Backdoor

[Rick991]

My mother in law has a small bungalow in Plymouth. She has a front door that opens into the dining room which is open to the kitchen. The back door is on the side of the kitchen. Can she block the back door up so she can have a corner in the kitchen or must you have two doors even though they are only 4 to 5 metres apart almost in the same room?

 

[CACKATALLTRADES]

It doesn't strike me as desirable to have to use the front door to access the back garden, if that is indeed the implication of the proposal, but I don't think there's likely to be a legal impediment. Where you could have a building regs problem is if the front door offers worse disabled access than the back door, though if so you could of course improve the front door. From your description I can't imagine there's any fire egress consideration, but if say the back door met minimum width requirements and the front door didn't you might have a problem.
It's also conceivable there could be a stipulation in her lease or deeds forbidding such an alteration or demanding a fee be paid.
I don't recommend it in any case, but no accounting for taste.

 

[^woody^]

In a bungalow, you need either a singke exit direct from a room to outside or an exit to a hallway which then leads to an external door and then to outside. You should not have to pass thorough another room to get to an exit door, unless both rooms are open plan.

 

[CACKATALLTRADES]

In a bungalow, you need either a singke exit direct from a room to outside or an exit to a hallway which then leads to an external door and then to outside. You should not have to pass thorough another room to get to an exit door, unless both rooms are open plan.

Kitchens are excepted from inner room restrictions unless there's some bungalow specific rule(?)