Where to go for advice about whether an extension is possible before buying

System

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

Local authority planning departments are the embodiment of everything that's wrong with the public sector. By the time you get an answer, the property will have gone. .

I never gave an original sample size. And my OH has dealt with at least 20 LA's in the last year.

So your OH is dealing with them as a business and not as consumer. There is a difference in the way they deal with the 2 different types of customers and it favours the consumer rather than a business.

onlyroz

Our council makes you submit a "pre-planning enquiry", which costs about £50 and takes them 4 weeks to consider.

Mrs_Imp

LeoT - Nope, what I'm saying is that we made an appointment that they failed to keep, despite them insisting that we HAD to make an appointment and we couldn't just turn up. They then told us we'd never get planning permission on the site, so we decided not to go ahead with the purchase (who wants to spend 100k on a piece of land that can only be used as garden?). There are now two shiny new houses there, built by a developer, despite their assertions that planning permission would never be granted.
The second point I shall clarify as you seem to have misunderstood. We wanted to build a garage at the bottom of our garden. It was refused. All the houses in our area have long gardens. Most of them have garages at the bottom, accessed by a back lane. The council granted themselves permission to build a garage at the bottom of someone's garden on the same street. An almost identical structure to the one we wanted. although there's is bigger than we applied for.
We had 2 objections, the council received at least 10 for their structure. Ours was refused, and the people who objected were informed of the decision before we were.

dimbo61

Good Luck in getting planning for any extension on a flat with neighbours above or at the side of you.
Long road and legal costs to consider

LeoTLion

The person who failed to keep the appointment was unprofessional, I totally agree with you. But that is an individual and they are not, necessarily, representative of an entire department.

Who's to say that the person who bought the land wasn't also advised that permission would be denied, but took a chance and applied anyway and was pleasantly surprised when it was granted.

Fortune, as they say, favours the bold.

I didn't misunderstand, it's as I said, you applied to build a structure in one location and were denied consent. Someone else, in this case the council, applied to build a similar (by your own admission they weren't the same) structure in a different location and were given permission. These are not directly comparable, given that it was in a different location.

The number of objections are irrelevant. There could be 1000 objections, but if none were valid, then it wouldn't matter. Likewise, only 1 person could make a valid objection and the application would be rejected.

Mrs_Imp

LeoTLion wrote: »

These are not directly comparable, given that it was in a different location.

The number of objections are irrelevant. There could be 1000 objections, but if none were valid, then it wouldn't matter. Likewise, only 1 person could make a valid objection and the application would be rejected.

I disagree - they are directly comparable, as they are on the same street in the same situation relative to houses and the back lane.

Our objections were spurious - citing lack of need for a garage, and a negative impact on their house price as a result of its construction. No valid objections were given, but as you say, fortune favours the bold, and had we decided to appeal we could probably have won, but for the sake of neighbourly relations we decided to put up a big fence and something else instead.

Other friends have suffered similar fates with their planning, so I am now very much aware that our local council does not have much consideration for the little people when it comes to planning.

LeoTLion

I don't expect you to agree, you're in an entrenched position and have made your mind up that the planners are bad people who have thwarted your plans.

Whilst I'm not in full possession of the facts, from what you have said, on both occasions you yourselves had the opportunity to achieve your desired outcome and chose not to. Only you will know why that was the case.

Had the council purchased the land you had been refused permission to build a garage on and then achieved permission to build a very similar structure, it would be comparable. Different site, even on the same street can make a huge difference in suitability.