Posted on 08/06/2013 6:16:02 AM PDT by dennisw
Eco-couple told to pull down their 'hobbit home' made entirely out of natural materials . . . but without planning permission
Family of three is made homeless by planning inspector's decision They built their home from scratch, but have been ordered to tear it down The couple admit they built it without first getting planning permission Their labour of love was branded 'harmful' to the countryside
A young couple have been left heartbroken after planners ordered their unique 'hobbit home' to be bulldozed, effectively leaving them homeless.
Charlie Hague and Megan Williams, both 25, built the roundhouse from scratch with their own hands, using only natural materials.
But the couple lost their appeal today against a planning enforcement notice telling them to tear their pride and joy home down.
Charlie and Megan, who have a one-year-old son Eli, built the house on private land in Glandwr, North Pembrokeshire, last summer.
Locals nicknamed it the hobbit home, although most people did not even know it was there because it is so secluded.
But Pembrokeshire County Council ordered the couple to demolish their home because it was built without planning permission.
Charlie and Megan, who live a self-sufficient lifestyle, fought the decision claiming it had a low impact on the environment because of its unique construction.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Just might be so!!!
Their home is yurt like and yurts are a big feature at the Glastonbury Festival (in UK) where if you have the $$$ you can bunk in one and enjoy the festival in relative luxury
Now, I know you don't think so, but this type of thinking is what has cost Americans much freedom. Too many people worry about what someone's property looks like. They own it they have the right to do with it as they will. Sadly, in too many cities those rights have long gone away because so many people worry about what others are doing and they worry about their "property values" and not their property rights.
Way to many so called conservatives stand by building codes and onerous laws that serve to sap us of our freedoms and serve no other purpose.
Joel Salatin, Mr Chicken Tractor the man who just about invented it. I would be copying him in a split second if I had the land
Nothing wrong with having limited special exemptions from building codes. Such as this couple could agree to hold classes a few time a year on unique home building. How to do some of what they did.
***They own it they have the right to do with it as they will.***
I had a man, wife and child, buy a lot about 75 yards from my house. He promptly pulled in an old trailer, and started collecting junk.
He had no water, no sewer or septic. His electric came from a long extension cord from another house about 50 yards in the opposite direction. He designated one room of the house for a toilet and used a lounge chair with a hole cut in the seat. The waste was poured in the local creek. The place stunk to high heaven.
After about eight years of this, the county sheriff raided the property and found the largest meth lab in the state there. The owners were arrested and are in prison, the child, then age 14, ran away and has never been seen since.
The state then began to clean up the property and had to place all the contaminated dirt around it in sealed metal containers for disposal. The trailer was dismantled piece by piece, but it was so contaminated they finally left it to “air out” for a few more years. Then the remains disappeared.
We have a pup from their dog that strayed up here. The vet said the pup had liver damage from the contaminated area, but eventually she overcame her liver problems and is a wonderful pet.
Some people are not good neighbors.
Doesn’t really take a lot of land to do permaculture & food production. You just have to have more skill at it than I do! :)
Really, I’ve heard that a 40X20 plot will produce more than you can eat.
I see possibilities for compromise in both your views. If you want to live in a sty, please feel free to buy land in a remote area and have a sty. If you are going to live next door to me, kindly don’t have a sty 20 feet from my property line.
We all have choices. We can elect to live in areas that have covenants to protect our property values but will drive us mad with regulation. Or we can live in less-regulated but more risky areas where we have lower taxes and less government intrusion, but we are not protected from neighbors who burn old tires. Decide where you want to live; we can still do that, fortunately. But generally people should not come into an area where everyone is comfortably slobby and impose middle-class shelter-magazine tastes on them. Don’t come into a middle-income area and keep six dead cars on the front lawn, because that will impinge on the neighbors’ ability to sell their houses. Don’t come into a suburban townhouse community and jack deer off your deck in the evening, because that endangers local kids, especially if you’re drunk when you do it (and yes, I do know folks who do that). If you want to do those things, move someplace where your values will fit in, rather than imposing your values on others.
The problem we in the US are facing is one of expectations. People move from city apartments to townhouses in the suburbs, from townhouses to single-family houses on a quarter of an acre, from a quarter-acre to five acres, and at each step they think they are going to have more freedom and privacy than they actually have. How many friends do I have who have moved to 10 acres and then are shocked when the county shows up to tell them they have to comply with manure disposal regulations? Or that they can’t build an extra bedroom over the barn or garage because the septic system won’t take another toilet?
One, when I said he can do with it as he wants, I meant as long as it was legal(and I don’t consider zoning laws or building codes legal, they are oppressive). Meth labs are illegal, and have nothing to do with my comment. Your neighbors were criminals, period. Zoning laws, laws that require a contractor, etc are all tyrannical and serve only one purpose, control of the people and a way to gouge money from them. There are ways to handle things. Laws that require a seller to disclose that no contractors were used and no codes were followed would serve as protection to the next owners. There are many ways to handle things out side of government interference. I don’t want it or need it. Thanks anyway.
Try the same thing in most of the U.S. and you'll get the same results. No permit- no house!
Calling it an abortuary wouldn’t require a religious conviction, but would give them absolute cover under the law.
I don’t know about that one. A lot of abortion facilities are closing down rather than clean up the blood and drippings from abortions on their floors and scrubbing down the cots after performing their nasty work.
As long as they are kept clean I believe they can stay open.
That home looks incredible.
if they move to the US, they can make a bundle helping people design their own homes..
building permits are necessary to guarantee the design integrity and safety of a structure.
What if - on your own property - you build an unsafe apartment building and it collapses, killing 20 people?
Risk management moved from the individual to the insurance company to the govt.
Hell, do you really think all them govt regulations stop risk, they just make more and increase the cost.
If govt is involved at all, it should be local. And I have no conflict with minimum standards but the beast has taken over.
It is an ingenious design. But, is it safe? “All natural” usually means stuff that’ll burn like a torch with little effort. Personally I believe that if people want to endanger themselves (up to and including Darwin Awards), then so be it. If they want to assume full responsibility for it, okay by me.
I’m not talking about construction standards for apartment building or other commercial enterprises where the public will be. We are talking about putting up a fence or a shed or finishing the basement on one’s own residential property.
One commentator suggested that the couple put their ingenious house on wheels.
I don’t know UK property laws, but I walked through a stone house in the Lake District in England that was built across a stream to avoid taxes. Nice little stone house, but sure was cold inside.
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