Planning Permission Needed?

Charlie1985

Hi All,

Looking for some advice here. We have just purchased a property (not new build) and would like to do two things but not sure if we need planning permission and if it would even be allowed:

1. Add an obscured window to the first floor bedroom en-suite. Currently the en-suite has no window so we wanted to add some natural light and air ventilation by adding this window. Note the window would be a single pane of glass and added to the first floor side elevation of the property which looks out onto a main road in the development. Do we need planning permission to do this? How long would this take to do and what sort of cost would this be? Please look at the attached picture where we have marked in Green where the window would go.

2. In the attached picture (marked in red) you can see on the side of the house we have some land which falls within the property boundary (between rear garden side wall and black railings). Would we be allowed to knock down the existing rear garden boundary side wall and move it so that the land currently on the side of the property could be included as part of the rear garden? Again would planning permission be needed for this? How long would it take? How much would something like this cost?

Any help/advice/guidance on these two items would much appreciated.

Cheers
Charlie

MikeJXE

I am an ex builder so not up to date with planning laws but from experience I can't see why not to both.  I find it strange that  there isn't a window in the en-suite and wonder why ? The right questions to ask are to ask the right people. Take a trip down to your local council offices and ask to speak to building control. take a plan and photos with you if you can. 

Section62

It looks like a relatively new development.  There's a good chance planning conditions and/or an article 4 direction will restrict what you can do without obtaining planning consent. You may also need consent from the developer.

Specifically, the lack of a window may be because it would affect someone else's privacy. (or the developer was trying to save the cost of a window)

You wouldn't be allowed to move the garden wall without planning consent unless you keep it below 1m, because it is adjacent to a road. However, most developments also have a planning condition preventing changes to the landscaping, which includes positions and types of walls/fences.  Furthermore, I wouldn't be surprised if the area of grass, despite being within your property boundary, is classified as amenity land, or is deemed to contribute to the streetscene.

You'll only be able to know for sure by speaking to the local planners (not building control), but most councils now don't give free planning advice - they will ask you to pay for it.

silvercar

Who mows the lawn at the moment?

Apodemus

silvercar said:

Who mows the lawn at the moment?

It is seldom a good idea to impute ownership simply on grass-cutting. I mow our war memorial, but I don't own it. Our Council mows the village hall grounds, but doesn't own it. Local farmer mows, the church car park, but doesn't own it. I could go on...!

Section62

Apodemus said:

silvercar said:

Who mows the lawn at the moment?

It is seldom a good idea to impute ownership simply on grass-cutting. I mow our war memorial, but I don't own it. Our Council mows the village hall grounds, but doesn't own it. Local farmer mows, the church car park, but doesn't own it. I could go on...!

Added to which, this isn't really an issue of ownership (the OP appears to know that already) - the issue is what they can and can't do with the land they own.

silvercar

Apodemus said:

silvercar said:

Who mows the lawn at the moment?

It is seldom a good idea to impute ownership simply on grass-cutting. I mow our war memorial, but I don't own it. Our Council mows the village hall grounds, but doesn't own it. Local farmer mows, the church car park, but doesn't own it. I could go on...!

It was rather to establish that if someone else mowed it eg the estate maintenance team, it would point to the estate owning it.

Slinky

Can't see that the window would be a privacy issue, given the side window in the house behind which would look like it's potentially overlooking gardens. You could be limited to having a fanlight rather than a casement window.

Gut feeling that the garden will be more difficult for the 'street scene' reasons mentioned above. It seems like new builders like to give the feeling of more space by reducing privacy in gardens rather than spacing houses further apart and 'wasting' it on open land.

Charlie1985

Hi All,

Many thanks for the replies. The side of the land is actually owned by us and is in the boundary of the property so we have to maintain it. Does that mean we can move the wall? 

Also for the side window and wall movements anyone have an idea on what sort of costs we are looking? Looking to do the window more urgently.

Doozergirl

Section62 already said that you would need planning permission for the wall if you want it higher than a metre.  That's standard
legislation because it fronts the highway and forms part of the street scene. 

The costs of building a wall at the moment are eye watering.  At least your bricks are reasonably new and hopefully not as expensive as others, with it being on a development, but we've recently built two significant garden walls for people and the costs were into five figures - at cost.  We don't know how big your proposed wall is.  

The window is really quite labour intensive in making-good for what on first glance is a small job, and one of your major considerations is scaffolding.   Someone may prepared to work off a moveable tower, but others may want full scaffolding, which doesn't start cheap.  There is zero economy of scale and lots of small pieces of work.  It's going to be hard to recruit someone. 

 I'd probably put a starting point of £2k, depending on what needs to be done inside.    

Slinky

We had a small window knocked in for our new ensuite, it makes a heck of a mess and there was a lot of making good required. It wasn't so much of an issue for us as they were knocking into an old cupboard, it could be considerably more difficult if you're planning on keeping your existing shower room as is and they are working round it. Your tiles will need replacing at the very minimum.