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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/low_myope on 2024-07-08 11:17:46+00:00.
This is not my story, but one from another family member (Steve). I live in the UK and he lives in Canada.
Around 10 years ago, I flew over to see my Canadian family and whilst I was there, was surprised to see that Steve was living in an RV with his wife. When I’d previously visited, he had been living in a 3 story house (basement, ground and first floor). On this occasion, his house appeared to be on stilts. The entire thing had been raised up by around 2.5m, whilst a ground underneath had been excavated leaving nothing more than a big hole in the ground.
I couldn’t not ask why his house was hovering precariously above ground on nothing more than a dozen metal supports.
It emerges that he had sought for planning permission to add an extra floor to his house. Despite literally living miles away from the nearest neighbour, this permission was rejected. He was however informed that should he wish to expand his house, he could install a basement and didn’t require planning permission.
Being the extremely handy and resourceful fella that he is, he had the bright idea to jack the property up and install a new basement below the existing basement. In essence, the old basement now became the ground floor.
I visited 5 years later and the work was completed. I asked him if he’d ever had any issues from the planning department. He told me that they sent someone out, but given that there was nothing in the rules preventing a house being raised by a floor through being jacked up and built under, no action was taken.