Extension - Planning permission etc.

sancho

Thinking of having a small extension to the rear of our house. The whole rear of the house is a lounge/dining room. Lounge to the left and dining room to the right



This is the proposed extension (made in Paint obviously). 3mx3m

The idea would be to remove the window in the dining room, then open out underneath the window to make a doorway (not planning on having doors there, but thought keeping it the width of the window may be cheaper?

Then we could put the existing window on the end of the extension, plus then a door on the left of the extension to get out onto the patio.

From looking at the 'Planning Portal' online it seems we don't need planning permission? It is on the rear of the property, will go out less than 3 metres (well, 3 metres exactly I suppose), won't be higher than 4 metres.

Does that sound about right?

If so, what do I do next? Would a builder be able to sort everything, or do I need someone to do drawings?

I live in the East of England, do you think it would be possible to do for under £8k? Not including decorating, skirting, architrave and carpet?

Any advice would be gratefully received

Orford

Assumimg there have been no previous extensions, it almost certainly does not need planning consent under permitted development.
By far the easiest way to check is to enquire at the council planning dept. They are generally very helpful. It will, of course, still be subject to building regulations.

sancho

There has been an extension previously to the front of the house, extending the kitchen a little and creating a porch. We didn't do it, It's probably been about 10 years since it was done. Does that change things?

I will give them a ring tomorrow. Assuming it doesn't is the next step to ring builders?

capeverde

you dont need planning regardless. pointless calling planning as they will claim you do and charge you the fees anyway, they are mostly oblivious to the planning portal. It says it there in black and white so there can be no come back. Building regs is a different matter. The amount of times our clients are told by planning and more so national parks that they need to submit plans when they simply dont is astounding. The govt introduced the portal to expediate simple cases and to bring in line councils in different areas. Please note, the rules for wales are different so click the welsh version on the portal for their guidelines.

macman

Listed building, conservation area?
What was allowed (or not allowed) 10 years ago is simply not relevant, PP is not based on past precedent, but on the current guidelines.
I'd take your preliminary sketches go and have a casual chat with the duty planner at your LA.

lucyloves

Unfortunately you will need building regulation application. The next step would be to contact them to get a fee, then ask about recommended builders. You won't need plans as building control surveyors will visit regularly.

However, unless the window you are planning on reusing in the extn was put in after oct 2010 then you won't be able to reuse it.

sancho

Thanks, I presumed that the work would be carried out within the regulations and someone would come round afterwards and 'sign it off'.

It obviously sounds more in depth than that. I presume there will be thousands of building regulations that will not be relevant to this extension - waste pipes, fire doors etc. Is there somewhere that gives an overview of what I would need to bear in mind? Presumably builders will be aware of all of those things which do apply?

Thanks again

capeverde

Its not overly complicated. Your builder should liaise with building control and work through it with them. Usually they will come out within 24 hours of your call to inspect at various intervals. These would normally be depth of footings, floor slab, wall plate, roof trusses and final inspection. The main things they are looking for nowadays other than structural is u values with insulation. If your builder is well known to them they will come out less often.

kaya

im in watford and just went through all this, we are terraced and as correctly mentioned you can go out 3m, up 3m to the eaves and an extra meter for the roof(making 4 meters total height) , we were told that plans would only need to be submitted for that size if there was a sewer running below where we wished to build (this is a rule made by the water board apparently) , the planning guy did a quick search for us and confirmed that there were none, we claimed our extention was a conservatory to avoid paying building services the £1000 they wanted if we called it an extention and came out to watch over us, the rules as to how they define an extention are at their discretion and we ended up after some negotiating with a 50% glazed roof , 4m bi-fold doors in a 5m wide extention and a 2m x1m window in one aspect of the build(the other aspect is butted up to a wall), we were also told we had to keep the origional double glazed doors between the new build and the house as well (oops) the total cost of the build (15 square meters) including tiling the floor, fitting the radiator etc was about £14,000 , £4250 of this was for the glazing. We figured we would rather spend the extra £1000 on bi-folding doors and call it a conservatory than give it to the council and call it an extention, it is a timber framed build, fully insulated and rendered on the outside built to the exact regs you would use for an extention anyway so its very good at heat retention (plus the glass skylight and bi folds make it a beautiful space to be in), we had no plans or drawings as the builder is a long time family friend (over 20 years), it may be worth asking your local bulding services what you can get away with as a conservatory and save yourself some money and agrovation, they are a friendly helpful bunch where we are and their advice made things a lot easier for us , good luck with your project, remember get your builder to give you a detailed quote , always get 3 quotes , and we saved a lot of money by sourcing the glazing, tiles, lights and radiator ourselves, mostly through e-bay, we ordered all the glazing with one company so blagged a free extra set of door locks and an opening vent in the skylight from them, we also re-used our kitchen window in the build which we got away with as it is a conservatory , had it been an extention as mentioned previously we couldn't have re-used it . Under new regs your builder can carry on with work without waiting at every step for a building services guy to come out and check things now apparently , this change was due to the amount of work currently being undertaken keeping them rushed off of their feet causing people huge time delays waiting for a visit

sancho

So if It's an extension I have to pay 1000 pounds in fees?

sancho

Looked on my local councils website for building reg charges, can see 'Full Plans Application' costs £360 and 'Building Notice Plans' costs £450.

Not sure what the difference is but I am investigating...