Aberdeenshire Council’s Planning Service published its non-statutory guidance on additional living or business space in September 2026. Version 1.0 is dated July 2026. It addresses annexes and accommodation in existing buildings, garden rooms, caravans, and short-term lets within an existing home’s grounds. It explains the Council’s planning approach; it is not a decision about a particular property or a statement of UK-wide rules.
Ancillary use or a separate dwellinghouse?
The Council considers the planning history and proposed use of a building in context. An existing attached or detached building used incidentally or ancillary to a dwellinghouse may remain within the home’s Class 9 planning context where the history and proposal support that treatment. Works to the building may still need planning permission.
A standalone building with extra primary accommodation may be treated as ancillary, but the Council makes a fact-and-degree assessment. Its guidance identifies planning history, scale and design, subordination to and connection with the main home, privacy and amenity, and information from the applicant as relevant factors. If the Council cannot accept the use as incidental or ancillary, a normal planning application for a separate dwellinghouse may be required. A kitchen, bathroom, separate entrance, or marketing label alone does not determine the planning result.
Caravans and associated works
A caravan in a domestic curtilage is not automatically subject to planning permission under the Council’s guidance. The applicable siting and permitted-development criteria still need checking. The caravan itself does not benefit from permitted-development rights, and separate work such as anchoring it in place, connecting services, or adding decking may constitute development requiring permission.
Check planning permission, building standards, service connections, and occupancy requirements separately. Planning treatment does not establish that an installation is technically safe or suitable for habitation.
Short-term letting
For tourist accommodation within the curtilage of an existing dwellinghouse, the guidance treats the use as Class 9 in its stated context. A secondary let will most likely require a short-term-let licence handled by Environmental Health. Licensing is separate from planning permission and from the question of whether an accommodation unit is a lawful separate dwellinghouse.
The guidance cannot decide a particular licence, planning-history issue, or application. Confirm the current guidance, the property’s planning record, any proposed works, and the licence requirements with Aberdeenshire Council before using or letting a unit.