Planning permission for a garage conversion..

Richard_Webster

struggling-breadwinner wrote: »

When we were in a new build for about 3 yrs we put a sun room ont he back then,. part way through builind realised there was a convenant to obtain agreement of the builder to any alterations to the footprint or face of the property...oops! Faxed over the drawings and within a hour faxed back signed by the builders in house legal with letter saying its fine.

In the main as long as what you are doing fits in with the scheme of the area they will agree but if you don't comply with the covenant it could cause minor problems if you ever sell as the purchases solicitors will request sight of the builders consents.

Yes, it is important and struggling breadwinner was lucky - sometimes builders are not so helpful or a bureaucratic night mare to deal with. Best thing is to phone them and put a hypothetical case without saying where property is. If they say "Fax over plans etc and we'll deal with it it won't be a problem" - they may charge you £50-£100 but if you just write to them and the lattter gets lost in an offcie somewhere and doesn't get answered you have just made it impossible to obtain a restricitive covnenats indemnity policy, which can ususally get in this sort of case once the extension has been up for 12 months.

Also you can occasionally get covenantees that are very greedy and demand four/five figure sums before they will give retrospective approvals.