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If i did that it would end up in the body shop!

Max, I've traded from home for the last 3 years after giving up a pitch. It was a stop gap at 1st but quickly I realised it was a goer.......no strict set hours (I work by appointment only), not sat in an office on a cold December Saturday afternoon hoping someone may turn up and of course a lot lower overheads. I was renting a cheap unit to store my cars plus 4 at my home address and went well with no hassle. Around 6 months ago I did what your thinking of doing, saw a house for sale with lots of land and the potential to store all my cars on one site, garden office etc. Before I moved I rang my local council who told me I wouldn't need planning as long as I didn't price any cars or advertise, do any trades on site and basically didn't make it look like a scrap yard but......around 3 months ago I got a visit from the local planning who after spending 2 minutes with me told me I had to apply for "change of use". I questioned why and they didn't really give an answer, a few letters back and forth without them answering any of my issues and then around a month ago a letter informing me of magistrates court action unless I applied. They assured me if what I'm doing is going to continue it's only a formality as its a large plot, off a main road, nearest neighbours are over 700 metres away and separated by large trees and fields but its the local planning office and I fall under quite a snobby little village rather than the town who look like they reject everything - even a sky dish on cottage because it looked out of character - so I'm shitting it!! If they reject it, it means quite a big issue and of course planning takes forever so I'm just trying to ignore it and hoping for the best. So my advise would be to contact the council before taking it any further, get it in writing etc. BTW - I stock around 10-15 cars priced form £2000 - £8000