Retrospective Planning Permission - How long does it take?

AlistairM

This is probably akin to asking how long is a piece of string but I'll ask and see if anyone has input and if nothing else maybe garner sympathy.




The house I'm waiting to exchange on has been delayed because the house the sellers are trying to buy has incorrect planning permission and is under 4 years old.


Apparently the roof on the garage is higher than was granted and there is a window in a place that wasn't on the plan. Or something like that anyway, this is second hand info from their Estate Agent.


So the owners have applied for "Retrospective Planning Permission" I don't know how long this is likely to take (property is in Suffolk). I think this is a mistake, from what I've read from Googling this kind of problem it would have been better for the buyers to take out indemnity insurance and wait for the house to reach 4 years of age, now they've applied for permission I think that'll be impossible.


So, does anyone have rough idea how long this will take? The council has been told a chain of houses is waiting on the application and it's urgent but I'm assuming the council does not care about such things.


It's frustrating as I had hoped to be in by the end of the year so I could maybe get solar panels under the current feed in tariff rate. I'm guessing that wont be possible now.

chappers

Planning decision timeframe round our way is 13 weeks, but this does overrun sometimes.

Doozergirl

It's eight weeks here but they leave the application on a desk for two months before registering it. That apparantly gets them around the time schedules.

You are best off asking the planning office what timeframe they are turning around in at the moment.

k3lvc

You're making a big assumption that this will be passed. We got ours in 5 weeks but it was a fairly simple one re a boundary wall.


I certainly wouldn't be planning on being in by year end at this rate

eddddy

Looking at it another way...

What will you do if planning consent isn't granted?

- Walk away?
- Wait for the seller to remove the window, lower the roof, and perhaps reduce your offer by £5k because the garage has less storage space (or whatever) than you thought?

If it's the latter, you could consider proceeding with, say, a £10k retention.

If consent is refused, you get £5k back for the reduced property value, plus up to £5k for the alterations.

If consent is granted, the seller gets the £10k.

AlistairM

eddddy wrote: »

Looking at it another way...

What will you do if planning consent isn't granted?

- Walk away?
- Wait for the seller to remove the window, lower the roof, and perhaps reduce your offer by £5k because the garage has less storage space (or whatever) than you thought?

If it's the latter, you could consider proceeding with, say, a £10k retention.

If consent is refused, you get £5k back for the reduced property value, plus up to £5k for the alterations.

If consent is granted, the seller gets the £10k.

That's for my vendors to decide really, I'm not buying the house with the planning problem.
I'm buying the house that the people trying to buy the house with the problem are selling, to buy that house with the problem... god does that even make sense?




I have to move out of my flat by late Feb, hopefully it will be done by then. :S

G_M

Depends how long it takes to remove the roof, lower the height of the building, and replace the roof!!!

chappers

Doozergirl wrote: »

It's eight weeks here but they leave the application on a desk for two months before registering it. That apparantly gets them around the time schedules.

Sounds about right, if you go back to them anytime outside of the last few weeks , they usually can't tell you anything as nobody has even looked at it by then. the planning officers use the deadlines set out in the application as their deadlines too.