help! planning approved with inaccurate site plan

katybell_3

My Mum and Dad live in a quiet street with 9 detatched houses, a developer has bought one, knocked it down and managed to get planning permission for 5 2bed flats. Parents were obviously not happy with this (they are the only adjoining property) but resigned to it happening, and relieved that the flats would not extend beyond the rear of their house. Until the developer started foundations this week that go 5m further back than the approved plans, Dad went mad and called the council. Turns out the flats are in the correct place but the @$#! of a developer adjusted my parents house on the ordinance site plan layout to make it appear bigger. The previous owners of my parents house had a thin workshop/shed type thing (has been gone well over 20 yrs) which is shown on the original OS but he squared it off across the whole property to make my parents house look bigger and planning was approved.
My Dad has complained to the council and they admit that errors have been made and apologised - but that doesn't change the fact that my Mum and Dad will be looking at 4m of 3 storey brick wall! My Dad is going to go through their complaints procedure and contact the ombudsman, maybe the local press.
Is there anything else that can be done??
I can't believe that the application isn't invalid considering the developer adjusted the OS map to suit himself and the case officer at the council did not notice the discrepency in 2 years, strangely enough he went on holiday for 2 weeks on mon (St. Lucia is my guess)
Anyone have advice or have heard of similar situations? have tried googling and can only come up with 1 similar case which ended up in compensation from the council (not getting the build stopped).

marybishop

How close to your parents' boundary are they building. Depending on your answer the Party Wall Act may apply. If it does your parents should have been served the relevant notice/s. I know that doesn't help the overall situation of the !!!!-up by the council but it could safeguard your parents' interests.

planning_officer

There's unfortunately no requirement for a developer to show adjoining properties accurately on a site plan - I've had cases b4 where neighbouring houses were misrepresented. That's the job of the case officer to note things like that when they visit the site. There's not really much that can be done unfortunately, as the Council should have granted permission having considered the true position of your parents house rather than how it was shown on the developer's plans. Worth complaining to the Council though.

katybell_3

Thank you for the advice,

My parents are currently going through the council complaints proceedure (lol!) and will be going through the ombudsman and local MP so fingers crossed something can be done.

If anyone else has any other ideas or has been through similar, please post!

Snow_Dog

Were your parents sent a letter by the council when the plans were submitted? As an adjoining porperty they should have been, they would have at that point been given the opportunity to make objections, dependant upon the council the submitted drawings would have been available online to view.

usignuolo

We had a similar case - developers converted a house into flats and made it taller and deeper than the plans - and they were told to take it down. But it was a listed building and I suspect a lot depends on the kind of house and area - councils seem more sensitive to the impact of these developments on conservation areas.

We have a lot of problems with locally as there are one or two dodgy architects who have found out that they can get away with this sort of thing. Generally they build something a bit bigger than the plans, usually on a house conversion into flats or maybe an extension, and slap in an application for a certificate of building approval (there is a technical name which I forget) as soon as it is finished. Meanwhile the neighbours are complaining but by then the owner has their approval certificate and the council is always reluctant to change their decision if it means admitting an error or oversight on their part.

Alternatively, as happened near me, they apply for retrospective approval of the new building. Again the council will usually approve this unless it is really blatant.

Our Council's failure to take enforcement action over this sort of thing has caused lot of rows locally and in one ward the councillors lost their seats over a particularly bad case. A sympathetic councillor is very handy - have your parents spoken to theirs. It doesn't much matter which party they are in these cases. I do think your parents should persevere with their complaint and a lot will depend on showing the developer did it deliberately. If the plans for your house are drawn wrong on the local buildings register that might give them a case to argue.

Council planners should notify neighbours about this sort of development but it doesn't always happen and there have been cases locally again where this has not happened and it seems that such notification is only at the council's discretion and not compulsory.

usignuolo

We had a similar case - developers converted a house into flats and made it taller and deeper than the plans - and they were told to take it down. But it was a listed building and I suspect a lot depends on the kind of house and area - councils seem more sensitive to the impact of these developments on conservation areas.

We have a lot of problems with locally as there are one or two dodgy architects who have found out that they can get away with this sort of thing. Generally they build something a bit bigger than the plans, usually on a house conversion into flats or maybe an extension, and slap in an application for a certificate of building approval (there is a technical name which I forget) as soon as it is finished. Meanwhile the neighbours are complaining but by then the owner has their approval certificate and the council is always reluctant to change their decision if it means admitting an error or oversight on their part.

Alternatively, as happened near me, they apply for retrospective approval of the new building. Again the council will usually approve this unless it is really blatant.

Our Council's failure to take enforcement action has caused lot of rows locally and they now post this explanation on their web site.

"Planning regulations do allow someone to apply for planning permission retrospectively after they have carried out unauthorised works or a use and the law requires the Council to accept and consider them. Such retrospective applications are considered on their planning merits in the same way as other applications and are not more likely to be approved or refused because they are submitted after the event. Planning permission may be granted retrospectively if the application proposal is considered to be acceptable."

I do think your parents should persevere with their complaint but I suspect a lot will depend on showing the developer did it deliberately. If the plans for your house are drawn wrong on the local register that might give them a case to argue.

Council planners should notify neighbours about this sort of development but it doesn't always happen and there have been cases locally again where this has not happened and it seems that such notification is only at the council's discretion and not compulsory.

planning_officer

Snow_Dog wrote: »

Were your parents sent a letter by the council when the plans were submitted? As an adjoining porperty they should have been, they would have at that point been given the opportunity to make objections, dependant upon the council the submitted drawings would have been available online to view.

There's no legal requirement for sending neighbour notification letters unfortunately. All the relevant legislation says is that applications muct be publicised - all details of how that is done is left to individual Councils. Most Council's have set procedures - where I work, neighbour notification letters are always sent out, but where I live (a different district!) the Council only puts up a site notice and does not send any neighbour letters, which I personally think is slack.