I recently watched the 80’s classic field of dreams with my partner who apparently has decided that she is never watching anything with me again as I ruin it! For anyone that hasn’t seen the film, it revolves around a farmer, played by Kevin Costner, who starts having delusions whilst walking around his farm and hearing voices saying ‘if you build it he will come. Having discussed this with his wife the couple decide that, as opposed to seeing a doctor, the reasonable thing to do is destroy your drop and convert a field on the farm to a baseball pitch.
Now I am not completely up to date with the legislation in the US however I hope that the planning laws are a lot less stringent than here in the UK because you cannot simply change the use of your Land/property without having considered, and in many occasions obtained, planning permission and this is the case even if you have a justifiable reason like ghosts told you too!
My fixation with the fact that Kevin’s breach of planning may result in the ‘if you build it he will come’ being a reference to a planning inspector visit followed by enforcement action and potential fines! This potential breach of planning, and more appropriately, my attempts at explaining to my partner the ways in which someone buying land which needed planning permission or dealing with land that had potential planning permission breaches or concerns was enough for her to decide that from here until we are able to influence farmers into converting their land with words, being whispered in the wind, she will not watch another film with me!
So if you do have any planning concerns, whether buying, selling or just considering something which may involve planning feel free to get in touch and I will be able to give you advice on the best way to approach your situation! I cannot ensure that you won’t get any ghostly visits but I should be able to ensure that you won’t get a planning enforcement notice!
