So totally new to this forum and this is the first time I'm ever attempting to doing any refurbishments at all! Apologies for the long explanation...
Bought a Grade II listed property earlier this year with my partner and we planned to do some internal renovations, namely make the downstairs open plan with a spiral staircase and add a bathroom upstairs. We were relatively confident that we'd get the permission as there was an almost identical flat on the same road that had managed to alter their layout in the same way.
That was the plan anyway and we were so excited to do this as it's our first property together. We made the application and were told our decision would be communicated to us by 19th September.... Come 19th September, no news. I ring the case officer and was informed that apparently another flat on the street had made a similar application and they wanted to wait to view that flat before they made a decision... We wait again. I call again on 4th Oct. Apparently English Heritage are delaying the application... Finally, today, almost 1 month after our original deadline, the case officer comes back with a refusal!
Their excuse: apparently the stairs and walls on the lower floor are part of the original features of the property. The other flat who'd been granted permission had already been "significantly altered" at the time of the planning application.
Now I find this hard to understand since at some point, these buildings were all houses and were later converted into separate flats. So how can these walls be part of the original features? It is also very frustrating to know that an identical flat achieved planning permission whereas we are being refused for almost identical works.
We are considering appealing now but are a bit worried about the costs. We know that places like Savills are well-known but possibly very expensive. Can anyone offer advice on this?
Also, I read that the appeals procedure caters for delayed applications. Will there be any leniency on our case given that we didn't hear back until almost 1 month after the deadline?
Sorry again for the long post! It's just that we really don't have much experience with this if any (!!) so any help would be very very much appreciated!
Bought a Grade II listed property earlier this year with my partner and we planned to do some internal renovations, namely make the downstairs open plan with a spiral staircase and add a bathroom upstairs. We were relatively confident that we'd get the permission as there was an almost identical flat on the same road that had managed to alter their layout in the same way.
That was the plan anyway and we were so excited to do this as it's our first property together. We made the application and were told our decision would be communicated to us by 19th September.... Come 19th September, no news. I ring the case officer and was informed that apparently another flat on the street had made a similar application and they wanted to wait to view that flat before they made a decision... We wait again. I call again on 4th Oct. Apparently English Heritage are delaying the application... Finally, today, almost 1 month after our original deadline, the case officer comes back with a refusal!
Their excuse: apparently the stairs and walls on the lower floor are part of the original features of the property. The other flat who'd been granted permission had already been "significantly altered" at the time of the planning application.
Now I find this hard to understand since at some point, these buildings were all houses and were later converted into separate flats. So how can these walls be part of the original features? It is also very frustrating to know that an identical flat achieved planning permission whereas we are being refused for almost identical works.
We are considering appealing now but are a bit worried about the costs. We know that places like Savills are well-known but possibly very expensive. Can anyone offer advice on this?
Also, I read that the appeals procedure caters for delayed applications. Will there be any leniency on our case given that we didn't hear back until almost 1 month after the deadline?
Sorry again for the long post! It's just that we really don't have much experience with this if any (!!) so any help would be very very much appreciated!