Businessman ordered to demolish flat built inside horse stable in Cotswolds

A businessman who asked the council to officially recognise a small home he had built inside his horse stables has been ordered to strip it out completely.

54-year-old James George says he’s lived in the tiny one-bedroom flat on his £2.25million Cotswolds estate for the past five years.

The haulage boss approached West Oxfordshire District Council back in November 2023, arguing that the abode had existed long enough to be protected from planning enforcement.

He wanted a Certificate of Lawfulness for the conversion, which had no permission for residential use. The paperwork didn’t deliver the result he was hoping for.

The council rejected his application, and his challenge to enforcement action was unsuccessful. Planning inspector David Jones gave him six months to stop using the stables as accommodation, remove the fixtures and fittings and return the space to its intended use.

From outside, the horseshoe-shaped timber block looks like an ordinary set of horse stables. Behind that exterior, the living quarters occupy the largest part of a building originally designed to house up to eight horses, Daily Mail reports.

It stands at Chalford Paddocks, George’s 15-acre estate near Chipping Norton in rural Oxfordshire, England. The property also includes a traditional stone-walled, four-bedroom house and is currently advertised for sale at a cool £2.25million.

George says that he moved into the stable flat following an amicable separation from his partner. He maintains that the arrangement has helped him stay close to their son.

‘For the past five years or so I’ve ended up living in it after amicably splitting with my partner. Living in the stables has been ideal,’ he said. ‘It’s allowed me to continue regular access and support to our seven-year-old son.’

He says he built the self-contained accommodation in 2014 while replacing dilapidated stables. His original plan was for his mother to have somewhere to stay as she got older. She’s since died.

According to George, she spent a few months there while undergoing chemotherapy, which severely compromised her immune system. He said that she needed to self-isolate because his sister, who lived with her, worked as a hospital cleaner.

The flat also housed two friends following their divorces and another friend’s father after he returned from working in South Africa, George said.

To support his application, George supplied receipts for building materials and sworn testimony from his builder. He said that work had begun on it in March 2014.

The dispute centred on whether a four-year or 10-year limit applied, with George saying both his planning consultant and planning solicitor believed it was four. Jones ruled that the relevant period was 10 years and found that George hadn’t proved continuous residential occupation for that long.

George claims that the inspector from the council acknowledged that the living quarters had been completed more than a decade before the enforcement notice was served. But establishing when the conversion was actually finished wasn’t enough to prove that it had been continuously used as a home.

The council reportedly alleged that the dwelling had been deliberately concealed from the authorities. It pointed to the lack of a separate postal address and council tax registration, as well as the accommodation being difficult to see from the road.

Officials reported little evidence that the stables and tack rooms had been used for ‘equine activities’.

However, Jones rejected the concealment allegation, finding no evidence of a ‘deliberate, elaborate and sustained plan to deceive’. He found that the building had been ‘constructed unlawfully’, and George was still required to remove the living accommodation.

George has since accused the council of being motivated by ‘jealousy and envy’. He said that he gets up at 3.15am to drive a truck and works more than 60 hours a week to provide for his son.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said: ‘Absolutely I do feel there’s been an injustice. It’s been adjudicated on and the law’s the law, so as bitter as I am, I don’t think there’s anything to be gained from [talking about] it.’

A council spokeswoman said: ‘Anyone undertaking building work or carrying out a material change of use of land or buildings should check whether planning permission is needed and obtain it before starting.

‘We take breaches of planning control seriously and act proportionately, taking enforcement action where necessary to protect communities and the local environment.’

The estate is currently listed on Rightmove through Maxwell Douglas, which advertises its countryside views and ‘comprehensive equestrian facilities’.

Its description lists seven stables alongside a tack room, feed room, hay store, store room and workshop.

The stable block itself doesn’t have to be demolished, but George says the living space must be stripped of plumbing, plasterboard and insulation, preventing him retaining a toilet or turning it into a play area for his son. He says the heating oil tank can stay.

As he put it: ‘Perversely I’m allowed to keep the heating oil tank but the boiler that runs off it has to go.’