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Council Says Planning Permission Required For Existing Fence With New Panels
CIM
Posts: 24 Forumite
A friend is struggling over this wrangle with the Planning Office:
He bought a house around 13 years ago which had a front perimeter fence constructed from half a dozen 6-foot panels and wooden posts. Similar fences exist in neighbours' houses in the vicinity.
Recently the fence required renovations as some of the panels were showing their age and had been slightly damaged in bad weather - so he decided to replace all six panels. The supporting posts were not replaced.
Unfortunately the council then wrote to him shortly after to ask him to remove the fence or apply for planning permission. He contacted the planning office and spoke to a planning enforcement officer and explained that the fence had been there for the 13 years he had lived there and presumably some time before - and had only changed the panels, not the posts. The planning officer argued that as the majority of the fence had been changed, that constituted a new structure and so required planning permission.
The implication from what the Planning Officer said seems to be that had he only changed say 2 panels at a time this would have been OK - but as he did all six at once that constitutes a new fence.
One possibility might be that say if he was able to revert say half of the panels to the old ones - would this be a possible get-out?
Any suggestions how he can avoid having to remove the fence or paying for planning permission in these circumstances?
TIA...
He bought a house around 13 years ago which had a front perimeter fence constructed from half a dozen 6-foot panels and wooden posts. Similar fences exist in neighbours' houses in the vicinity.
Recently the fence required renovations as some of the panels were showing their age and had been slightly damaged in bad weather - so he decided to replace all six panels. The supporting posts were not replaced.
Unfortunately the council then wrote to him shortly after to ask him to remove the fence or apply for planning permission. He contacted the planning office and spoke to a planning enforcement officer and explained that the fence had been there for the 13 years he had lived there and presumably some time before - and had only changed the panels, not the posts. The planning officer argued that as the majority of the fence had been changed, that constituted a new structure and so required planning permission.
The implication from what the Planning Officer said seems to be that had he only changed say 2 panels at a time this would have been OK - but as he did all six at once that constitutes a new fence.
One possibility might be that say if he was able to revert say half of the panels to the old ones - would this be a possible get-out?
Any suggestions how he can avoid having to remove the fence or paying for planning permission in these circumstances?
TIA...
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Comments
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Replace 1 panel every 6 months!0
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buglawton wrote:Replace 1 panel every 6 months!
Well this might be possible, but given that some of the original panels were a bit 'past it' it might be difficult to put them all back.
Anyone able to quantify what the definition of a new structure is?
And would he be allowed to revert to an acceptably pre-replacement condition, having changed it anyway?0 -
And we wonder why our Council Tax Bill is so [EMAIL="blo@@dy"]blo@@dy[/EMAIL] high! Jobsworths. Have any of the neighbours complained? How else would the Council know that the fence has been replaced?0
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This is a fine example of utter nonsense at work and one of the reasons this country is becoming ridiculously expensive to live in, we have to pay for these idiots that don't employ a modicum of common sense.0
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That's crazy!!0
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May be worth having a word with your solicitors office, if they have a copy of your deeds, that may shed some light on what you can and can't do with the property, in particular the boundries.
I moved into my present house 3 years ago, at the rear of the house there is a country road which is mainly used by people walking their dogs, it had a picket fence and everyone stared into the back garden when walking past, so I pulled it all up, installed new 4x4 posts and 6ft fencing panels, 10 in total, nobody has said a word to me, and don't expect to hear from anyone, would have had no idea that planning would be required, not sure if the height may be an issue, I know a lot of people use 5ft high panels, look into that idea, ask at your fencing suppliers they should know all the in's and out's!!
Good Luck
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Try this forum, hopefully someone will know:
http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=6&sid=2a64574db26fdad5bc7acf61a67c9f24
:beer:0 -
brixandmorta wrote:May be worth having a word with your solicitors office, if they have a copy of your deeds, that may shed some light on what you can and can't do with the property, in particular the boundries.
Well in this case I understand that there is no planning permission for the original fence - but it has been for many years and there are several other similar fences in the neighbourhood. Just seems that putting six new panels up has triggered this off - structurally there is no difference to what has been there for over 13 years...0 -
I would think that if the height hasn't changed, there is nothing they can do about it. Rules will be different if it's a listed building.0
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