Is planning permission required for Rendering a brick house?

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I have a question about planning permission and rendering a house.
I live in a chalet bungalow in a close of around 10 houses, all similar, but not identical in design and appearance - brick (different houses have different coloured brick), many with clay tiles in the gable area. One other house has weatherboarding and some render at the front of the house. I wanted to render and paint my whole house as I thought it was ugly and I wanted a more modern look. I looked online and saw that planning permission was not required to render, as long as its not in a conservation area, which it is not.

So I had the house rendered, with cement/sand and painted off white.
Now I am planning on an extension at the back of the house and researching once again about planning permission. I notice now that there are points about rendering a house is OK without planning, as long as similar materials are used as main house build.
So this has me a little concerned, was I OK to go ahead and render without planning permission? Do I in fact need planning for this? would I need to get retrospective planning, could they refuse, in which case would I need to remove render which would be a very costly nightmare!
Any advice here would be greatly appreciated.
 
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How long ago?

Yes adding render needs permission as its a change in appearance.
 
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I researched this quite a bit before rendering my house, and as blup said, it was a BC matter in respect of insulation rather than planning matter (unless in listed building/conservation area).

Generally PP for your extension will say to match the materials of the extension to the existing building, so if your application has the existing drawings stating that the exterior of the existing building is rendered, and that the new parts will be rendered, then the likelihood is that it will be approved on the basis of matching materials. Of course it could still fall foul of other planning rules/requirements.
 
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Any render was permitted development prior to (IIRC) 2015, but now the requirement is that any render is only PD if it matches the existing building in terms of materials and appearance.
 
Thanks all so much for your prompt replies:
@motorbiking, @blup, it was only 2020 that I did this so around 18 months ago. Are there any time limits/restrictions/implications then?

I've read about building control too... the house does have cavity insulation, surely a layer of rendering will only improve insulation?

I've also read that no planning permission is required to paint your house, does this mean the walls (or just wood work, front door etc). Surely that will change the appearance?

@kingandy2nd, I see what you say and have thought of this, my only worry is that in doing the PP for the extension and saying it will be rendered like the main house, will in any way flag to them that the main house is rendered when they have no record of it and as far as they are concerned it should be brick - and so open up a whole can of worms.!!
 
Have you done a search on historic plans? Yes there is a time limit for planning enforcement. Building control may be happy to sign off as is?
 
Any render was permitted development prior to (IIRC) 2015, but now the requirement is that any render is only PD if it matches the existing building in terms of materials and appearance.

That only applies to dwellings on art.2(3) land, where finishes such as 'stone, artificial stone, pebble-dash, render, timber, plastic or tiles' are not Permitted Development.
The inference is, of course, that any dwelling not in a conservation area (etc) can be rendered over.
Enforcement will not be an issue - there is nothing to enforce.
 

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The government website says:

Conditions
A.3 Development is permitted by Class A subject to the following conditions—

(a)the materials used in any exterior work (other than materials used in the construction of a conservatory) must be of a similar appearance to those used in the construction of the exterior of the existing dwelling house;

Paint is not a material used in construction (?), so presumably not covered but render would seem to be. My guess is if the render is not out of keeping with other bungalows in the area it won't be a problem, but you need factor in what the bco might require, if anything, on insulation.


blup
 
The government website says:

Conditions
A.3 Development is permitted by Class A subject to the following conditions—

(a)the materials used in any exterior work (other than materials used in the construction of a conservatory) must be of a similar appearance to those used in the construction of the exterior of the existing dwelling house;

Paint is not a material used in construction (?), so presumably not covered but render would seem to be. My guess is if the render is not out of keeping with other bungalows in the area it won't be a problem, but you need factor in what the bco might require, if anything, on insulation.


blup
A2 and A3 are different, in that A2(a) specifically refers to cladding materials only, and not 'exterior work' (which implies extensions because of the reference to conservatories).

I agree that the wording could have been made clearer, but the P.D. rules are full of areas 'open to interpretation' as they say!
 
Again, thanks for all your responses.
@johnny2007, please elaborate :)

what is clear...is that this is quite unclear!!

the rendering and painting does affect appearance significantly, for the better i think as the original brickwork was so dated. my house did have a very small section rendered already (I'm talking about 1.5m x 1.5m) don't know if that counts for anything. and another house in the close has rendered a slightly larger section of their house.

anyway its done now so can't go back...unless they force me to.
re the extension, i was thinking of going out 5m which falls under PD I understand (its detached) so in theory I don't need PP for that? or is that just asking for (potentially more) trouble...?
 
Again, thanks for all your responses.
@johnny2007, please elaborate :)

Bricks are virtually maintenance free, apart from repointing every 80-100 years.
I find it unreasonable to cover them with something that at best will last 25 years and will need repainting every 5 years.
My personal thought, I understand we live in a "think about today" society, so I don't blame you.
 
Again, thanks for all your responses.
@johnny2007, please elaborate :)

what is clear...is that this is quite unclear!!

the rendering and painting does affect appearance significantly, for the better i think as the original brickwork was so dated. my house did have a very small section rendered already (I'm talking about 1.5m x 1.5m) don't know if that counts for anything. and another house in the close has rendered a slightly larger section of their house.

anyway its done now so can't go back...unless they force me to.
re the extension, i was thinking of going out 5m which falls under PD I understand (its detached) so in theory I don't need PP for that? or is that just asking for (potentially more) trouble...?

Rendering the dwelling does need planning permission as this would breach the 'materials of a similar appearance' condition in Class A. If you had just painted that would be PD- under Part 2 Class C.

A 5 metre extension needs planning permission or prior approval- the limit for simple PD is 4 metres on a detached house.
 

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