Planning permission refused and appeal refused what next?

Sometimes clients do jump the gun and come unstuck.

About 12 months ago, a client of mine wanted to get on with her large two-storey side extension. She 'phoned the planning officer who told her that she was recommending it for approval.

On that basis alone, and regardless of my protestations, the client started work and completed the extension. The council served an enforcement notice; client appealed; appeal was dismissed; extension now has to have the rear 25% removed, and the remaining side gable wall moved inwards by 12". Result;
client has no money left to even take it down, let alone re-build, and can't even sell the house.

The moral is of course to be patient and get everything in writing. And yes, most planning officers are out to thwart development and enjoy their own little power trips - it's one of the perks of the job.

tony1851 said:

And yes, most planning officers are out to thwart development and enjoy their own little power trips - it's one of the perks of the job.

Click to expand...

Let it go, let it go!

Hi Tony, thanks for the info, so has your client actually got any of the work done? or will they be doing it?, to be honest im totally spent up too and only have a few hundred left in the bank hence no way of getting anything done,

I was already making an extension and the initial application had been approved, when we had started the extension we realised it might be best to make my dad a bathroom in his bedroom as he is diabetic so first job was to ask my neighbours, theyve been neighbours for over 20 years and they had clearly said they had no issues and we can carry on.

We had sent the application in for just that extra second floor bedroom extension, we had made the walls and then just awaited the approval from the officer so we can complete the roof of that bedroom as weve made a seperate small roof for that.

It takes quite a while to sign off and send an approval via post so the architecht called me and said all is clear, we awaited a week and then told the builder to carry on, its when they were adding the roof when it all kicked off, we realised our neighbours had made a complaint aginst us and also had asked us a £4k bribe, either pay or we will get the councilors envolved. The neighbours had gone mental i said why should i pay you when its not there house.

We had completed the work on the second floor extension and After a month we had recieved an enforcement letter, as the neighbours went to the councilors who were realitives of theres and they had taken it to the next level to make us stop the work, yet we had completed all the work.

I did not break any rules as always i like to do things correctly, ive felt ive been cheated by the councilors and the planning officers, i have all there emails of there wrong doings and im thinking of going to our local MP, as i honestly know this council is corrupted. The councilors help one another in which applications should be approved and which should be refuse.

Peters1 said:

I did not break any rules as always i like to do things correctly.

Click to expand...

Well.....thats not entirely true is it?!

I had the previos application approved a year ago, How was i to know this is going to happen, whats happend is happened though i guess you only learn by your mistakes, as we are human after all.

Whilst I feel for you a little bit, I can't help but think you just did what you wanted and now you're paying for it! And I believe that there is more to this story than you are letting on....

Earlier you mentioned that the Architect waited a week and then told the builder to get on with it, maybe you could pursue against him?

Yes i could but again it was verbally i dont have any proof of it in writing.

why is the architect dishing out orders to get the builders to start without any planning permission?

seems to me that it had never been applied for maybe?

whats this £4000 bribe issue? very specific amount no?

do you know what they wanted to buy specifically for £4000?

another candidate for mr kyle methinks.

The architect did not give the go ahead to the builder, he had forwarded the info to myself and i had then gave the go ahead to the builder to commence the rest of the work as they were finishing the rest of the house roof at the same time. But we did not start straight away, we left it for a week and then started the work.

The 4k was to pay half of the amount, as they wAnted to extend their house too and the same builder had have them a quote of 8k, yet he didnt want to do the job as he knew they most likely will not pay him at the end, so they expected me to pay half of the amount when i dont even live there.

The architecht phoned the case officer, the case officer just said according to my self the planning should have been approved, but now politics have come in and my hands are tied.

The councilors asked the head of planning who actually signs these planning off to personally come down and see, she had come down and went to the neighbours house and said in her email which we saw on the council system there was a light issue in the neighbours top bedroom. Yet they normally approve a 3 meter extension but in this istance they are going to refuse it.

After 3 weeks the enforcement letter came through the post, i had a distance cousin who was in the council but on different ward he had gone to the planning officer to ask them what this about, again the planning officer had confirmed this is dirty politics that have come in to play.

He had asked the officer maybe we can take the application to a commitee meeting (bad idea) as all the councilors were against me hence the enforcement was still inplace.

We had made a formal complaint about one of the councilor to the head of the council, as he is a realive of the neighbours but also a neighbour too of ours yet on the rear side, this councilor name was on the complaints too, yet he had come down on the site visit when the commitee, i could see he was gesturing to his fellow councilors that i only live here too, hence the council took his side, as im sure when they will require help from him he will be also available, as they say you scratch my back il scratch yours.

The complaint decision had come back a few weeks ago, the head of council clearly explains that whatever the councilor did was wrong but the decision of the panel is that he goes for more training (WTF!!)

Peters1 said:

The councilors asked the head of planning who actually signs these planning off to personally come down and see, she had come down and went to the neighbours house and said in her email which we saw on the council system there was a light issue in the neighbours top bedroom. Yet they normally approve a 3 meter extension but in this istance they are going to refuse it.

After 3 weeks the enforcement letter came through the post, i had a distance cousin who was in the council but on different ward he had gone to the planning officer to ask them what this about, again the planning officer had confirmed this is dirty politics that have come in to play.

He had asked the officer maybe we can take the application to a commitee meeting (bad idea) as all the councilors were against me hence the enforcement was still inplace.

We had made a formal complaint about one of the councilor to the head of the council, as he is a realive of the neighbours but also a neighbour too of ours yet on the rear side, this councilor name was on the complaints too, yet he had come down on the site visit when the commitee, i could see he was gesturing to his fellow councilors that i only live here too, hence the council took his side, as im sure when they will require help from him he will be also available, as they say you scratch my back il scratch yours.

The complaint decision had come back a few weeks ago, the head of council clearly explains that whatever the councilor did was wrong but the decision of the panel is that he goes for more training (WTF!!)

Click to expand...

It's a disgrace that corruption is alive and kicking in the planning process. But I think that when they see people jumping the gun it kind of winds them up and that doesn't help you in the long run.

All appeals should be done by an independent group outside of the immediate area with no vested interests in the result.
The play off between the planners and the committee is ridiculous.

The trouble is, it is a semi-judicial process. Imagine if in a court of law someone was seen gesturing and favoring a relative.
Of course there are certain "influences" on the courts too !

You might be able to get a modified design approved.
The issues appear to be either:
overlooking - alter the windows or fit frosted glass
loss of light - rebuild the corner with a diagonal cut-off.

Being a bedroom and having no other windows there, you cant have them frosted, and in regards to altering the design, i wont be able to that as previously explained im pennyless now as ive spent all the money on the house.

Peters1 said:

Being a bedroom and having no other windows there, you cant have them frosted, .

Click to expand...

Really? Is that a building regs / planning rule or do you just not want to do it? Better to knock it down then than put a couple of quids worth of frosting on if that's enough to get them off your back? I suspect they wont accept it anyway