friend of a friend..

[motorbiking]

..Is building a garden room. Its made from ply and timber and sits within about half a meter of his boundary fence. Its taking up about 70% of his very small garden and is within 1.5M of his house. I did some rough measurements and concluded it was about over 15m2, not by much The eves to the concrete base are just under 2.5M, but the concrete base is at least 20-30cm raised up from the natural ground. Though his garden slopes up, so at the other end its probably ok. Wont they measure the height from the lowest point?

If not and its just the size which is the issue, could he make the walls fatter to reduce the internal floor area.

If he's got both problems, its probably worth him keeping his fingers crossed, but if the height it fine it might be worth amending the walls.

comments /thoughts?

 

[LukeB123]

Talking about planning or building or both?

Needs planning regardless as it takes up more than 50% of the garden space? Think the height is measured from the highest adjoining land level so probably okay from the slope at the end of the garden room

 

[geraldthehamster]

[edited my double post]

 

[geraldthehamster]

And it will need Building Control approval if it is not constructed of substantially non-combustible material, being within one metre of the boundary.

If your friend's friend deals with the non-combustible issue, then it doesn't need Building Control approval for having a floor area >15m2 (up to 30m2), providing he doesn't plan to sleep in it

To avoid the need for Planning Permission, AIUI, maximum height (not eaves height) from highest ground level is 2.5m, as it's within 2m of the boundary.

No more than 50% of the land around the original house can be covered in outbuildings, without Planning Permission.

Is this a quiz?


https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/43/outbuildings

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/43/outbuildings/2

 

[motorbiking]

Right so he's ok on the height, just needs to get the internal size under 15m2 then he doesn't have to worry about building control, so probably needs to take some more accurate measurements and see if making the walls thicker will get the floor space under 15m2

If he counts his front garden, he might just be under the 50%.

The bigger issue he has, is he's actually a tenant.. But I thought we'd deal with one problem at a time

 

[geraldthehamster]

[Edited as I seem to have posted twice]

 

[geraldthehamster]

The height is only OK for Planning if that 2.5m eaves height is as high as the building goes (i.e. is it flat roofed?). AIUI, it's 2.5 eaves height, but if it's within 2m of the boundary, then it's 2.5m overall height.

If this is already built, I'd be inclined not to worry about floor area unless anyone says anything. There's still the Planning issue, that 70% of the garden is too much (though is there also a front or side garden to take into consideration?)

 

[^woody^]

Yeah, make the walls or one wall thicker.

 

[tony1851]

....and I was worried about my MoT being a day overdue...............

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Well as a tenant all this is irrelevant- he is allowed to do absolutely nothing without permission from his landlord. If he has built a structure then he will be looking at eviction for breaching the terms of his tenancy agreement, as well as being taken to court by the landlord to recover costs for demolition of the structure.

 

[motorbiking]

The tenancy is via a housing association, so its more a council house type thing, but I'm aware that the development has very restrictive covenants in place.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Same thing- if it isn't yours then you'll (he'll) need to receive permission in writing from the landlord and abide by any stipulations they put on it.

 

[motorbiking]

He'd have no chance. I've read the covenants but I thought... since its 3/4 built, I'd at least get him to a point where the build was compliant.