Most home owners have heard about Permitted Development. But what is it? How can it help you?
Its an Act of Parliament giving home owners the right to do minor or straight forward things to their home without any required permissions or approvals.
For example you can add a 3m rear extension to your semi detached property. No planning required. You can just do it.
But should you just do it?
We suggest not. There are two reasons why not to just do it.
Reason 1 – your neighbour will check on line, its very easy to do this. They will see you do not have Planning Permission. They may contact the council. The Council have a duty then to contact your via the Enforcement Team. They do not know if what you are or have built is Permitted Development and therefore Lawful. You may have to submit an application. If your builder has built the extension 50mm to high it will not be permitted development. You can see the issue. The biggest risk is large loft dormers. The council do not like these types of extensions. It is quite difficult to amend these extensions once built and puts you in a difficult position as the council may not give Planning Approval if it is deemed not to be Permitted Development.
Reason 2 – When you come to sell your home, your solicitor will give you a form which asks have you made any changes to the house. If yes, then you have to tick a box for a Planning Approval or the other for Certificate of Lawfulness. If you submit to the council your Permitted Development Application they issue a Certificate of Lawfulness. You can see if you do not have either of these documents your again in a situation where no one knows if its Lawful. Even if its been there for more that 4 years you may still need to apply to the Certificate of Lawfulness and prove its existed for more than 4 years.
Our advice is if you want to build via Permitted Development, then get your Architect to submit to the council and get a Certificate of Lawfulness before starting on site.
Planning Portal for the Permitted Development Rules
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