Cases - Van Dyck v Secretary of State
Record details
- Name
- Van Dyck v Secretary of State
- Date
- [1993]
- Citation
- 1 PLR 124; 1 EGLR 186; 21 EG 112
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Enforcement notice
- Summary
-
The change of use of a building to a single dwellinghouse is immune from enforcement action on the expiry of 4 years from the breach. The question for the Court in this case was whether the conversion of a dwellinghouse into separate flats fell within this category or was subject to the normal 10-year rule.
Section 55(3)(a) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 states that use of a dwellinghouse as 2 separate dwellinghouses is a material change of use of the building and of each part. Building is defined in section 336 as including any part of a building. Therefore in the case of each new flat there is a change of use of part of the building to use as a single dwellinghouse. So the 4-year rule applies.