The House That Was Disguised As A Garage:

 Property developer ordered to gut home built to fool planning inspectors

• Carol Jones and her husband built the two storey home with two double bedrooms, ensuites and modern kitchen 
• The couple fixed a fake double garage door to the outside in a bid to fool the authorities
• They lived in it for two years before renting it to two tenants before neighbours tipped off the local council

A property developer has been given six months to tear down a secret house which she built disguised as a garage.

Carol Jones, 46, designed the plush two-storey home, complete with two double bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms and modern kitchen, under the guise of a garage workshop in her back garden.

She and her builder husband Andy, 46, erected the 30ft high building in 2006 to live in while they were building their bigger house just yards away. 

Looks like a garage... but it's a house: Behind the garage doors is a plush two-storey home

The couple only had permission to build a garage and workshop on the plot, but went ahead and built the two-bedroom home instead - fixing a fake double garage door to the outside in a bid to fool the authorities.

But at the back of the building, they installed a satellite dish, three skylights on the pitched roof and a kitchen window overlooking rolling countryside.

The case bears similarities to a couple who disguised their £500,000 home as a hay barn and lost a four-year legal battle to save it last year. 

Property developer Alan Beesley and his wife Sarah, from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, had been granted permission to build a barn for agricultural use – but then fitted it out as a luxury two-storey home.

They tried to outwit council planners by disguising their house as a windowless barn and surrounding it with farmyard machinery.

Access: The door and windows are hidden from view from the front of the house - but are clear from the side

Meanwhile, Robert Fidler of Salfords near Redhill, Surrey, kept a castle in one of his fields shielded behind a 40ft stack of hay bales covered by a huge tarpaulin. 

Once it was finished, he and his family moved in and lived there for four years before finally revealing the development complete with battlements and cannons in August 2006, but the authorities ordered it to be pulled down. 

Mr and Mrs Jones lived inside their secret 'garage' for two years before moving into their new house next door and renting it out to two tenants before neighbours tipped off the local council.

When planning officers opened the garage door they discovered there was only 2ft of space behind it and a partition wall backing onto a swanky open plan kitchen diner.

No permission: The house in Lower Broadheath, Worcestershire with the garage on the right 

Secret: The windows overlooking the rolling countryside can be clearly from a nearby field

Inside the property in picturesque Lower Broadheath, Worcestershire, they also built two double bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms with showers, and a living room.

The brazen pair even held a party to celebrate moving into the property which was attended by 16 friends and family on Christmas Day in 2006 before renting out the property in 2008 to make extra income.

Mrs Jones, a director of the now defunct property development firm Richmond and Virgo Ltd, applied for retrospective planning permission to build the house last year.

Comfortable: The 'garage' has two double bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms, showers and a living room

But Malvern Hills District Council rejected the planning application and Mrs Jones appealed the ruling and the case was decided by the Government’s Planning Inspectorate.

Earlier this year the Planning Inspectorate upheld the council’s decision and yesterday she was given six months to gut the building.

Planning Inspectorate Jane Stiles told Mrs Jones she had 'behaved unreasonably from the outset' and had desperately tried to 'find a loophole in the system'.

She said: 'The appellant deliberately set out to deceive the council. To my mind, the appellant has behaved unreasonably from the outset, and the retrospective case that she has put forward has evolved to suit her circumstances.

Disguised: Robert Fidler outside his 'castle' home he built in Salfords near Redhill, Surrey. He kept the castle shielded behind a 40ft stack of hay bales covered in a huge tarpaulin 

The 40ft stacks of hay bales covered by a huge tarpaulins, which concealed the Fidlers' mock Tudor castle 

'After the dwelling came to the attention of the council, the appellant has tried, without success, to find a loophole in the planning system that would enable her to retain the dwelling.

'First, she fraudulently tried to argue that the building had initially been built as a garage and then subsequently converted to a dwelling.

'When that approach was unsuccessful, instead, in the current appeal, she has admitted the building had been erected as a dwelling but she has tried to argue that due to the passage of time, it was too late for the council to take enforcement action.'

The barn built by Alan Beesley and his wife Sarah which they converted to become a two storey home

Mrs Jones was given six months to strip the building of its bathrooms, kitchen and internal partition wall which prevented it from being used as a garage.

Following the ruling, Councillor Tony Penn, the district council’s portfolio holder for planning and housing, said: 'This case should be a warning to others who believe they can obtain retrospective permission through deliberate concealment of an unauthorised development.'

Source:- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2215593/The-house-disguised-garage-Property-developer-ordered-gut-home-built-fool-planning-inspectors.html