Is it possible to buy a cheap house?

[cdr]

I'd like a "shack". When I search for cheap houses on RightMove, all I see= is holiday homes, and they all appear to have living restrictions. For in= stance, you can't live in them permanently because the site they're on clos= es in the winter. Or you must have another main permanent residence in the= UK.

Do "shacks" exist? I need one with mains water, electricity, and phone. H= aving to pay ground rent is OK, but some of those holiday park homes charge= thousands of pounds per year, for some kind of pitch fee / service charge.

I appreciate my request is general, but I'm just searching for general answ= ers at the moment. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks a lo= t.

[Nightjar]

holiday homes, and they all appear to have living restrictions. For instance, you can't live in them permanently because the site they're on closes in the winter. Or you must have another main permanent residence in the UK.

Having to pay ground rent is OK, but some of those holiday park homes charge thousands of pounds per year, for some kind of pitch fee / service charge.

at the moment. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks a lot.

They are usually called residential mobile homes these days.

Colin Bignell

[Onetap]

Not legally. Any bit of land will have a small value if agricultural and a huge value with planning permission. Once you've got grandfather rights (or whatever they're called) to live in your shanty, you can apply for permission to upgrade the building and sell it on for lots more. There was an item on the TV recently about a railway carriage, that had had an elaborate building constructed around it. Someone lived in the carriage in the '30s and later builders had to retain the carriage.

Similarly, demolishing an existing building is usually inadvisable since you won't necessarily get planning permission to build on the, now vacant, site at a later date. The usual procedure is to apply for permission to demolish and rebuild.

[cdr]

I'd just like to quickly add to my original post. When I say "shack", I am hoping to find a detached dwelling outside of any "compound". When I say compound, I mean any type of holiday park / campsite / communal area. Thanks.

[The Natural Philosopher]

mobile home on permanent pitch. Not as bad an options a 'US trailer trash' suggests

[The Natural Philosopher]

Much harder.

Become traveller and the the EU will give you a million pound grant to grab any old bit of land and settle on it

[brass monkey]

Do "shacks" exist? I need one with mains water, electricity, and phone. Having to pay ground rent is OK, but some of those holiday park homes charge thousands of pounds per year, for some kind of pitch fee / service charge.

I appreciate my request is general, but I'm just searching for general answers at the moment. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks a lot.

Wodney is the obvious one to ask, for 40 years.

[Nick Odell]

Aha! Not absolutely anything, anywhere, then.

I think you ought to put some more information into the uk.d-i-y-propertysearch search engine if you want a proper answer.

How much are you willing to pay - tops?

How many parts of the UK are you willing to live in?

What about overseas?

If what you are looking for is a half-million quid detached estate that everyone else has 'overlooked' and is up for grabs for five hundred quid then forget it.

On the other hand, if you google without the quotes for 'house for sale 5000' you'll get the idea of what's possible from the first result. No neighbours. Not because it's detached but because the house next door is boarded up. And the house next door to that. And the house... etc etc etc. Oh, did I mention that it's got no roof?

Nick

[Nightjar]

hoping to find a detached dwelling outside of any "compound". When I say compound, I mean any type of holiday park / campsite / communal area. Thanks.

You could always try buying a piece of land that is not readily visible from anywhere that people might pass by, build yourself a shack and hope that nobody notices it during the next four years. You can then apply for a certificate of lawfulness, which will be equivalent to it having been granted planning permission.

Doing things like having a green roof and having tall hedges around the site might help, provided they are a normal part of the property. Don't build a haystack around it and remove that after four years - that has been tried and failed, as the need for planning permission was deemed to start only after the property was exposed to view.

Colin Bignell

[Nick Odell]

hoping to find a detached dwelling outside of any "compound". When I say compound, I mean any type of holiday park / campsite / communal area. Thanks.

Excellent suggestion. The mains water, electricity and phone stipulations might be a bit of bugger, though :)

Nick

[Mr Pounder]

Do "shacks" exist? I need one with mains water, electricity, and phone. Having to pay ground rent is OK, but some of those holiday park homes charge thousands of pounds per year, for some kind of pitch fee / service charge.

I appreciate my request is general, but I'm just searching for general answers at the moment. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks a lot.

Burnley in Lancashire. You will get a house there for about 200 quid. Mr Patel will help you move in.

[Jules Richardson]

What's the legal definition of "exposed to view", JOOI? Presumably there must be something along the lines of the dwelling being visible from x metres away, or one side of it left uncovered, or something.

Do below-ground structures need planning permission at all? (because you're not really 'hiding' it by building something around it to conceal it - the "something around it" exists already, although I suppose it could be interesting to build into a hillside and then dig the hillside away at a later date)

There's no such thing as planning permission here, which is nice.

cheers

Jules

[Nightjar]

hoping to find a detached dwelling outside of any "compound". When I say compound, I mean any type of holiday park / campsite / communal area. Thanks.

You always have to make a few compromises when you are looking for a new house.

There are plenty of books on self-sufficiency that deal with water supplies. Electricity can come from a generator and lots of people have given up land line phones in favour of using mobiles.

If cdr still thinks he needs them after four years of adapting to doing without, it would be possible to get mains supplies laid on then. It would be possible, but more risky, to get them laid on at the start - someone might, for example, wonder where the (probably) overhead power line was going. Of course, by then the shack is probably starting to get a bit expensive.

Colin Bignell

[tim.....]

mobile home on permanent pitch. Not as bad an options a 'US trailer trash' suggests

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But also not significantly cheaper than buying a "real" home in the same general area.

tim

[tim.....]

What's the legal definition of "exposed to view", JOOI? Presumably there must be something along the lines of the dwelling being visible from x metres away, or one side of it left uncovered, or something.

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It was a single case that established a new piece of case law.

The judge ruled that it being surrounded by the haystack was part of the building process and thus the build completion date (and the start of the 4 year clock for the LA to object) was not until the hay was removed.

tim

[John Rumm]

I expect if there was a cheap way to do it, there would be lots of competition, and hence it would not stay cheap for long.

[Onetap]

I am hoping to find a detached dwelling outside of any "compound". When I = say compound, I mean any type of holiday park / campsite / communal area. = Thanks.

;-) That could work; maybe do a straw bale type structure you could afford = to abandon if/when the local authority detect it. Google for pictures of th= e Hobbit House; built, inhabited, abandoned. I suspect the local toe-rags &= /or pikeys would target anything remote enough not to arouse the planning d= epartment's attention. =20

[The Natural Philosopher]

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can be. Years ago I looked at them and 10k on a pitch versus 60k for the cheapest 1 bed maisonnette.

[Onetap]

for 10 years, apparently.

Or this;

[John Rumm]

To be fair that is not actually a daft idea if you don't need to be anywhere in particular. Plenty of houses (typically terraced) that can be had for competitively little up north and in ex mining towns etc. So long as you don't mind having little in the way of local infrastructure and no local employment etc.

North west, and Wales seem to offer some of the lowest cost stuff... like: