Build a home for family in your garden in Melton Mowbray

Bringing an elderly parent to live beside you in Melton Mowbray often feels like the obvious answer, until you look at what the house can offer. A spare room up a flight of stairs rarely suits someone whose mobility is failing. A purpose-built single-storey home in the garden can.

We offer design and build of garden homes for family across Leicestershire, with no steps to climb, a bedroom at ground level and a walk-in shower built in from day one. Planning goes through Melton Borough Council, and we prepare and manage the application for you. Start with a free plot appraisal and we’ll tell you honestly whether your garden looks suitable.

Single-storey garden home with wide glazed doors and a covered porch at the back of a family garden
Planning authority
Melton Borough Council
Postcodes
LE13, LE14
Noon sun, 21 March
About 37°
Shadow from a 5 m eaves line
About 6.6 m
Planning plan
Local Plan
County
Leicestershire

What the council will look at in Melton Mowbray

How the two households will live together shapes the planning case as much as the drawings do. If your parent will eat with you, share the garden and rely on you day to day, an annexe is the natural fit, and that is what Melton Borough Council will expect the application to describe. If your son or daughter will run their own home, pay their own bills and perhaps sell up one day, it is a separate dwelling and will be assessed against the council’s Local Plan as a new house. For a family in LE13 and LE14, we help set that out clearly from the start.

Section showing noon sun and shadows in Melton Mowbray: about 37 degrees on 21 March and 14 degrees on 21 December21 m21 Mar, noon: sun 37°, shadow 6.6 m21 Dec, noon: sun 14°, shadow 20.4 mExistingNew home
This section is worked out for the latitude of Melton Mowbray: around 37° of sun at midday in late March and about 14° at midwinter. It shows why the gap between your house and a new home behind it is about light as well as privacy. Garden assumed to face north.

The next steps, locally

Getting started in Melton Mowbray costs nothing. Send us a few photos of your garden and the way in, or simply call, and we’ll look at the plot from the desk and talk through your family’s plans. If there’s a realistic scheme, we arrange a site visit. Survey and design are quoted in writing before you commit, and the build price follows once the design is settled.

  1. Free plot appraisal

    We look at your plot, access and the planning picture from the desk, talk through who will live in the new home, and visit if it looks viable. There’s no cost and no obligation.

  2. Annexe or separate home

    We set out both routes for your plot, covering what each means for planning, ownership, council tax, CIL and VAT, so you can decide with your family and advisers before design starts.

  3. Survey and design

    A measured survey, then a design built around the person moving in: step-free routes, a ground-floor bedroom if needed and privacy for both households. You get a written quote after design and survey.

  4. Planning and approvals

    We prepare and submit the planning application and manage it with the council, which makes the decision. Before work starts, approval under the Building Regulations is in place and any CIL exemption has been claimed.

Worth checking early

  • Family plans change: agree ownership, costs and what happens if circumstances change in writing, with a solicitor.
  • An annexe tied by planning condition usually can’t be sold or let separately, which limits flexibility later.
  • A separate home needs its own garden, parking, bins and access, so it needs more land than an annexe.

Melton Mowbray: questions to ask

Is CIL payable on a family home in Melton Mowbray?

Only if Melton Borough Council has adopted the Community Infrastructure Levy, which its website will confirm, and we check it for you during the appraisal. Where it applies, self-build and residential annexe exemptions exist, but both must be claimed before work starts and can be withdrawn if the home is sold or let within three years of completion.

Will an annexe in Melton Mowbray put up my council tax?

It might. Annexes can be banded separately, but exemptions exist for annexes lived in by certain dependent relatives, and in some cases a discount applies where family live there or the annexe is used as part of the main home. Who qualifies depends on the relative’s circumstances and how the annexe is used. Melton Borough Council’s council tax team can tell you how the rules apply to your household.

Who owns an annexe built in my Melton Mowbray garden?

You do. An annexe stays on the title of your house and usually carries a planning condition tying it to the main home, so it can’t be transferred to the relative living in it. If a family member is paying towards it, record what they’ve put in and what happens on a sale in a written agreement drawn up by a solicitor.

How long will building work disrupt my home in Melton Mowbray?

A single garden home usually takes several months on site, with the noisiest work, such as groundworks, drainage and heavy deliveries, concentrated near the start. We agree working hours, access and parking with you up front, and with the people next door where it affects them, so your household knows what each week will look like.

Other options in Melton Mowbray

Family home in your garden near Melton Mowbray

Find out what your garden could become

Free garden plot appraisal. No cost, no obligation, and a straight answer if it won’t work.