People living in illegal cabins - including family forced to dismantle home - tell their stories

BEHIND THE GOVERNMENT’S attention-grabbing announcement this week that it will exempt small cabin homes on family land such as back gardens from planning rules, there’s the reality that many people have lived in such structures for years.

For some families, such as Brendan McDonagh from Brittas in Co Dublin, the government’s plan comes too late.

Last month, McDonagh demolished the 65 square metre cabin where he had lived with his wife and two children. The cabin was constructed without planning permission, and South Dublin County Council, which refused retention planning permission, won a case at the Dublin District Court to force its removal. 

Meanwhile, while the government has claimed that the new rules will not open the door for exploitation by greedy landlords, one reader of The Journal told us the tin-roofed cabin without insulation they lived in during the recession, over 10 years ago, is still being rented out.

“The pipes would freeze in the winter and it used to cost hundreds to heat. The landlord charged €650 a month. They [landlords] will go to town on this, so they will,” the reader predicted.

Another man, who lived in a cabin in his landlord’s garden in Kildare for two years said he “wouldn’t wish it on anyone”. The lack of privacy, the proximity allowing his landlord to check up on him, and the poor condition of the accommodation made for a “horrible experience”.

“The shower was a foot and a half away from my bed and leaked. Slugs and other garden insects would emerge from behind the sink at night.

“I lived in that house during both Storm Ophelia and The Beast from the East. Lost power during both. I thought the roof was going to blow off during Storm Ophelia.

The government is looking at using this kind of model to help solve the housing crisis. Some people believe that it would help. I can only go by my experience. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”

‘Hoping to stay under the radar’

Danielle has been living since last summer in a cabin built without planning permission in her parents’ garden in Dublin.

She erected her home without applying for planning permission after hearing mixed reports of whether such approval would be forthcoming from the council.

“Right now I am just hoping to stay under the radar of the council. If the new rulings come in maybe I can breathe a sigh of relief,” she said.

She and a friend had been paying €900 a month each in rent for an apartment before she moved back in with her parents – but found herself longing for own space.

Buying her own home is out of reach, despite working full-time.

The cabin cost €45,000 in total including ground works, installation and painting; she used savings and a loan – repayments for which are far less than what she paid in rent.

Danielle’s experience contradicts the views of some naysayers to the government’s plan.

“Now I have four walls to call my own and a place to relax on my days off. I drop into my neighbours, my parents that is, to use their washing machine and for dinner every now and then. It’s the best thing I’ve done for myself,” she said.

 Those who have been calling them sheds have clearly not set foot in one.

“They are fully insulated and with two panel heaters. Mine has been grand and cosy these past few months.”

Another woman who asked to remain anonymous said that after five years on a cabin on family land with her husband and two children, she had saved enough for a deposit for a house.

“In my opinion, cabins or modular homes on your own land or family land would be a great option for many people such as small families, people who find themselves seperated or divorced, single people trying to buy a house on their own, one parent families and young people trying to get out of the home house and gain independence.

People are suffering, they are desperate, frustrated and hopeless. This measure could give many a ray of hope and the possibility of somewhere to call home.”

‘It’s really a shed. There is no heating.’

However, another woman – currently living in a ‘granny flat’ at the bottom of her son’s garden after the breakdown of a longterm relationship – sounded a more cautious note.

“It’s really a shed. Not by choice. The flat needs work but we can’t afford it. There is no heating and I do not have a separate entrance, it’s a terraced house so I have to go through my son’s house going in or out.

The facilities in the flat are just enough for me to cook a meal on an induction hob but I cannot have a friend visit for a meal or even a coffee. The flat is freezing and since moving here I have constant respiratory infections.”

Employed as a civil servant on a lower grade, she does not qualify for social housing support. She knows of two other women in her department living in the same circumstances as herself, also after separating from long-term partners.

She said all three of them have considered “cost rental” options but these are “not cheap” and they worry what would happen if they retired and their income dropped and they could no longer afford their rent.

“Living at the bottom of someone’s garden is fine if the accommodation is suitable and if there is a separate entrance – not through the main house. And if it is by choice. Not everyone wants to live with family members,” she said.

Brittas home was ‘absolutely beautiful’

Brendan McDonagh last year lost an eight-year battle to keep a timber chalet-style home he built on his parents’ land in Brittas, a rural area in the foothills of the Dublin mountains. He was fined €2,000 in the District Court.

McDonagh, a welder and father of two children aged nine and six, took down the home last month, on foot of a court order.

“It was horrible,” McDonagh said of taking down his home.

“I started it and I burst into tears when I got into the kids’ bedroom after I broke up the bathroom. My heart wasn’t able for it after everything I’ve done to that place, the way we built it. It was absolutely beautiful. We loved it.”

In the end, McDonagh employed two men to take down his home for him.

South Dublin County Council’s position was that the two-bedroom dwelling did not comply with housing standards, being too small and therefore “substandard…and not in the interest of the proper planning and sustainable development of the area”.

The council also refused permission because McDonagh, although from the area, did not meet its criteria for new rural housing in the Dublin mountains. These criteria include that new houses should be directly related to the area’s “amenity potential” or to its use for farming. 

The council also took into account the “landscape value” of the scenic rural area, as well as the cabin’s impact on “views and prospects”. An Bord Pleanála backed the council in 2023.

The new government rules are likely to allow homes of 40 square meters to be built without going through the planning process. McDonagh says this policy is “ridiculous”.

“Forty square metres is okay if it’s you and your boyfriend who want to live in a place and save money. If you have a small child, you will not live in 40 square metres,” he said.

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He adds that if the government thinks cabins will be a cheap fix for families they are mistaken. His home cost €40,000 to erect, with other costs such as the bathroom, plumbing and plastering bringing the total to €70,000.

McDonagh said he has been lucky to have support from friends and from other families in the area, who have set up a Go Fund Me for them and helped them out with a place to stay. However, he said he also finds this hard because he would prefer to have his independence. He did not qualify for legal aid and still has a legal bill to pay.

Some of the family’s possessions and furniture had to be thrown out. “We have nowhere to store anything. Our home is gone,” he said.

He expresses frustration at the past 20 years of government when it comes to housing policy, saying there is “no accountability”.

“We built our log cabin on our own land for a secure home for our family. We weren’t entitled to housing, to the HAP [housing assistance payment] scheme, or anything.

“For them to put my two kids and myself and my wife on the side of the road, and basically say, we have nothing for you – that’s very hard. It’s very hard to take.”

‘Hasn’t been thought out’

The government plan, announced on Wednesday, came as a surprise and quickly became the main political talking point this week.

Opposition parties’ response was somewhat unusually muted, with both Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats indicating that they agreed with government that some flexibility was needed in terms of cabin homes.

It’s likely that reflects the fact that both government and opposition TDs are aware that this is an issue that already directly affects some of their constituents.

The Department of Housing said this weekend that it will hold a public consultation before changing the rules.

However, Lorcan Sirr, a lecturer in housing at TU Dublin, told The Journal he believed the government’s proposal was an “incredibly simplistic” idea, with which “so much could go wrong”.

That would include risks such as “elder abuse, where you find your parents are forced to live in, or emotionally bullied into living in, a shed in their backyard by their kids who need a house.”

“It’s a classic idea of something that looks good on paper but hasn’t been hasn’t been thought through,” Sirr said.

He said a regulatory impact assessment needs to be carried out.

With reporting by Órla Ryan.