A Blackburn
lawyer is celebrating after netting
an estimated £2million overnight for
his client in a property battle in
the south. David Bailey, a partner
at Taylors Solicitors, secured a key
planning decision to allow a 50,000
sq ft retail showroom and warehouse
unit to be used for unrestricted
retail purposes.Kitchens
retailer Magnet has been using the
site, close to Plymouth, as a retail
outlet and for warehousing, but
while permission was granted for the
retail aspect to be built in 1985,
no change of use for the building
was ever authorised.
To maximise the value of the
property its owner English Holdings
Group, David’s client, needed to
establish the whole of the building
could be used for retail purposes.
David said: “In simple terms, if it
can be used for both then the
property is worth a lot more. After
initially favouring an application
for these uses, Plymouth City
Council then rejected the idea.”
It was at this point, last Autumn,
that Taylors, working with planning
specialist Adam Key of property
agents Savills, began piecing
together the jigsaw of evidence
about the historic uses of the
property.
David added: “The paper trail took
us back more than 40 years to 1971,
but it was worth the effort and we
knew we were on good legal ground.
“Our team worked well in securing
the decision the client wanted
because the Council finally gave
permission. It underlines a key
principle of planning law that if
permission is granted for
development and not on change of
use, if there are no restrictions on
use in the conditions, permission is
deemed to have been given for the
use intended by the development.
“English Holdings Group believes the
value of the property increased by
between £1.5million and £2million
overnight. It was an excellent piece
of teamwork between us and Savills.”
Adam Key of Savills Planning, who
worked jointly on the project added:
“To obtain this certificate of
lawfulness is relatively rare in
planning terms and to add such a
considerable value to a building for
a landlord is testament to all the
team’s hard work. This is an area of
planning that we deal with a lot
across the UK and similar businesses
could also benefit should the law be
behind them, as it was in this
case.” |
