Extending your potential – how planning permission exemptions are easing a struggling housing mark - Planning Permission

Extending your potential – how planning permission exemptions are easing a struggling housing mark

London, UK, 5 October 2010 – a planning permission exemption worked into UK law in late 2008, which allows home owners to build some extensions without having to apply to their local authority, is offering home owners the chance to improve the value and usability of their property without struggling through acres of red tape. The exemption, which covers loft conversions and some external extensions, is designed to alleviate the problems many home owners now experience as a result of the struggling British housing market: where a house holder is unable to move home, but wishes to expand his or her living space, he or she may be eligible to improve an existing home without having to go through the painful process of a planning application.

Since the credit crunch, the unpredictable state of the housing market has made moving a far less attractive option than it used to be. A sharp rise in the number of planning permission applications opened in the last four years is evidence of a new trend in housing, whereby home owners choose to improve their existing house rather than trying to buy a new one. While almost all planning permission applications are eventually approved, the cost and bureaucracy involved can be prohibitive – delaying building projects by months or even years and draining financial resources for the applicant, and the local authority charged with reviewing the project.

The legislation is known as the Permitted Development scheme, and it confers planning permission rights onto UK homes by default. In simple terms, that means that most British homes now have a kind of pre-approved planning permission attached to them: so when their owners wish to make an extension or loft conversion, they may be able to do so without applying. The rights conferred by the scheme are known as Permitted Development rights, and are already attached to 15.5 million homes across the United Kingdom. Around 95% of homes in England and Wales have some form of Permitted Development rights allocated to them.

Any home owner considering an extension or loft conversion that fits within the Permitted Development guidelines is able to commission the improvement without any form of permission. The home owner doesn’t need to have the approval of his or her neighbours; and doesn’t have to endure a months-long hike through leagues of red tape to achieve his or her objective.

All of this sounds pretty wonderful – and in some cases, it is. As long as you are considering a home extension, alteration or conversion that falls within Permitted Development guidelines, you are free to go ahead whenever you’re ready. That means you can enlarge the usable space of your home, or increase its value against a recovery in the housing market: and that means that you can enjoy the benefits of moving house, without actually moving house.

Before you start planning your loft conversion or house extension, though, there are a few things you should take into consideration. First, Permitted Development rights can be quashed or varied by a local authority, if that authority deems extensions in a given area to be “overkill”. Homes in already highly developed areas may have Permitted Development rights attached to them – but their owners may not be able to use them, or may only be able to develop in a restricted form.

Second: Permitted Development can only take place within a rigidly structured framework. The legislation sets out meticulously defined interior and exterior dimensions for loft conversions and house extensions that fall within its remit. A homeowner must be sure that his or her plan falls within the guidelines for Permitted Development (and that his or her local authority is not going to override the PD rights attached to his or her home) before commencing a building or conversion project.

Third: the original version of the Permitted Development Technical Guide has been updated – which means some things that were allowed, now aren’t. Homeowners need to be aware of what is and what isn’t OK before they start work. For example: the original guidelines for Permitted Development clearly allowed a wraparound extension (an extension combining the side and rear of a house) – the newer guidelines have backtracked on this. Homeowners who have taken advantage of the original guidelines to build a wraparound extension with no planning permission are now facing an unpleasant situation: they have extensions attached to their homes that are technically illegal. Because the extensions were built under the provisions of Permitted Development, there are no planning permission documents that prove their legality – and now that wraparound extensions have been excluded from PD, it isn’t clear if these homeowners will face difficulties if they take a decision to sell in the future.

There’s a clear warning here. Permitted Development can be an excellent “get out clause” for homeowners who wish to improve the value or usability of their home with a loft conversion or house extension. In order to stay on the right side of development law, though, homeowners would be well advised to use the services of a person or company qualified to keep their investment safe. It would be a foolhardy person indeed who was willing to commission and build an extension without advice from an appropriate source.

The bottom line: the average homeowner doesn’t have enough informed building knowledge to make a PD call off his or her own back. Permitted Development can and should be invoked wherever appropriate because it offers a unique opportunity for beneficial alterations – but it should only be invoked on the advice of a qualified trades person or construction company. Let the Permitted Development initiative encourage you to think about an extension, but don’t actually build it without planning permission unless you are absolutely sure it fits all the guidelines.

London Builders Pro are the leading purveyor of Home Extensions and Basement Conversions

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