Cases - Trustees of the Earl of Lichfield's Estate v Secretary of State for the Environment and Stafford Borough Council

Record details

Name

Trustees of the Earl of Lichfield's Estate v Secretary of State for the Environment and Stafford Borough Council

Date

[1985]

Citation

JPL 251

Keywords

Planning control

Summary

A house ceased to be occupied in 1979 and suffered vandalism. The doors and windows were boarded up and all the internal domestic fittings removed. The interior was dilapidated. However, there was a septic tank available and a supply of water and electricity. The Secretary of State considered the building to be uninhabitable in its present condition and therefore not a dwellinghouse.

On appeal, Mr Justice O'Neill approved a wider test set out by the Secretary of State in Oak Tree Cottage, Hope Mansell (1978) that:

'... while it is felt the building need not necessarily be a dwellinghouse actually in habitation at the time, there must at all times remain on the land a structure sufficiently intact as to reasonably support the description of a dwellinghouse and not merely the ruins of a dwelling.'

The judge also stated that the use had not been abandoned and this was a strong indication that the building was a dwellinghouse.