Can I change the colour of my windows?

Rob-123

Hello all, and thanks in advance for reading!

We have lived at our home for almost 10 years now. We finally have enough money to get new windows, which really need doing.

Currently we have brown windows, and a lovely white conservatory which the previous owners had fitted. 

We would like to replace the old brown windows with like for like white windows. They will match the conservatory, they are slightly cheaper, apparently let a little more light in and also personal preference.

We live in a small road of 7 houses, all of which have brown windows. As you exit our road, there are a lot of houses with white, grey or black windows that have been fitted recently. We do not live in a conservation area, and our house is not a listed building. 

My question is, do we need any sort of permission to go from brown to white windows? I have contacted the council and they have not been helpful at all, tell me if I want any sort of advice about any work on our home, I need to submit a pre planning application at a cost of £200 which can take 10 - 12 weeks to get an answer on. However Infeel I’m going over the top with this window colour change, which is what a lot of people are telling me.

la531983

Do you live in a conservation area?

Rob-123

No we do not live in a conservation area, our house is not a listed building either 

fatbelly

Can't see a problem. You may find white UPVC doesn't stay white 

One of my jobs this weekend is to clean the winter's algae from the ones I can reach

FreeBear

Rob-123 said:

No we do not live in a conservation area, our house is not a listed building either 

No. You do not need permission from either the council or the neighbours. Fit white, pink, green - Your house, your choice.

Rob-123

Appreciate this no bull reply!!

Im a very overly cautious person, and the last thing I want is someone coming round and telling me I should have stuck with brown and confront me. We had it before when I was landscaping the garden, someone walked over and said the garden was fine as it was, like !!!!!!!!

Are you absolutely sure this is the case? It’s so difficult to find a straight answer anywhere!!

FreeBear

Rob-123 said: Are you absolutely sure this is the case? It’s so difficult to find a straight answer anywhere!!

Quite sure.

Some people have nothing better to do in life other than to complain about [redacted].

stuart45

Rob-123 said:

Are you absolutely sure this is the case? It’s so difficult to find a straight answer anywhere!!

You don't need permission for a colour change as FreeBear stated.

Section62

Rob-123 said:

Appreciate this no bull reply!!

Im a very overly cautious person, and the last thing I want is someone coming round and telling me I should have stuck with brown and confront me. We had it before when I was landscaping the garden, someone walked over and said the garden was fine as it was, like !!!!!!!!

Are you absolutely sure this is the case? It’s so difficult to find a straight answer anywhere!!

To be absolutely sure, assuming the house was built in the last 30 years or so, you need to check the original planning consent and planning history for the property.

Listed buildings and conservation area are two things that can stop you just changing what you want, a third one is planning conditions.  Planning permission is usually granted after the planners have details of the materials and finishes, in some cases they will ask for actual samples.  Sometimes those details get written into the consent in the form of a planning condition - i.e. "must be built using the materials specified in drawing/schedule xxx...".

Unless planning conditions include an expiry date (e.g. landscaping often has to be kept as it is for 5 or 10 years) then they last forever.  So if someone wanted to be a PITB to you and they discovered there was a planning condition that had the effect of requiring the windows to be retained in a brown finish then they could go to the council to ask them to enforce the condition. (in theory)  In practice the council may have no interest in doing that.

But the specifics of your property - e.g. that there may be planning conditions - is probably why the council suggested you need to "submit a pre planning application" (aka pre-application advice) rather than being willing to give their own 'no bull' answer.

Also worth noting that a conservation area is usually established using an "Article 4 Direction" - these directions aren't limited to conservation areas.  The council could impose an Article 4 Direction on a specific property or group of properties, and what the Direction covers can be specific to the property. So for example they could say you can't change the colour of the front door, but everything else is up to you.  The "site constraints" for the property on the council's planning website should list any Art4 directions if they exist.

Albermarle

fatbelly said:

Can't see a problem. You may find white UPVC doesn't stay white 

One of my jobs this weekend is to clean the winter's algae from the ones I can reach

The actual UPVC window will stay white, and is normally guaranteed to do so for at least 10 years. The industry goes to great lengths to formulate the PVC to give it good weatherability, to avoid costly claims down the line.
However of course in certain locations it might need cleaning from time to time.

vacheron

Is there anything wrong with the "old" brown windows? There are many companies now who can stain / paint UPVC windows for a fraction of the cost of new ones.Not sure if they can get brown windows all the way to white, but our negihbour and my brother have both had theirs stained from brown to a light anthracite grey, and they look great and have lasted very well. 

Could be worth asking the question at least. 

And to confirm with the others, you can choose any colour you want. Remember that before UPVC was common people used to paint their wooden window frames regularly, and there were dozens of different colours to choose from each time.