what are the rules for house building in your own garden

meercatsunited

We have a large garden and were considering building a small bungalow for retirement in our large garden so that we could be mortgage free and are not sure what the rules might be.

planning want £200 just to say if we might be able to apply for planning permission.
£335 to apply for outline planning.
£500 for full planning.

the problem is that we are on a small residential estate and the planners might just look at the street plans which they provide for the general public to print but ones that we have to buy as well as having to provide detailed plans for the proposed work. this we would be happy with if we knew they might consider this build but to ask the simple question of would a new build even be considered our planning department have decided they want £200.
they may just look at the location of our property (5 minutes work)and say no after we have spent £00's

so would really appreciate any advice from anyone who has been in this situation.

pleasedelete

are you ready to build ? Planning expires. Do you have a mortgage- will they let you build (building will devalue your home and you will be building on mortgaged land). Were there any covenants when the estate was built preventing building for a fixed term or at all?

My garden is identified by the council as a potential building plot! Apparently they had to identify potential infill for some government local development plan requirement a couple of years ago. you can see the general guidance on line for your area. They didn't tell me I only found out as one of neighbours was approached to sell their garden and then we found out they had been identified as building plots.

trailingspouse

Relative to the amount it will cost you to build a house, £200 is next to nothing. Now is not the time to begin to rile your local planning dept - keep them on side. When we wanted change of use permission, we invited our local planner to come and visit - we were able to ask him 'off the record' whether we would stand a chance of succeeding. We still had to pay all the fees, but at least we felt it was worth our while applying. Just a thought.

G_M

You're considering spending 10s, maybe 100s of 000s £ and you're balking at at a few hundred to get started? Don't start - the 'extras' and 'unexpected costs' as you proceed will drive you potty!

However, my own Planning Dept welcome visitors (no appointment needed). You can have a 5-10 minute chat with a Planner who'll say "you're mad forget it" or "Should be no problem" or "have you considered doing it this way instead?"

If you do this (and asuming your council is like mine) take stuff with you to make clear quickly what your intention is - no need for formalplans/architects drawings, but a local OS map to show the 'where' and a rough sketch to show the 'what'.

Maybe some photos of the garden, the neighbours, the street.

dimbo61

Having spent nearly £3000 on applying for planning and doing all the changes to make the council happy and then GET REFUSED we then had to go through appeals at more cost.
We won and have now had the work done and it was so worth it.
If you have a large garden then apply for planning and build your bungalow if you want.
At least you know your neighbours and you can either sell or rent your old home

Fire_Fox

Planning policy varies from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, you need to know what your councils policy is. Much of this is online. Any precedent locally? Are you neighbours likely to object? Do you have the basics like safe vehicular access from the road?

pleasedelete

Shoud add apparently to identify potential plots the council used google maps and looked for big gardens! Most of the gardens in our area have been built on. They told me it woud be almost impossible for it not to go ahead- that was a simple phone call to them.

I don't want to build. I have a mortgage and no cash to build. Built before and it is hardwork but nice to know it may be an option.

guesswho2000

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Planning policy varies from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, you need to know what your councils policy is. Much of this is online. Any precedent locally? Are you neighbours likely to object? Do you have the basics like safe vehicular access from the road?

Indeed, similarly remember it's the District Council, not County Council, responsible for this (unless you live in a Unitary Authority area). If you're in a two tier area and ring the CC, unless you're planning on building a school or using land as a quarry, they'll know nothing.

The DC (or UA) will usually have info online, and certainly guidance. Everything permitted planning related is governed by the Town & Country Planning Act (TCPA 1990).

fluffymuffy

A simpler way is to get outline PP and then sell the land as a building plot. Thus releasing cash to pay off the mortgage. No need to move. Or build anything.

meercatsunited

my local planning will not even take a phone call to answer any questions and will not visit the plot even off record until we pay £200 and this does not guarantee anything it just answers the question of am I mad or not to want this. And defintely not allowed to pay them a visit until payment is made.
now when you phone planning unless you already have made an application and paid you are only allowed to speak to switchboard and emails go to the same people.
they did answer questions quite willing in the past and must need to make money as they said its taking too much of their time to answer basic questions from the public.
we like where we live and will check out google maps but no one else has done this as far as we are aware. our plot is on the corner and road access we know would not be a problem.

Richard_Webster

You haven't told us simple things like how the plot would be accessed.

Would it share a drive way with the existing house or can it get access to a road at the side of your garden?

These simple points will make a lot of difference to acceptability. The first is "backland development" which is generally less favoured, the second isn't.