Living in a converted coach

[Greg]

Hi all,

I'm a motorhome and caravan fan and a mechanic. Hating the mortgage but due to council regulations in the UK unable to live in a static caravan as I would wish. I recently thought, as I love vehicles, how about converting and living in a bus or coach and then taking the whole 'house' on holiday when we wish, returning back to base to 'plug in' for normal life in between months!

I'd be interested to hear views, especially on legality. If it's a vehicle it can't need planning permission surely! Also views on if a bus would be better, for room I can see it being twice as good but not sure about cruising ability on motorways for holidays or if I find a nice plot of land that happens to have access under a bridge.

Anyhow nice to meet you all and look forward to comments.

Greg
gregATgregandsarah.co.uk (replace AT with @)

[Jonathan Smith]

Hi Greg,

Welcome.

You can buy a bus or coach and convert it into a motorhome, all you need is to register it as a motorhome with the DVLA.

You don't need planning permission to live in a vehicle, but you may have problems if you stayed in the same place for a long time, as with a static caravan.

Buying and converting is easy, finding somewhere to park wether for storage or to live in can be a problem.

Jonathan

[Greg]

Hi,

This is what I imagined. Would I need planning permission to park it in one spot if I was living in it then?

I'm also curious if this applies if I wasn't in that spot for say a month a year, so it wasn't 'static' so to speak. Wonder if anyone has looked into this?

Greg.

[Jonathan Smith]

I think it all boils down to where you are? If you rented a spot from a farmer in the corner of a field and no one knew you were there, then there would not be a problem. You should not need planning permission because it is not a permanent structure.

But as usual you might get some busy body with too much time on their hands stir up trouble. You know the types; they phone the council cos some one has put up a wendy house or a tree house for their Kids and it's detracting from thier ammenity.

I would quite like to live in my own bus, I've been looking for somewhere near by. There are a couple of residential caravan sites in Edinburgh for static caravans.

[jimmy193]

Hi Greg,

Welcome to the site - a mechanic too!!

We are looking to live full-time in our bus at some time in the future while we renovate our "place in the sun" (probably be in Spain or some other warm place). If they can do it over there, why not here?? I suppose you would officially be classed as a "Traveller" if you do it in the UK?
We haven't looked in to it yet but if I find out anything I will post it here.
As for cruising abilities on the m'way, last time we took George out the MPG worked out about the same as for our 2L Honda with a 4/5-berth in tow.
You mentioned a bridge - are you thinking of converting a double-decker??

Regards,
Jim

www.freewebs.com/georgethebus

[Greg]

Hi,

Wow the economy sounds good! I would probably convert it to run on waste vegetable oil, this requires a heated tank and lines but as a bus is not driven for short journeys the warm up/switch over 10 minutes isn't really an issue. As waste oil is free (bar tax at 27.1p/l and no tax in other EU countries) this would seen the way to go with a bus.

I was thinking of a double decker providing I could find one with 6'8 headroom up and down as even a coach is small, to live in (big for a holiday).

I would like to rent our house out and buy some land and live in a coach which we take regularly on travels. Sadly this seems a problem in UK law, living in a bus requires planning permission which would never be granted for a dwelling which isn't cavity wall etc etc and on the grounds of being a bus would be automatically refused. They don't allow me to live in a static caravan either - tried.

Greg.

[stracyznski]

I would imagine the legal side of this would be pretty simular to those who live about canal boats. It might be worth talking to some of them....

[Living in a big bad bus legal]

Thanks, I have done so. Not got any definate answers, aside from they think it would be treated as a caravan regardless that it floats.

The only other thing I can think of is that under the present law you are allowed 28 days in one year living in a caravan (which I presume applies to a bus) in one place without planning permission. If you bought land, devided it up into 13 plots and ensured a title to each piece of land (possibly with different owners) then perhaps you could park the bus in another slot every 27 days or so..... If they decide to serve you that is, realising you can just move next door maybe they wouldn't bother after serving and you complying a few times....

Greg.

[Sammy]

I've done this, and there are some pitfalls. We lived on a farm, miles from anyone, and as suggested, some busybody reported us to the council. The planners sent the farm owner a letter saying if we were still living there in 28 days, she'd be fined several grand. I don't know why this is, as I'd looked at planning regs before when I lived in a static caravan, and there seemed no obstacle, but you can't argue when a friend is being threatened for thousands of pounds! It was fine to park it there, as long as we weren't on it.

A word of caution on deckers though - they tend to be slow, access is limited because of the height, and if you get very far afield, they start to break springs on bad roads. We met people who went all the way to Nepal on one, but after the original springs had broken and been replaced by chocolate ones made in India, they had ongoing problems. A coach is bigger than you think, big enough, we found, for a couple and a child. Still, I won't pretend I didn't want a decker too a lot of the time....... ;D

[Greg]

Thanks Sammy,

That is very interesting. Yes I agree about the problems re planning, currently there is virtually no way to do it legally.

Ah well, I can dream....

[Tim]

Hi,

I am currently thinking about selling up and self converting a coach (which I appear to be able to pick up an MOTed 20 year old one from about 5k).

After selling, and purchasing the right coach, I plan to utilise B&Q carpark and their electricity to do the conversion, before which we'll lap the UK before saying sweet farewell to our friends, and sweet F&*k *ff to Tony Blair, the taxman and the British establishment, and travel the world for several years - with our three school age children.

Hoping to find the ideal plot abroad, we'll reregister and move.

Outside Europe I doubt you get the same 'traveller resentment' you get in the UK. But then again 95% of UK citizens are brainwashed.

Comments and tips invited?

Happy travelling!

Tim.

PS whilst in the UK why not use my fast 0845 dialup at www.freeinternetaccess-uk.co.uk and help my surfing funds. Thanks if you do.

[Graham Webb]

Wow! I thought I came up with a unique idea a month ago when I thought I could convert a double decker bus, live in it whilst working full time in the uk. Then save up and travel around the world working for myself over the internet. My bus will have solar panels on the roof, a satelite phone and be twice the floorspace of the sh*t#y bedsit I'm currently in ;D

It looks like we're all coming up with the same idea

I'm a recently graduated engineer (not a mechanic), work in Plymouth for peanuts and have just started out on this project. Contact me on grahamwebb2000 at yahoo dot co dot uk lets compare notes and one day we may all drive a convoy past Westminster as a subtle hint about the housing problems and big brother culture in the UK!

[mortgagefreeliving]

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