Back-garden cabin proposals: All you need to know
There's a swirling storm of misinformation on social media regarding the proposed changes to planning permission for siting modular buildings in gardens as living solutions. We don’t have the legislation in its final form, and it will have to go through several stages, including a public consultation. Here’s what we do know is under discussion between the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and other relevant departments of Government.Just as a preface, for anyone who thinks I have a prejudice regarding modular, CAD-made homes or timber buildings — I have lived in a B1-rated timber-framed, timber-clad house for 25 years, and set up house for extended periods in a motor home. Tiny homes, factory builds, and timber structures are not the problem here. Suitably designed, sited, insulated, ventilated and maintained, a quality cabin or larger house can (for decades) do exactly what bricks and mortar can do.Proposals Now, the proposals. What the government is discussing is allowing the building or placement of a detached “building or structure” up to 40sq m (430sq in) in a larger, appropriate family garden. The remaining space must be at least 25 sq m (current density stipulations) and obviously, the area must be reached easily by the fire brigade. The potential change to planning law is clearly aimed at rural situations and bigger back gardens, not the modest 40sq m to 50sq m outdoor room of a typical three-four-bed new build in a city. It's perfect for farmers with plenty of surrounding land — many of whom are caught in planning battles to accommodate a younger generation working with them.Currently, we can only build 25sq m detached and behind the house. This cannot be permanent/residential, and it’s an aggregated situation if you have already added sheds and outbuildings. If the law passes, if the owner tips over 40sq m detached, just as with an attached extension, planning will be required. Can the building be a block-build, or just what’s termed modular? Still to be clarified, and the use of the term “modular” is almost deliberately confused in Ireland.The intention for changes to the National Planning Framework, the cruelly dubbed “bed in a shed”, is that generations of the same family — children and ageing parents in the main — can make use of extra room developed in the existing garden whatever way suits their personal situation. One cabin supplier was quoted in the media last month as saying that a €30,000 log home, rented out for €2000 a week, was a “no-brainer” for landlords. The proposed legislation has made no mention of landlords jumping aboard a lucrative enterprise, craning backyard studio rentals into their properties. It’s intended as an adjunct to a family home. Still, real need aside, there’s an investment opportunity for anyone who has the money to build a larger 40sq m residential inclined studio space, or guesthouse in any rangy garden.Rightsizing Now, about “rightsizing”. I think about the ageing parents guilted into moving out of their house and into the garden cabin to facilitate their children and their brood. Are they likely to be pressured to provide one too? I don’t want to be annexed by my subordinates. Prices for a single-bed cabin, twin-skinned in larch, without a kitchen and bathroom, and requiring groundwork utilities (water, power and sewerage) start at €14,000, with full turn-key architecturally titivated studios in the area of €40,000. Dimensions of 25sq m-40sq m could be oppressive if you’re coming from a home three times that size and looking for accessible living. The boundaries are blurred when there are no boundaries. Intergenerational living can prove a wonderful experience, but in the complexity of family relationships, duress is real. Heirs can leap to “Well, it’s all going to be ours someday anyway”. The happy-clappy spin by the government regarding life-altering compromises for veteran homeowners doesn’t meet real life for everyone.Adult children As for adult children? Infantilising young people for more than a couple of years in a tiny house under your eye — it just seems all wrong. Yes, as emergency accommodation while they back up a deposit for their real home, or chase down a reasonable rental. That makes sense. Following a loving and generous offer when I returned to Ireland, I moved into a roomy old coach-house behind my parents’ house in my 20s. I furnished a rut that became deeply stressful for all of us. Frankly, negotiating this unnatural situation day-to-day, decimated my self-confidence, my savings were meagre, and my personal life was compromised. I was happier living in my camper — independent, fully alive and charting my own course.Unintended consequences There will be further unintended consequences if planning is relaxed for 40sq m detached extensions and backyard studios. The following is inevitable in my view. Young Dympna is going to college and wants digs for a couple of years. She moves into her parents’ well-appointed backyard studio behind the McMansion and then leaves for wherever. Good luck, Dympna. The house owner then flips the studio to an Airbnb — fair enough. Not what this change in the law was meant for, mind you — but astute house owners and landlords are watching. What if Dympna’s less-than-compassionate parent let the place off the books, and it’s taken by a vulnerable individual or family? Who will police these unseen rentals?Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin talking to RTÉ News said, “I agree with the Minister that this should operate within the same parameters of the existing exempted development. That is sensible. I do think there should be an explicit exclusion of rental properties.” That’s fine, but once the building’s up, it’s up.Planning permission Hear me, now. There is no blanket change ahead for residential log homes or any small studio-style building on an individual site being included as exempted development under discussion. If you intend to put up and live in a timber building or any tiny home or structure rooted to the ground (tied to utilities or off-grid) on a site — it is subject to planning permission. Quite apart from the usual planning hurdles surrounding one-off, self-builds, many local authorities do not regard wooden buildings as appropriate to the local vernacular. You’ll have an uphill battle, depending on your council’s local development plan. If you’re told otherwise by a loghouse supplier or they hint at a grey area — they are just being cute. Planning matters are your responsibility, not theirs.Posting your illegal little home on Instagram without planning in place? That’s brave stuff and relies on the goodwill of your neighbours to keep mum. Every responsible vlogger no matter what their politics, life course and decision-making, will tell their followers to look into planning. Not even mobile homes used during a house-build can slide under the radar under our current planning law. Are people ignoring the rules? Yes, widely and roundly — and who can blame them? There are studios, mobiles, residentially tailored garages, extensions and cabin-style buildings parked behind every bend in my locality. People are surviving the housing crisis the best way they can. Will a variety of studio build types and finishes studded through back gardens change our urban and rural landscapes? Possibly. Still, human beings come first, last and always in any civilised country.
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