Planning permission - go/no go decisions?

mrschaucer

Absolutely right. If you design your extension to fall within the Permitted Development regs you DO NOT NEED PLANNING PERMISSION, and the neighbours have no say in the matter. As above, you will need lots of dealings with the Buildings Control people, though. Usually very helpful.

tonycottee

This website might be of some use, just to give you a rough idea.

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk

We're looking at building an extension ourselves and it's pointed us in the right direction.

One potential problem I would suggest looking for is the location of the drain/sewer. Ours happens to be where the extension is to go, and it is owned by the water company. This complicates things although we hope to get permission as most houses in our road have built over theirs.

alezzandro

Grimbal wrote: »

[..] can it still mean that the neighbours would be able to veto any plans you had?

I spoke to my local planning dept. a month ago, asking how this works. This is what they told me:

Neighbours do not put any veto, they just point out potential problems with the application. The comments received as a result of a public consultation help the dept. to focus on the critical areas of the application, in other words, they help them taking a more informed decision.

For example, without public comments things like "the new extension will overlook into my property" or "the light will be reduced" might be missed.

Grimbal

Thanks again all !

Well, we went to view during the "open hour". The house is very dated, and will need stripping back to basics everywhere, ideally remodelling downstairs too - & that's even before we think about adding in an extension ! However, the plot size is good, and it's on a nice residential road. We'll be chain free in a week or so, and this place has no onward chain either, so it has the potential to be a fairly straightforward purchase (nasty surprises excepted!)

We were there for a good 45 minutes, whilst pretty much everyone else walked in and out again within 10 minutes. We're hoping that this could be a good sign for us. Bidding closes at midday on Monday, so we've emailed in our offer outlining our position of being chain free. Keep your fingers crossed for us please !

mrschaucer

Toes suitably crossed too. Let us know how things pan out.

tyllwyd

We built an extension similar to what you are proposing (two storey, full width, bathroom window in side elevation on a detached house), in an area of established houses where most have already been extended in one way or another, and planning permission was no problem at all - we got the plans done, submitted them and a few weeks later planning permission was granted.

One thing to think about is where the drains run - if you need to build over or move a main drain that will be more of a problem.

But before you make an offer on the house, have a good idea of how much the extension is likely to cost - you can easily find that it costs more to buy the house and build an extension than to buy a similar house that has already been extended.

mumto2loves

blackshirtuk wrote: »

Permitted development rights are that you are allowed a single story extension out to 3m from the original wall up to a maximum sqm(30?!?)

Note "original" when the house was built, it may have already been used if someone has already extended.

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Permitted Development means you do not need Planning Permission.

Write to your Council's Planning Department with a sketch plan showing the existing and proposed details, with measurements, (doesn't need to be to scale for this purpose) and they will tell you if it is PD or not. Then you will have a letter to put with your deeds - and to show to your neighbours if necessary! - to say your extension is OK.

I used to write these letters all the time when I worked in Planning.

mrschaucer wrote: »

Absolutely right. If you design your extension to fall within the Permitted Development regs you DO NOT NEED PLANNING PERMISSION, and the neighbours have no say in the matter. As above, you will need lots of dealings with the Buildings Control people, though. Usually very helpful.

Oh! sorry to jump in on someone elses thread, but, we have just paid £588 for plans to be drawn up and submitted to the council planning dept. to put an extension above our exsisting garage. do the above quotes mean that we didn't actually have to get planning permission!?:(

seven-day-weekend

mumto2loves wrote: »

Oh! sorry to jump in on someone elses thread, but, we have just paid £588 for plans to be drawn up and submitted to the council planning dept. to put an extension above our exsisting garage. do the above quotes mean that we didn't actually have to get planning permission!?:(

It depends upon the size and position of the extension, the height, whether there have been any prior extensions to the property and many other things. Some extensions require Planning Permission, others don't.

If the extension is on the front it probably, but not necessarily, would need planning permission.

Whoever drew your plans up should be able to explain it to you.

mumto2loves

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

It depends upon the size and position of the extension, the height, whether there have been any prior extensions to the property and many other things. Some extensions require Planning Permission, others don't.

If the extension is on the front it probably, but not necessarily, would need planning permission.

Whoever drew your plans up should be able to explain it to you.

thanks

the garage is on the side of our house, i suspect it was an add on at some point because our neighbours haven't got one (just a drive way) I don't think the architect would really 'rip us off' I just felt a bit sick when i read the other posts saying about not needing planning permission!

seven-day-weekend

If your garage was an 'add-on' then your house has probably had its PD rights used up on that, so you almost certainly would need PP for any other extension.

Hope this helps