{"id":388674,"date":"2026-03-16T23:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T23:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/388674\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T23:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T23:38:11","slug":"meath-home-built-without-planning-permission-is-seized-by-gardai-ending-20-year-legal-saga-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/388674\/","title":{"rendered":"Meath home built without planning permission is seized by garda\u00ed, ending 20 year legal saga \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Garda\u00ed have seized a house built without planning permission in Co Meath<\/a>, bringing to an end a 20 year legal saga over the property.<\/p>\n

Chris and Rose Murray mounted five futile retention bids and three failed appeals to keep the 588 sq m (6,220 sq ft) home intact. <\/p>\n

Last November they brought their case to the Supreme Court<\/a> but that court rejected their application for a further heading. <\/p>\n

A previous court hearing heard they had built the house at Faughan Hill, Bohermeen, Navan<\/a> in \u201cwilful breach\u201d of planning laws.<\/p>\n

Meath County Council<\/a> took a case against the couple in 2007 under Section 160 of the Planning Act to remove any unauthorised development of their land. They were given a year to vacate the property. <\/p>\n

When the couple refused to vacate, the council took contempt proceedings. That was settled on the basis that the Murrays would vacate within two years so as to allow the council to demolish the house. However, three days before they were due to leave, the Murrays took a case against the council claiming they had new evidence that invalidated the council\u2019s planning refusals.<\/p>\n

In 2024 the High Court granted a council application to strike out the Murrays\u2019 case as \u201cfrivolous, vexatious and an abuse of process\u201d.<\/p>\n

An appeal by the Murrays was dismissed the following year. <\/p>\n

\"GardaíGarda\u00ed have seized the home at Faughan Hill, Bohermeen, Co. Meath. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

Judge Senan Allen said, when giving the three judge Court of Appeal<\/a>\u2019s judgment, said after Chris Murray Murray\u2019s 2006 application for permission to build a house on the lands was refused, the couple, \u201cundaunted, and in wilful breach of the planning laws\u201d, built a house anyway that was twice the size of the house for which permission was refused.<\/p>\n

The judge said the couple built a 6,220 sq ft house without planning permission, \u201cwell knew\u201d they would need permission \u201cbut hoped they would get away with it\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a ruling last November, the Supreme Court rejected the couple\u2019s further appeal, leaving them with no further legal avenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Garda\u00ed have seized a house built without planning permission in Co Meath, bringing to an end a 20…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,106072,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,24696,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-388674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-dara-mac-donaill","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-mam","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116241491872600049","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}