House purchase - Extension

velvet_underground

Hi all,

FTB newbie here - was hoping for some advice on my current house purchase (potentially 3-4 weeks away from exchange of contracts).

The house I'm due to move into had planning permission approved for an extension, however that permission has since expired (back in 2019). The seller has the architect's drawings, and these were shown on the house ad. I have a couple of questions:

1. If I wanted to resurrect the extension plans, would it be as simple as applying to the local council again with the existing architect's drawings? Or do I need to get these updated / get updated consent from the architect? Any info on the process would be really helpful!

2. The seller has requested I pay a fee for the copies of the drawings, though he hasn't mentioned how much nor what this is supposed to cover. I was just wondering whether this is a standard request to make (I previously thought that the drawings could just be handed over with minimal fuss, though I have no experience in this area...). Again any thoughts would be extremely welcome!

Many thanks,
Jamie

seradane

Unless the council's policy/local plan has changed in the last 5 years, it will probably be as simple as resubmitting the same scheme and getting permission again, so unlikely to be too much requirement for updating, unless you want to make any changes yourself. There may, more likely, be some different validation requirements, i.e. documents submitted with the application which they require to consider the application. 

So you will have to check your council's local plan and their validation list and check what they are currently requiring. It may be that even if you don't want to make changes you will need the assistance of the architect anyway to put together these documents.

You can get PDF copies of the drawings from the council website, everything that was submitted then is free to download.

However, the drawings are copyright by the architects and the client has licence to use them. You do not have permission to use them unless you get permission from either party - though the architect will likely defer to their client as to whether he gives permission. That's effectively what you're "buying" from the seller, not so much the physical drawings.

velvet_underground

Thank you very much seradane... This is very helpful!