- .Couple secretly converted a pigsty into four-bedroom home in the middle of the Norfolk Broads
- .In bid to outwit planners the owners made sure it looked like any other farm building from outside
- .Planning chiefs discovered home was created without planning permission starting a legal battle
- .Couple ordered to move out by the weekend and return building for its former use after losing case
- .Pigsty is now due to be auctioned and is expected to sell for between £20,000 and £40,000
A couple who secretly converted a crumbling pigsty into a four-bedroom home have been ordered to move out after losing a battle against planning chiefs.
In a bid to outwit planners the unnamed owner's made sure the outhouse looked like any other farm building, made of grey concrete blocks with big sliding doors and no windows.
But inside it had four bedrooms, a kitchen, living room and bathroom facilities and flourescent lighting and radiators.
Planners say the occupants 'deliberately concealed' the property and the only clues to its use were a letterbox on an entrance gate and a satellite dish on a wall away from the road.
In a bid to outwit the planners the owner's of the former pigsty made sure the outhouse looked like any other farm building from the outside
The owners had previously lived in the adjacent farm which they sold in 2008 and then bought the pigsty and other agricultural buildings.
The 3,293sq/ft shed, named Heathacre Barns, stands in the middle of the Norfolk Broads surrounded by farmland and waterways.
The local Broads Authority said the owners failed to get any planning permission to covert it into a house.
They became locked in a dispute with the local authority after they began to investigating in November 2012, when they were refused access to the site.
Inside the couple created four bedrooms, a kitchen, living room and bathroom facilities, without securing the necessary planning permission
Planning chiefs became suspicious about the outbuilding and launched an investigation after they were refused access to the site
Four months later the council ordered the owners to get out and return it to its former use.
A last ditch attempt to overturn the council's decision failed and they have been told they must move out this weekend.
The couple had tried to claim to the government's planning inspector they had obtained planning permission after living in the building for more than four years. However, the rule only applies when concealment is not used.
As a result they have put the pigsty up for auction with a guide price of just £20,000 - and a warning that it cannot be used for residential purposes.
They will have to strip out all the furniture and fittings and return the barn to its original state.
A report by a council planning officer said: 'It should be noted that it is considered that there has also been a deliberate attempt at concealment of this development.'
After losing their last ditch attempt to keep their home the couple have been ordered to move out and return it to its former state
A Broads Authority spokesman said: 'The couple converted the barn without planning permission.
'We asked them to remove everything and move out and they appealed against it so the case went to an independent planning inspector who supported us.
'They have to be out by Saturday and we will be inspecting the building to make sure they have removed the kitchen, bathroom and everything else they put inside.
'It can only be used as an agricultural building, which is why it is only £20,000.'
After the couple move out, the outbuilding will go under the hammer and is expected to fetch between £20,000 and £40,000 at auction
The couple own a second barn on the site in Chedgrave and previously owned a nearby house which they split into two properties and sold on.
Until they find a more permanent home they will be renting a room from the neighbours they sold their property to.
An enforcement order published by the Broads Authority in 2013 says the local planning authority started investigating the 'former piggery' in November 2012.
It says the building has a 'shallow pitched roof and no windows' and that the conversion is 'not of high quality'.
As the couple deliberately concealed the home, circled in this aerial picture, they were unable to apply for retrospective planning permission
The enforcement also referenced a pile of cages outside the building which had been used to house chinchillas.
It claimed the owner had advertised the pets on the internet but that they were 'not an agricultural animal' was a 'development which requires planning permission'.
Robert Hurst, from Auction House, said the property will go under the hammer with a guide price of £20,000 to £40,000.
'The idea was to try and keep it concealed as a barn and because they converted the inside and didn't change the outside they got away with it for years,' he said.
They will have to strip out all the furniture and fittings and return the barn to its original state before it is inspected by council officials at the weekend
'They concealed it, so even if they lived there for 20 years you couldn't then get any retrospective permission or anything like that.
'I think they have had held their hands up and admitted they are at fault.
'They have owned it for years because they used to live in the house next door before they bought the barn.
'They have done a lot of the work on the building themselves but I don't think they have spent a fortune on it.
'It doesn't have central heating and it has got electric plug-in heaters. I wouldn't have thought they spent a huge amount of money.'
It is being sold at Dunston Hall Hotel in Norwich on February 18 at 11am.
Robert Hurst, who is due to auction the building, said he did not believe the owners spent a 'huge amount of money' converting it
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