Mobile homes, log cabins and pods in the garden: the rules

The options compared

Mobile homes and caravans

The exemption for caravans is about storing them: one caravan, campervan or boat can be kept at the house, subject to conditions, including that it isn't kept for more than nine months of the year and isn't occupied as a dwelling while it's stored.

Putting a mobile home in the garden for a family member to live in is a different thing. It needs planning permission, and councils regularly refuse it and take enforcement action. In one Kilkenny appeal, a planning inspector recommended refusing retention for a static mobile home used as a home, noting that the caravan exemption "does not allow for residential use".

Log cabins

In planning terms, a log cabin is a garden building like any other. Used as an office, gym, playroom or hobby room, it's exempt if it meets the garden room rules. Two things catch people out:

• Thin walls. Many log cabin kits use 28 to 44 mm logs with no insulation. They're cold in winter and prone to condensation. See insulated garden rooms.
• Pitched roof height. The 4 m limit only applies to a tiled or slated pitched roof. A cabin with a felt or shingle roof has the 3 m limit.

Modular and pod homes

Factory-built modular homes and pods can qualify as a Class 3A garden home, if they meet every condition: 32 to 45 m², at least 0.6 m from boundaries, 25 m² of garden left, connected to the main house's services, compliant with the Building Regulations, and notified to the council 14 days before work starts. Ask the maker for evidence of Building Regulations compliance before you buy.

If someone needs to live there

1. Check Class 3A first. Our garden home checker walks through each condition.
2. Price it properly. See garden home costs.
3. Consider an extension. A rear extension of up to 45 m² can be exempt. See garden home or extension.
4. Otherwise, apply for planning permission, and talk to the council's planning section first.