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Temporarily staying in a caravan after flooding

If your property has been damaged by flooding, you may be staying in a caravan whilst remedial work is underway. You may have employed contractors to carry- out building and engineering operations to your property and the contractors themselves may be staying on-site in a caravan. If this is the case, it is unlikely that Planning Services will be requesting an application for planning permission on the proviso that the caravan is only retained on site during the course of the remedial work and is not permanently connected to main services. You are advised to contact Planning Services directly for further site specific advice.

Usually, if a caravan is occupied as living accommodation, the person who owns the land on which the caravan is stationed is required to apply to the Council for planning permission and is required to hold a caravan site licence. However, there are many instances in which a site licence is not required. Two of these exemption categories, which may be relevant to you if your proprety has been affected by flooding, are as follows:

The caravan is used within the boundary of the property, and is used only by members of that household and their guests. The caravan must not be let to others on a commercial basis.
Buildling and engineering operations are taking place on the land on which the caravan is stationed, or adjoining land.

To help us build up a picture of where and how many caravans are being used as temporary living accommodation, whilst post-flooding remedial work is underway, please use the online form to notify us. This information will also help us to respond to any enquiries we may receive about the siting of caravans in front gardens, etc as we will be able to confirm whether we have had prior notification about a particular caravan, and that it is exempt from planning permission and site licencing requirements.

For further general flooding information please visit the Flooding section of this website.