Loft conversion - certificate of lawfulness

[suggett1976]

We havnt received the certificate of lawfulness for a loft conversion we are about to start at our house.
The council say they will issue it in due course. We are 4 weeks into the 8 week wait

Builders etc are booked in.. Do we start without it or should we wait.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

You get your certificate after the target date and not before and only if it is lawful, if your designer is confident it is PD then it has to be issued.

 

[^woody^]

I just can't see the point in applying for a LDC before any work.

Surely any competent designer can tell you what is PD and what is not?

 

[chapeau]

Builders etc are booked in.. Do we start without it or should we wait.

Depends on how confident you are on getting the certificate. You have to remember if the planners don't deliver then you are going to pay the price and not the builders. Don't let the builders pressurise you and if there is any doubt then wait for the paperwork. If the planners can send something in writing saying it doesn't need planning permission then go on that, but if they won't then you need to wait.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Depends on how confident you are on getting the certificate. You have to remember if the planners don't deliver then you are going to pay the price and not the builders. Don't let the builders pressurise you and if there is any doubt then wait for the paperwork. If the planners can send something in writing saying it doesn't need planning permission then go on that, but if they won't then you need to wait.

Well presumably its the OP who's booked the builders and he knew the target date for his application so hardly the builders fault is it? Furthermore 'getting something in writing from the planners' shows a complete misunderstanding of the process.

 

[^woody^]

The whole idea of an LDC is to get some form of official confirmation that work done is lawful ..... in a retrospective sense.

It's not intended to be used to back up some sort of guess at what is lawful or not

Otherwise, full planning permission may well as be applied for

It's better to engage someone who knows about planning issues, and can say with authority what is and is not PD .... its not that hard as there is actually a published guide

 

[chapeau]

Well presumably its the OP who's booked the builders and he knew the target date for his application so hardly the builders fault is it? Furthermore 'getting something in writing from the planners' shows a complete misunderstanding of the process.

Nowhere in my post did I allocate blame.

What have I misunderstood? Have you not heard of 'getting things in writing' before? It means you get something on paper or in an email so quite reliable evidence. In this scenario it would say something to the effect of 'the work you propose (insert reference here) doesn't require planning permission'.

I have several such emails stashed away, around here it is common. Similar in other council areas that I have had the pleasure of dealing with planning.

So lets all be constructive and not take a pop at posters who are trying to help.

 

[chapeau]

Furthermore 'getting something in writing from the planners' shows a complete misunderstanding of the process.

Just been through some documents and found an example.

Untitled

• chapeau
• 25 Jun 2012
• 1

The council said, in writing, that planning permission for the submitted development was not required.

No complex stuff like lawful development certficates. All the OP needs to do is ask politely for a quick letter saying they can go ahead. I've had them issued in a couple of days.

Simples.

Every day is a school day, eh Freddie?

 

[^woody^]

Was that typed on a typewriter? It looks about 30 years old

 

[chapeau]

I have no idea. It's back in the document bundle now which is locked up and I am not going to go back and retrieve it. A strange question. Why do you ask? Do you doubt it's authenticity?

 

[chapeau]

Well, in an attempt to preempt any silliness I checked. It's laser jet or bubble jet, I cannot tell for sure. The original scan was well over a megabyte so I compressed it significantly, changed the pixel count, changed the colour depth so maybe you are seeing artifacts.

I blacked out the date as that could be used to identify the letter. However it was not 30 years ago, lol.

But still a strange question, why not address the issue instead of asking silly and irrelevant questions.

 

[^woody^]

It's not silly or irrelevant.

If that response is old, then things have moved on and councils wont give a response like that nowadays

So, the relevance is that, its no good advising to get something off the planners "saying it doesn't need planning permission" as no council will send a letter like that today.

 

[chapeau]

So, the relevance is that, its no good advising to get something off the planners "saying it doesn't need planning permission" as no council will send a letter like that today.

I cannot provide one dated today but I've got one dated last week.

http://www.rushcliffe.gov.uk/developmentcontrol/applyingforplanningpermission/pre-applicationadvice/

You give good advice on how to fit a lintel.

 

[chapeau]

I just can't see the point in applying for a LDC before any work.

Looks like you got that wrong too.

In an attempt to help the original poster (which is what this site is for, not for people to start to argue amongst themselves and try to show how clever they are) I took a look at planning in sussex - where the op is supposedly at.

First place I looked, Eastbourne.

http://www.eastbourne.gov.uk/environment/planning/permission/

You can apply for a Proposed Lawful Development Certificate if you wish the Council to formally confirm that planning permission would not be required for the works that you propose. It is no longer possible to provide a written response to enquiries unless these are submitted as a Proposed Lawful Development Certificate application.

So it appears to depend on where you live and in some parts of the country they make you apply for a LDC to get confirmation that you don't need planning permission.

All I can say is that here (in Rushcliffe) and another council I deal with (South Lakeland) they will send a letter telling you that planning permission is not required.

So I have no idea where the OP lives for planning, but (s)he might be forced to wait until the council gets its act together. Always a nuisance but they publish that in advance so everybody knows.

 

[^woody^]

Pre-application advice is nothing like the formal status of an LDC, so please don't link to it an infer that it is the same to support your position

All I said was that letter looks so old and old fashioned so as to be irrelevant to what goes on today. What is the date of it?