Buying house in conservation area, no planning permission

1sttimelondonrenovation

Hello there! 

My partner and I are buying our first house together, a renovation project that we hope we can turn into our forever home! 

The current owner has lived in the house for 50 years and has made some additions to the house over that time, including a garage, a workshop and a rear single story kitchen extension (3m depth). When we viewed the house it was clear that the garage and Workshop were beyond economic repair and would need to be demolished and we accounted for that in our offer. The kitchen extension was more modern (maybe 15-20 years old) and is in good nick, according to the building survey we had done. 

Now we are further down the line with the purchase and it is beginning to become apparent that there may have not been planning permission for the kitchen extension. We have plans to modernise this extension (install glass doors, skylights etc)  as part of our renovation plan, but aware any of these plans will need to be submitted to the council for approval due to being in a conservation area. 

-If the extension doesn’t have planning permission, should we take out an indemnity? 

-Is there a chance the council should reject retrospective planning permission and order us to demolish or completely rebuild? This would add a huge unforeseen cost to our renovation and would significantly reduce the square meter-age we based our original offer on. Is there a way to protect ourselves here? 

Any help or thoughts much appreciated as this is causing a lot of stress in our house at the moment, especially in the current climate (wondering if we should even be going through with a house purchase right now given impending recession, but that’s another thread!!!) 

Thank you!  

davidmcn

15+ years is way too late for the planners to do anything about it, even if they wanted to.

Did it comply with building regulations? Again that's not hugely relevant after this length of time (especially if your surveyor hasn't spotted any problems) though is the sort of thing solicitors tend to want an indemnity policy for.

None of it is really a reason for stress, it's all fairly standard stuff.

FreeBear

Most (all ?) councils have an online portal that you can check for planning applications going back quite a few years. My local council goes back to the 1970s. Using the portal will not alert anyone to unapproved extensions/alterations, so any indemnity insurance would still be valid..

One question to ask though - When was the area designated a Conservation Area ?

If it was after the extension was built, the chance of any enforcement action is greatly reduced. It would be worth discussing it with your surveyor and solicitor to see what they have to say on the subject. Depending on the answers, you may want to renegotiate the price.

davidmcn

FreeBear said:

When was the area designated a Conservation Area ?

If it was after the extension was built, the chance of any enforcement action is greatly reduced. It would be worth discussing it with your surveyor and solicitor to see what they have to say on the subject. Depending on the answers, you may want to renegotiate the price.

The conservation area status doesn't affect the period for enforcement, it really just reduces the range of permitted development which wouldn't require consent. The mere lack of consents for a 15+ year old extension isn't going to affect the market value. Something like poor building quality might, but the surveyor has covered that.

eddddy

1sttimelondonrenovation said:

-If the extension doesn’t have planning permission, should we take out an indemnity? 

-Is there a chance the council should reject retrospective planning permission and order us to demolish or completely rebuild? This would add a huge unforeseen cost to our renovation and would significantly reduce the square meter-age we based our original offer on. Is there a way to protect ourselves here? 

The council can only take planning enforcement action up to 4 years after completion of the building work.

So the only theoretical risk is if the council suspect the extension is less than 4 years old. But TBH, it's probably obvious to any surveyor etc, that the extension is more than 4 years old. But if you want to be super-certain, you could collect evidence that it's over 4 years old (e.g. old Google streetview photos, builder's invoices from the seller, sworn statements etc) ready to show the council, if they ask.

There is no reason to apply for retrospective planning consent.

The only other reason that the council could take enforcement action is that the extension is dangerous, and there's a risk of it causing injury or death - but I think that your surveyor would have mentioned that!!