running the business from the property but I will need more then a good feeling. if I was to make such a big investment and then be told that we can't run the business from there it would defeat the hole point of buying the place and probably bankrupt me and send the business under!!!

"A very scary thought indeed"

[Pedroski]

Rick, as it directly adjoins the farm, would it not be possible for you to pay a small rent to a bit of the farm for space to carry out the actual business activity? That way, you can keep the business activity out of your garden, but you'd still be entitled to live there as you are in the arboriculture business.

[Rick2517]

Rick, as it directly adjoins the farm, would it not be possible for you to pay a small rent to a bit of the farm for space to carry out the actual business activity? That way, you can keep the business activity out of your garden, but you'd still be entitled to live there as you are in the arboriculture business.

 

Funny thing is I spoke to the farmer before I found the yard we now rent about renting a spot from him, he had no objections but just didn't have the room, also the house is on the market for £500,000!!! I am by no means made of money and any chance I have of getting together this sort of cash would mean pulling in big favours from lots of people, and if I do pull it off it will only work if it means that I can make a return from the house by operating and expanding the business to share the cost of the huge mortgage!!

 

does anybody know the conditions that would need to apply for me to insure that I will be ok to run the arb business from there (inc producing/selling firewood, Christmas trees and any other money making schemes I can scrape up)???