As long as there are certain rules set in place, there will be people who will come up with ways to break, or at least bend, them. People will always try to find loopholes in any situation, from real estate to even simple household tasks.
PA
For some, all of this is a risk they’re willing to take. Up until recently, Reeta Herzallah and Hamdi Almasri’s garage hid something really amazing behind their garage. Well, that is, until the council found out about it.
Meet The Doctors
Hamdi Almasri, 39, and his wife, Reeta Herzallah, 37, are both doctors. They live in the small town of Enderby, which is in the county of Leicestershire, central England. The couple’s home is a huge two-story brick house that faces a busy highway in the county district of Blaby.
One feature of their property is a one-car garage. Eventually, the couple has done so much work on their garage that it now looks far from ordinary. So much so that this garage went viral in a very surprising way.
Regulations
Reeta and Hamdi’s home is part of a development originally built in 2007. During the time of the development, a condition was made with the developers that each home was to have a specified area meant for a vehicle to be placed.
BPM Media
All properties were to have an allocated garage in order to avoid access problems correlating to excess on-street parking. However, back in 2015, Blaby District Council got complaints about residents breaking those regulations.
What Was Wrong
Upon investigation, Blaby council officials found some things that the couple broke. First of all, they discovered that the couple had erected tall fencing that blocked cars from parking in the designated areas.
BPM Media
On top of that, they found that the couple made an illegal access road that led from their property and directly onto the busy highway. However, the worst offence was probably what lay behind those tall fences.
Strict Rules
It seems that the couple turned their garage into compact living quarters. But, more importantly, the converted garage formed another necessary parking area. However, none of these changes was legally approved by the council.
South West News Service
In the U.K., planning permission is a serious thing. Residents are not allowed to make building developments that are perceived to be damaging to the local neighbourhood or an inconvenience to the general public.
Making Appeals
In July 2016, Herzallah and Almasri made an appeal to the district council in a fruitless attempt to keep all the changes they made to their Enderby property. Sadly, the couple’s application was denied.
South West News Service
In February 2017, they tried appealing again. This time, they appealed to a higher body with more power, the National Planning Inspectorate for England and Wales. Sadly, their application was denied a second time.
Complying
Halfway through 2017, it seemed like Herzallah and Almasri were finally going to comply with the council regulations when they finally took down the illegal fencing. But then, it seemed like they had a trick up their sleeves.
Blaby District Council/PA
When council officials travelled to Enderby for a follow-up inspection, they discovered a huge door leaning up across the front of the garage. Imagine their surprise when they looked behind the big door to see an even smaller door with some windows.
Legal Procedures
Unfortunately, the couple did not comply with the rules after all. The small area was still being used as a mini home. The council officials believed someone was living in the converted garage, maybe an employee of theirs.
South West News Service
Finally, in November 2017, the council initiated legal action against the couple. One of the people who initiated legal action was councilwoman Sheila Scott, who is also in charge of planning and housing strategy in the council.
Completely Unacceptable
During a press release in February 2018, Scott said, “The message from this case is clear. If you breach planning regulations and ignore us, we will not just go away. Creating an access onto [a] busy [highway] and blocking off valuable off-road parking space was completely unacceptable.”
leicestermercury.co.uk
On February 7, 2018, a hearing on the issue at hand was held at the Leicester Magistrates’ Court. The couple did not attend the proceedings. Due to their absence, they found the currency equivalent of just over $1,000.
Attention
Aside from that, the couple was also ordered to pay legal costs of around $1,700 and a victim surcharge of about $107. Ever since word got around about what the couple had done, it went viral and was covered by multiple newspaper columns.
leicestermercury.co.uk
The attention led Herzallah to make a public Facebook post a week after the court proceedings, February 13. Herzallah claims that this was all false information and that they were being vilified in the press.
Racial Undertones
Sadly, Reeta Herzallah believes there’s more to this issue than just breaching regulations. She believes there are racial undertones to this issue. Why else would this be such a big thing when there are also other issues like this but don’t garner that much attention?
She wrote, “A simple council dispute over a tiny garage within our property that we converted for personal use was made into the ‘foreign doctors’ that ‘hid a house’ behind a propped up garage door story!”
Her Facebook Post
“It does not feel random that this was given all this attention when there are thousands of similar council disputes,” she also wrote. The post also denied that they had turned the garage into a separate home for some else.
BBC
She claimed, “This was a simple single garage conversion into a small garden annexe in the house that we own on the land that we own, and it cannot be called a separate house in any stretch of imagination! We had no intention of breaking any laws.”
Confusion
Moreover, Herzallah also said that the contractor they hired to do the conversion advised them that the modifications were allowed. Now, they were caught up in a dispute over returning the house to its original state.
Blaby District Council/PA
She also added that the only reason the garage door was leaned against the front part of the building was that it was awaiting installation and not because they were hiding their second home behind it.
Both Sides of The Story
“What stupid person would hide an annexe with a propped-up garage door?” Herzallah asked in her Facebook post. “I suggest some respect to the readers’ intelligence would at least have been nice!” She also had something to say to the haters.
Maskot/Getty Images
Herzallah addressed the haters by saying, “I also suggest that before you try to attack a law-abiding, hardworking couple who have been misled by the council and builders, get both sides of the story.”
In Favor Of Them
Browsing the online comments the readers left on various news articles, it was clear to see that some were on the side of the couple and actually sympathized with them. “Seriously, why can’t people’s homes be their own to [do] with as they please?” wrote one person.
Mairo Cinquetti/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Another person wrote underneath the story the U.K. tabloid the Metro ran, “Such a shame, I say boo to the neighbours that reported it and boo to the planning.” But there were also other people who were against the couple.
On The Other Hand
Like any issue, there will be people who will disagree with you. Just like this issue, not everyone agreed with what the couple was claiming. They also left comments on the online version of the Daily Mail to express their opinions.
Oscar Wong/Getty Images
They said, “If it was a separate dwelling, would it have been subjected to council tax, water rates… house insurance, and if so would these have been paid? If it was just an extension, why be deceitful about it?”
Not The First Time
However, this was not the first time property owners in central England tried to outsmart the authorities with loopholes. There was one couple, Roy and Gail Coles, who built a concealed cottage on their land in Lichfield, Staffordshire.
South West News Service
The couple rented out the main house on the property and decamped to their secret structure. The concealed two-bedroom home was accessible via a private road and the exterior was made to appear like a barn.
Finally Caught
This luxurious place was topped off with a camouflaged roof and shutters to hide doors and windows. Surprisingly, the property stayed hidden for eight years. The property was inspected twice by local authorities, first in 2008 and next in 2012.
artuk.org
Council officers from Lichfield District Council somehow missed the disguised home twice. The house was only uncovered when an anonymous source informed the council. Sadly for the couple, they were ordered to demolished the illegal place.
Another Case
However, the most ambitious attempt to hide a house in the U.K. happened in the South of England. Robert Fidler of Salfords village in Surrey actually constructed a four-bedroom castle on his farmland between 1999 and 2006.
PA
Despite how big the house was, he managed to keep it hidden from curious eyes beneath bales of hay. He hoped that after the building would go unnoticed for four years without any complaints, it would become legal under a statute of limitations. After an extensive court battle, he was ordered to demolish the place in 2015.
Modest By Comparison
If you compare Herzallah and Almasri’s issue with the other cases we mentioned, their issue was modest in comparison. Nevertheless, the couple has been given until mid of March 2018 to fix the situation.
South West News Service
Despite all their protests, they must abide by regulations. No doubt, when the time comes, representatives of the Blaby District Council will swing by to ensure that the garage is now actually a garage and not a tiny home.