Garden Granny Annexes, Built to Live In

It depends on which of the two planning routes your annexe takes. We build most of ours under the first.

Caravan Act. Noah's domestic annexes are specified to meet the legal definition of a caravan. In England, an annexe within your home's domestic curtilage, used as accommodation ancillary to the main house, may qualify without a full planning application. A proposed Lawful Development Certificate can confirm this.

Full planning. Where the site or intended use needs a full planning application, we quote an appropriate specification separately. Letting or Airbnb is outside our domestic Caravan Act offer and needs a separate full-planning and building-regulations specification and quote. Where a full planning application is required, it typically adds around eight to ten weeks.

Our partner planning specialist checks your design, site and intended use, including listed buildings and National Landscapes (AONBs), and helps confirm the appropriate application and any other approvals. Application fees and any additional planning or building-regulations work are confirmed in your quotation, and any other required consents and site approvals are confirmed before you order.

Rules vary between councils and this is guidance, not planning advice. Your local planning authority is the only body that can answer for your specific site, and it is worth a call before anything else.

Read the planning permission guide

One is a leisure or work room. The other is designed for domestic living, with its layout, services and approval route checked for that use.

Kitchens and shower rooms are optional, quoted upgrades. Their internal plumbing is included in the upgrade quotation. External mains water, waste and electrical connections are arranged by you, or quoted separately by Noah.

The insulation is specified for all-day occupancy. Someone sitting still in an armchair all evening in February needs more than someone working for three hours, so this range is built on the same SIPS construction as Signature and to the same new-build U-values. Heating is then sized to that performance and added as an upgrade.

It takes one of two planning routes. Most of our annexes are built to the legal definition of a caravan under the Caravan Act, with full planning when you need it. The appropriate planning route, certification and site approvals depend on the design, site and intended use. Letting or Airbnb requires a separate full-planning and building-regulations specification and quote.

The GSB foundation and steel chassis are included, along with bedroom and bathroom partitions where selected and a white 32A ring main with four double sockets and six spotlights. Council Tax may apply separately; check the position with your council before committing.

The build quality is not the difference. Same workshop, same panels, same installers, same ten-year structural guarantee. What changes is everything that follows from someone living in it.

If nobody will sleep out there, a garden room may be a better match. The planning route is still checked for your site and use.

Compare the Garden Rooms range

It depends on the design, site and intended use. Our domestic annexe is specified to meet the legal definition of a caravan. Our planning partner confirms the applicable certification, approvals and any building-control requirements. A separate full-planning annexe specification is assessed for full Building Regulations.

We confirm the applicable certification, site approvals and any required consents for your agreed specification. Electrical work, drainage and connections are assessed alongside the building, with any additional work and fees confirmed in your quotation.

Letting or Airbnb use is outside the Caravan Act specification and requires a separate full-planning and building-regulations specification and quote. Tell us at the first conversation if that is your intended use.

Your annexe is made to order in our Shropshire workshop, then delivered and installed by our own team. We confirm the applicable paperwork before you order and provide it for the completed agreed specification.

It can, and it is better to know now than to find out from a letter.

A self-contained annexe (its own kitchen, bathroom and entrance) can be assessed by the Valuation Office Agency as a separate dwelling and given its own Council Tax band. That is not automatic and it depends on how self-contained the annexe actually is, but it is a realistic possibility and you should plan for it.

There are reliefs, and they are meaningful. Annexes occupied by a dependent relative may be exempt from Council Tax altogether, and annexes occupied by a family member, or left empty and unable to be let separately because of a planning condition, may qualify for a discount. The exact rules and how they are applied vary, and they do change.

Two practical suggestions. Ask your local council before you commit, describing what you are actually building and who will live in it. They answer this question regularly. And factor the answer into the running cost alongside heating and insurance rather than treating it as a surprise.

We are garden room manufacturers, not tax advisers. This is general information and your council and the Valuation Office Agency are the authorities on it.

Yes. That is what it is built for, and it is the reason this range exists separately from garden rooms.

On the Caravan Act route, the annexe is designed for family accommodation ancillary to your main home, with SIPS construction and 32A electrics. Kitchens and shower rooms are optional upgrades, quoted separately including internal plumbing. Noah annexes require more than 1m clearance from a boundary. Our planning partner checks your design, site and intended use; other siting or approval requirements may apply.

The Caravan Act route depends on the annexe remaining ancillary to your main house. Independent residential use, letting or Airbnb needs the full-planning route, with a separate full-planning and building-regulations specification and quote.

What the building itself can do is straightforward: someone can live in it comfortably, all year, for as long as they need to.

Design it for the person who will live there. Discuss level access, wider doors and bathing needs at the start so we can confirm the layout, specification and any upgrade costs.

Granny Annexes start from £20,555 including VAT for a basic 16 × 10ft pent studio with a standard 1ft front canopy, timber cladding, one glazed single door and no windows, MDF lining and laminate flooring, a steel chassis on our GSB foundation and a white 32A ring main with four double sockets and six spotlights. No bedroom partition, kitchen or shower room fit-out is selected at this starting price.

The building and main SIP panel square-metre rates are Signature rates plus 20%, based on external length × width. An L-shape is charged on its full external rectangle, including the corner cut-out. Cladding, doors, windows and other selected upgrades retain their usual itemised rates.

The building price includes MDF lining, laminate flooring, the steel chassis and GSB foundation, bedroom and bathroom partitions where selected, and a white 32A ring main with four double sockets, six spotlights, a switch and fuseboard.

All kitchens and shower rooms are optional upgrades, quoted separately including their internal plumbing. Use the layouts in the configurator for inspiration, then agree the units, fittings, finishes and complete scope with Noah.

Mains water, waste and electrical connections are arranged by you, or quoted separately by Noah after assessing the site. Planning fees and any additional approval work are also separately confirmed. Check any Council Tax position with your local council.

These prices are for the domestic Caravan Act specification. Letting or Airbnb requires a separate full-planning and building-regulations specification and quotation. We confirm the route, site requirements and complete scope for your intended use.

Design your studio or one-bedroom layout in the configurator to see your building price and selected extras, then talk to us to confirm the complete project quotation. Finance over 10, 12 or 24 months is available.

Not on the Caravan Act route. That specification is for accommodation ancillary to your main house, not for an independent dwelling, rental property or Airbnb.

Letting or Airbnb use needs the full-planning route, which requires a separate full-planning and building-regulations specification and quote. Tell us your intention before designing so our partner planning specialist can check the appropriate route and approvals.

Any proposed separate sale or independent residential use also needs advice specific to your property, permissions and ownership arrangements. Discuss it with your planning specialist and solicitor before committing.