Danny Five-Acres

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Danny Five-Acres

Nice piece of fish: Jan 29, 2008; Ultra Carp

Came for smallholding tips, stayed for the... everything. I absolutely love it.

Did you explain how exactly this came to be your job, or are you eventually expecting to take the are over in the future? You're doing such amazing work.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2018 11:40

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 15:35

Nice piece of fish: Jan 29, 2008; Ultra Carp

DesperateDan posted:

here comes a caffeine induced wall 'o text

Planning permission from scratch in England and Wales is really quite tough, but doing it to fresh, green belt, virginal woodland is luckily a bit different to doing something to land that is splat in the middle of a bunch of active farms and that the council still see as part of a farm that the previous tenant lived on.

I'm going to be intentionally coy about my own situation other than to say that things are complex, but may well be fine as they are, but I like having plans in contingency- it's all academic until my bank account has more friendly looking figures or other events transpire anyway

I am of course not a solicitor, not offering legal advice, and planning laws and enforcement of them vary by so many rules and by location that you would be a fool not to get a specialist solicitors advice on things before spending a penny on land.

There are ways to deal with planning permission even for woodland, and the key to victory largely involves understanding what the council wants to do, which largely seems to be the noble goal of not letting people snap up cheap woodland and put horrific mc mansions up on them under false pretence of a farm or smallholding. If you want to be a farmer, you have to act like one.

The easiest way I see from scratch is to create a business, and inform the local council you wish to put up a building in your land to work to work the land from- it's far harder for them to refuse that compared with a residential building because you don't explicitly need any permission to put up some small farm buildings/site a works caravan/etc anyway, it's doing them a courtesy. This then buys you five years for you to have a mobile home on site as a "permitted development" to provide full time accommodation for a worker/direct family thereof while you grow a business.

Then you have a much stronger chance of getting good planning permissions at the end of those five years- if you can show you already support yourself/family largely from the land and you haven't made a nuisance then it makes things a lot easier than trying for full planning permission from scratch with a business plan.

You can also use some totally cool dirty tricks- like after those five years, saying "I was naughty" and providing evidence that you actually lived inside the shed/barn/planetarium you put up for the last 4 years and apply for retrospective permission- which is, sadly, significantly easier than just being honest from the start.

You could just roll straight in ninja style and do it on the sly- get away with living in it for 4 years for a "permanent structure" or 10 for a caravan (some people have gotten away with taking the wheels off a caravan and putting it on a base to count for a permanent structure) and you win, but a single tip off to the council even a day before that period ends could screw you entirely, and you would need reasonable evidence of living there that long too.

There's many other loopholes and such under various circumstances- some communes split a parcel of land into loads of small plots, then claim to move around plots under the 28 day period anyone gets for camping. It's entirely grey area stuff but things like that get next to no attention compared with the people trying to build literal castles behind a some hay bales and pass it off as a barn.

Be wary of advice on the internet about this- (especially all of the above) because theres a lot of skewed info- for example places selling blocs of woodland offering advice saying planning permission is near impossible, but woodland they sell just so happens to come quietly with a covenant built in explicitly preventing you using it as such.

I know some of the above is possible because I know of two local farms that used variations of the above to come into existence with very few problems- but a few miles down the road I have no doubt the same council would have told them to gently caress right off due to the area involved.

That was long and I need to go back to being run off my feet by kids and cat and stuff but I promise jamposting soon!

Yeah this guy? https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/farmer-who-built-castle-hidden-7658785

Didn't go so well for him did it.

You are spot on the money about not loving around when it comes to permit applications and planning laws - seek out a professional with specialized knowledge at the first sign of trouble and never try to deceive the autorities, there are so so many ways you can get screwed. Although, to be honest, I didn't follow my own advice here when it came to my own permit-requiring project, I DIYed that as well. Luckily, I'm an attourney.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2018 14:27

Nice piece of fish: Jan 29, 2008; Ultra Carp

friendbot2000 posted:

It is too bad about that guy's castle. It was pretty cool looking, but I get why permits and codes exist so people don't die and stuff.

Do you have any advice on applying for permits and the like? Also, do permits and surveys expire? Like, say you want to get all the groundwork done but won't break ground for a couple of years. As a law-goon, is there a mechanism for that? Or are you timeboxed when you get approved for permits?

General advice would be to ask for advice directly from the people in the municipality (actual permit givers). They are often supposed to help you out through the process and they have an interest themselves in making your work good and thus their job easier on themselves.

Other than that, any advice would be very jurisdiction dependant. Maybe ask in the legal questions megathread, because I can't tell you anything outside of scandiland.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2018 17:52

Nice piece of fish: Jan 29, 2008; Ultra Carp

Poor Hicks. At least he's had a great life with you which is about the best a cat can hope for, I think. Here's to making the rest of his time as happy and long as possible.

Thank you for the update on the plot as well, looks wonderful and I wish you luck dealing with your critter issue. My go-to caliber for varmints is .222 Rem, can't recommend it enough.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2018 08:36

Nice piece of fish: Jan 29, 2008; Ultra Carp

Maugrim posted:

First impression of those droppings was sheep, but deer seem a more likely candidate, unless I've misjudged the size - if they're tiny I'd guess wild rabbits?

These?

DesperateDan posted:

The digging bastard has been pooping too. And digging more. That pooping, digging bastard. Hid in a bush again, but no sighting. Pricing up wildlife cameras- I must study it's habits in order to understand my opponent.

Doesn't seem to be enough damage for it to be wild boar, if that's even possible. And the poop's wrong. My guess would be roe deer, looks about right. Which would be a tasty option. It's probably not rabbit, doesn't look quite right. Although, with roe deer there should be tracks and hair for a definitive identification around close by or in some soft soil.

E: Although, gardeners claim that roe deer won't touch lavender. Neither will rabbits, for that matter. The mystery deepens... or gardeners are full of poo poo.

Nice piece of fish fucked around with this message at 14:48 on Oct 8, 2018

# ¿ Oct 7, 2018 20:12

Nice piece of fish: Jan 29, 2008; Ultra Carp

xcheopis posted:

!

Don't worry, I'm sure Hicks won't sacrifice DesperateDan. Mostly sure.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2018 17:09

Nice piece of fish: Jan 29, 2008; Ultra Carp

xcheopis posted:

I asked the local ant expert:
https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3886441&pagenumber=7&perpage=40#post495601251

Oh my god, there's an ant thread? I love that, and I also love watching and learning about ants and also having them stay away from my living space and plants but mostly learning about ants. Very cool.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2019 10:40

Nice piece of fish: Jan 29, 2008; Ultra Carp

Fantastic post as usual. That reciprosaw though, watch out when it gets dull; it's hard to tell before you bend the gently caress out of it like I did.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2020 14:39

Nice piece of fish: Jan 29, 2008; Ultra Carp

Sorry to see that happening to you. Post about it in the legal questions thread, maybe? It won't help but it might be informative.

Wish I could say I don't have much experience with access and easement stuff, but as a lawyer I used to practice in the area (still kinda do I guess) and well... Let's just say my cabin has a state title registry registered right of vehicle and road access from two sides, snow mobile right of access (and a state license) as well as my registered co-ownership in both mountain access roads. Because gently caress that poo poo.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2021 13:08

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 15:35

Nice piece of fish: Jan 29, 2008; Ultra Carp

organburner posted:

Yeah, you're right, I was just wondering if there was some legalese things in this specific instance I wasn't understanding.
Road rights can be a god drat nightmare here it seems, I'm glad I don't need to worry about it myself.

Just to throw it out there and completely dependent on jurisdiction, if I own a road and I let you access your land on foot, this doesn't necessarily mean I've let you use it with a bike. Or a horse. Or a car. If you are allowed access use with a car, it doesn't automatically mean you have a right to use the road to move a heavy vehicle over, or increase the amount of traffic beyond reasonable. Even if a piece of land has a right of access attached to it, if you want to develop the land in a way that increases daily traffic this may not be within the limits of that right.

One of the most common issues with right of way/right of access etc. is that the right may be based on everything from tradition to oral agreement to old easements and beyond and it's an expensive clusterfuck to try and figure out what the actual right is and the right is almost never "assumed" to exist because the default state is that you have no right to another's property unless you can show something that says you do. There's always the often claimed possibility that the ability to access was merely tolerated by the property owner (in a way that does not create a permanent right of access).

# ¿ Feb 7, 2021 16:52

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