French Windows - Planning Permission & Building Regs

[George Hartshorn]

Hello,

I live in a ground floor flat of a victorian terrace in London.

I'm looking at replacing the back window leading to my garden with a set of french doors. The work will also involve bricking up the old back door.

I have got permission from the leaseholder, however as I understand it I don't have permitted development rights because it is a flat.

I've been in touch with my local council about submitting a planning application and they have been useless so far and point me to their paid advice service which i'm reluctant to use.

Does anyone know if to submit the application I need to get architectural drawings of the rear elevation to scale, or if I can just use high quality photos of the elevation (which is what they reccomend when applying to change your windows - i'm in a conservation area)

Do I need to submit specific details of the door which I am installing, or do I just need to show the size of the opening on the planning application?

We'll need to widen the window opening for the french doors so we'll need a lintel.

Does anyone know if I need to get a structural engineer to work out the size of the lintel, or is it OK for a builder to decide this?

Thank you in advance

 

[^woody^]

Planners are basically concerned with the appearance of the elevation and materials. There may be what is called "local criteria" which details what information and format is required. Check that, but normally ....

You could use photos, but would need a before and after image. Or simple line drawings of the elevation.

You should dimension the door opening, but no need for anything else. You will need to supply details of the door and frame, colour, materials, glazed etc.

If you use a standard lintel, no engineers or calculations required.

 

[Nakajo]

Oh , you're in a conservation area too. Is there also an Article 4 direction attached to that?

 

[^woody^]

Oh , you're in a conservation area too. Is there also an Article 4 direction attached to that?

It's flat, Article 4 makes no difference.

 

[Nakajo]

It makes a difference, because the council will still factor in that policy when assessing the proposal, and if the leaseholder also owns the upstairs flat, then it won't really occur to anyone that it's a flat anyway.

 

[^woody^]

It makes a difference, because the council will still factor in that policy when assessing the proposal, and if the leaseholder also owns the upstairs flat, then it won't really occur to anyone that it's a flat anyway.

What policy? What factoring in?

Article 4 just removes PD, which the flat never had it in the first place and the OP knows that.

 

[George Hartshorn]

Yeah as we're in a conservation area any windows / doors that we change have to be sympathetic to the local area (no uPVC etc).

OK great, the building itself is 4 stories high, and we're the bottom flat. If I do a line drawing of the elevations, do I need to do it for the entire building? Would that mean I need to find out dimensions of neighbours windows etc?

Great news about the lintel. Assuming if I get a builder who can self asses their work then i'll only need to contact building regs to notify them of the works taking place?

 

[^woody^]

The whole elevation, or a photo of the whole elevation and drawing just of the ground floor.

Count the bricks for dimensions.

Any drawing being in proportion is more important than being fully dimensioned. But check the validation criteria as they may not accept an application if you don't submit what they specify is required