Agricultural Occupancy Agreement found to be faulty

Owen Devenport were instructed by a national company of Solicitors to deal with a problem relating to an old Section 52 Agreement restricting occupancy of a dwelling in Merthyr Tydfil. The recent purchasers of the property could not comply with the condition/restriction and the LPA were threatening enforcement action. The purchasers were not made aware of the existence of the restrictive occupancy Agreement. We were instructed to argue the case for the removal of the Agreement and set about doing some research into the planning history. This 6-bedroomed (and by now) run down property was never used for the purposes it was intended from the moment it was built. Clearly there was never a justification for the property originally but had been in existence since the mid 80's. Following a detailed submission it was later discovered that in fact the building had been erected in the wrong position in any event and therefore had been built without planning permission.

However having been completed more than 10 years previously (or indeed four years it could be argued) the LPA conceded that there was nothing they could do and the property and its occupation by non-agricultural workers was immune from enforcement action. Whist this was not initially the case being put forward the end result was the same and the clients can now complete their renovation of this rural property and know that their investment is safe.