A static caravan in the garden for a dependent relative

Siting a static caravan in garden planning terms turns on use rather than on the unit itself. Putting a caravan on a hardstanding is rarely operational development, because nothing is built. What needs permission is the change of use, and whether that change happens depends on how the caravan will be occupied. A relative living in it as part of the same household, sharing the house for meals and laundry, is usually ancillary to the dwelling. A relative living wholly independently in it is a separate dwelling, and that is a material change of use.

Councils see a lot of these applications and have become good at spotting which is which. The distinction is worth understanding before you buy the unit.

Whether siting a caravan is development

Development under section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is either operational development or a material change of use. A caravan delivered on wheels and stood on a slab involves no building operations, so the question is only whether the use of the land has materially changed.

Where the caravan is used for a purpose incidental to the enjoyment of the house, such as a study, a hobby room or occasional guest accommodation, there is generally no material change of use. Where it becomes someone's home, separate from the household in the main house, there is.

Between those two sits the case most people are actually in: a parent or adult child living in the caravan, dependent on the household, eating in the house and relying on it for care. Councils vary in how they treat that, which is why a straightforward application is usually the sensible route rather than relying on an assumption.

The statutory definition of a caravan and its limits

A caravan is defined in section 29 of the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 as a structure designed or adapted for human habitation that is capable of being moved from one place to another, whether towed or carried on a vehicle or trailer. A unit assembled on site from two halves, a twin unit, counts as a caravan under section 13 of the Caravan Sites Act 1968 provided it stays within the stated dimensions.

Those maximum dimensions, as amended, are 20m in length, 6.8m in width and 3.05m in overall internal height. Exceed them and the structure is a building, which makes its erection operational development in its own right.

The same consequence follows from how you install it. A unit on strip foundations, connected by permanent masonry skirting, with a built veranda tying it to the ground, can cease to be capable of being moved. At that point you have built a house in the garden, and the application you needed was a different one.

Use within the curtilage incidental to the dwelling

Site licensing and planning are two separate regimes, and the exemption people have usually heard about belongs to licensing. Schedule 1 to the 1960 Act exempts the use of land within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse for a caravan, where that use is incidental to the enjoyment of the dwellinghouse, from the requirement for a site licence.

Read that carefully. It removes the licensing requirement in defined circumstances. It says nothing about whether planning permission is needed, and it depends on the use being incidental, which occupation by a separate household is not.

Curtilage matters too. A caravan in a paddock beyond the garden fence may be outside the curtilage altogether, which changes both the licensing position and the planning judgement, and in the countryside brings landscape and isolated-dwelling policy into play.

When occupation makes it a separate dwelling

The tests officers apply are practical:

• Does the unit have its own kitchen and bathroom, making independent living possible
• Is there a separate access, parking space, bin store or post arrangement
• Could the unit be sold or let separately from the house
• Is there any physical or functional link to the main house, or is the garden subdivided
• Who pays the bills, and is there a separate meter

One or two of these will not decide it. A pattern of them will. The more self-contained the arrangement looks, the more likely the council treats it as a new dwelling, which brings density, amenity, parking and in some areas affordable housing policy into the assessment.

A granny annexe inside the house or attached to it is treated the same way for this purpose. The caravan point is simply that the structure is movable.

Site licensing and the exemptions that apply

Where the use is ancillary in fact and sits within the curtilage, no site licence is needed. If the council concludes you have a separate residential unit, the licensing position needs checking with the authority, because the exemptions in Schedule 1 are specific and do not cover a caravan occupied as an independent home on a residential plot.

Do not treat the absence of a licence requirement as evidence that planning permission is not needed. Councils hear that argument often and it does not succeed.

Drainage, services and winter occupation

The practical problems are almost always foul drainage and heat. A caravan occupied year-round needs a foul connection, and connecting to the house drainage usually means a new run with a rodding point and, on some systems, the water undertaker's agreement. Where there is no mains connection, a package treatment plant or septic tank brings its own consent and a foul sewage assessment for the application.

A caravan is not a building for Building Regulations purposes, so there is no Part L or Part O compliance to demonstrate. The trade-off is running costs and comfort: units built to a holiday specification perform poorly in a British January, and an elderly relative in a poorly insulated unit is the outcome nobody wants. Ask the supplier for the insulation specification and whether the unit is built for residential rather than holiday use.

Water, electricity and a heating source all need routing, and a trench across a garden with mature trees has its own constraints.

Temporary permissions and personal conditions

Councils frequently grant these applications with a condition tying occupation to a named person or to a defined relationship, and requiring the caravan to be removed when that occupation ends. Personal conditions are exceptional in planning terms, and national guidance treats them as such, but dependent relative accommodation is one of the recognised situations where they are used.

A temporary permission for a set number of years is the other common outcome. Read the condition before you spend: a three-year permission on a unit you expect to use for fifteen is a different proposition, and extending it later means another application with no guarantee.

Where the site is in the Green Belt or open countryside, expect the temporary and personal route rather than a permanent consent, and expect the siting to be scrutinised for landscape effect. The evidence expectations for caravan-based living in rural settings overlap with those described in our note on traveller pitch application evidence.

What to submit and what to expect

A householder-style application pack for this will normally include a location plan, a block plan showing the caravan, parking, bin storage and the drainage run, elevations and dimensions of the unit from the supplier, and a short planning statement setting out the dependency, the functional link to the main house and the arrangements for removal.

Explain the need plainly. A paragraph on why the relative cannot live in the house, who provides care and how the two households function as one carries more weight than design argument. Where the unit is visible from the road or a neighbour's garden, a design and access statement or a simple siting rationale with screening helps.

Determination is normally eight weeks for this kind of application. Neighbour comments usually focus on parking and on the fear that the unit becomes a rented flat, so addressing both in the submission is time well spent.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it, and remember that a lawful development certificate is the only formal way to confirm that an existing use is lawful.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which documents an application of this kind is likely to need.

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