Extension Advice

[wolverine]

Hi all,

Long time lurker on these forums here hoping for some advice.

We've just bought a detached house which has one side of the house facing the street. What we want to do is build a double storey extension on this side (there is 4m there) and also to the front to increase the size of the house to the boundary. The boundary is not with another property but with the pavement/public road.

I went to my local council to use their free 15 minutes advice and they said that I would get approved for the extension but I'd have to be within 1m from the boundary or to try 50cm and compromise. The lady I spoke to gave me a "Householder Design Guide" document and said to make sure the guide is followed.

I got the impression, however, that she didn't really know what she was talking about as she also told me that I can extend my garden fence to my boundary without planning permission but the online portal says I can't without permission so not too confident with the advice given.

This design guide she gave to me has literally nothing about detached houses and is all about semi detached or terraced houses. It states that side extensions have to be 1m from boundary for the following two reasons:

1. To avoid encroaching on the adjacent property,
2. To allow access to the back garden.

I'm extending to the boundary where there is no adjacent property and my garden access is already on the other side of the house.

Has anyone else had experience extending to a boundary where the boundary is the road? I drove about the area and I see plenty of houses extended to the boundary of a road (although not on the same road as my house).

Any advice would be grately appreciated!

 

[^woody^]

I got the impression, however, that she didn't really know what she was talking about

Get her to sign up here. She'd fit in nicely on the regulation forum.

Unless the local guide says overwise, set backs from boundaries are not absolute, but are a means to achieve something else - eg avoiding terracing or allowing rear access, etc.

If the purpose of the set back does not apply, then neither will the set back requirement.

 

[wolverine]

Get her to sign up here. She'd fit in nicely on the regulation forum.

Unless the local guide says overwise, set backs from boundaries are not absolute, but are a means to achieve something else - eg avoiding terracing or allowing rear access, etc.

If the purpose of the set back does not apply, then neither will the set back requirement.

Haha that made me laugh . She pulled up the last planning application which was approved over a decade ago which apparently showed the boundary to be the house and not where the garden meets the pavement. I showed her the Land Registry document I took with me and her response was "well if you're telling me your boundary goes to the edge, then we'll believe you". So what, I can just randomly make up boundaries now or something?

She also kept pulling up Google street view on me even though the street view is 4 years old and the house has had a 1m wall built around the perimeter since. Worrying things is; this lady claimed she was one of the people that approves planning applications

I also asked her whether a detached garage conversion needs to have floor same level as rest of house as an attached garage conversion does. She didn't even know the answer to that.

She then told me at the end of our meeting that I can still go ahead and apply with the plans but they'll reject them and I can appeal. I asked her what's the chance of winning an appeal, and she told me about 10%

Your response is comforting to me - I assumed that was always the case and no architect that I have spoken to has ever raised going to the boundary an issue (but they might be just after my money so wasn't 100% sure).

Thanks for that woody - appreciate it.

 

[tony1851]

@op; Welcome to the world of the patronizing, condescending, but utterly clueless Junior Planning Officer.

 

[wolverine]

@op; Welcome to the world of the patronizing, condescending, but utterly clueless Junior Planning Officer.

Yeah had me proper worried that these kind of people work in the planning and approvals department... hopefully she doesn't approve applications like she claimed she did!!

It may have been a language barrier thing, she had a really strong accent and maybe she wasn't understanding me properly or I wasn't understanding her. Or maybe she just doesn't understand planning anyway and is just someone random they found to fill that position. Or maybe a mixture of all of the above

Would be nice to actually speak to someone at the council who knew what they were talking about. She did offer a £500 service which is usually for people that are building 2-4 properties on a plot of land but I didn't see how that service was relevant to my needs.