Bricking up porch?

ambercelery · 12 April 2007 at 11:34AM

Hi,

My house is an ex-council terrace house. I'm not too sure how to describe it but the front door is set back a little way into the house, so the upstairs kind of shelters a space of around 1.5m by 2.5metres. My next door neighbour has the same with an alleyway between the two houses to our respective gardens.
Before I had bought the house, the previous owner had boxed in the entrance area i..e the 1.5m by 2.5 space with wooden panels, another front door and a window. This now gives a kind of porch area which makes the entrance lie flush with the rest of the house (i.e the upstairs).

My question is - am I able to replace the wooden panels and brick it up without requiring planning permission. Ideally i would like to remove the inside external front door and perhaps replace this with interior door, with actual entrance to the house becoming the only exterior type door. Is this still classed as an extension even though I am only extending the downstairs to be the same as it currently is upstairs (and in fact exactly the same as it is now with the wooden panels)

I hope you can help

shykins · 13 April 2007 at 6:31PM

not sure of the legalities of this but we had a conservatory type enclosed porch and the wood was rotting so we have jus bricked the whole thing up and removed the second front door as u suggested

we didnt need to redo the footings or anything as they were plentiful anyways.. we also have pictures of the old porch proving there was always one there and they go back some years

our theory was that we were simply replacing existing

hope that helps

ormus · 14 April 2007 at 12:07AM

highly unlikely that you would require PP to do this. replacing like for like, just with different materials.
although PP is not required for temporary structures, ie wooden panels screwed on. and bricks are not temporary!
i would just do it. assuming the neighbour is ok with it?

bostin · 14 April 2007 at 9:53PM

"PP is not required for temporary structures, ie wooden panels screwed on"

Nonsense! If in doubt check with your local planning department. 'Temporary structures' may well still require pp, it depends on what exactly you are looking at doing and where.

In answer to the OP, assuming the 'permitted development rights' haven't been removed from the property, it is a dwelling house (not a flat) and is not a listed building, my view is that the proposed works would fall under Part 1 Class A of the General Permitted Development Order (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1995/Uksi_19950418_en_4.htm#IDARND3D)

Technically the previous boxing in of the area would (IMO) count as an extension to the property and have to comply with the relevant criteria within Class A relating to extensions. The replacement of wooden panels with bricks which you propose to do would (IMO) be considered to be an 'improvement or other alteration' to the dwelling house. As you will note from reading through the criteria, there are no specific criteria which restrict what you propose to do. Therefore you do not need pp.

Indeed, if you so wished, you could brick up all the windows in your house or remove all the bricks and replace with glass without needing pp! If you were in a Conservation Area, National Park etc (article 1(5) land), the cladding of the property is restricted.

HTH

Bost

cat79_2 · 18 April 2007 at 10:33PM

agree with above posting. I work as a planner in scotland where the regs are slightly different, though I agree that planning permission would not be required for this proposal.

Bricking up porch?

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