I’ve been asked by a friend for some advice on some extension work he is looking to do on his house (he has a 3 bedroom mid terrace that he would like to extend with a loft conversion). In an ideal world what he wants to do is to put a dormer window on both sides of the house: a full width box dormer to the rear and a smaller gable style dormer to the front/street facing side.
I’ve already advised him that if we were looking at them separately the rear dormer would fit within the criteria for permitted development and so he wouldn’t require a full planning application, whereas regardless of its size/style the front dormer would definitely require a planning application to be submitted.
It was only after I’d spoken to him that I started to think about it all a little more and it seemed like it could be a complicated situation. They would likely be built at the same time but technically the planning criteria for them is different, so I suppose the question I have is if the proposed works to the rear of the house fall within PD would you need to actually include them/make any reference to them on a planning application for the works to the front of the house?
On the one hand I’m thinking yes just so that you can have clarity with the council/neighbours from the off and avoid any awkward conversations and the like at a later date, but on the other hand I think no because if you technically don’t require formal permission for the rear dormer then do you really need to inform them about it?
Although there are several historical precedents for front facing dormers on the street (next door neighbour being one of them) I know that this isn’t any kind of guarantee that the council would approve a similar extension for him, and if his application was to also show a full width dormer being constructed to the rear my gut feeling is that it would be even less likely to get past the planners.
The other thing I was thinking about is if the rear dormer is included on any submission to the planners and the application is subsequently refused, would he technically still be able to build the rear dormer under PD anyway? Or would the fact that it was included on a rejected planning application jeopardise that at all?
I’ve already advised him that if we were looking at them separately the rear dormer would fit within the criteria for permitted development and so he wouldn’t require a full planning application, whereas regardless of its size/style the front dormer would definitely require a planning application to be submitted.
It was only after I’d spoken to him that I started to think about it all a little more and it seemed like it could be a complicated situation. They would likely be built at the same time but technically the planning criteria for them is different, so I suppose the question I have is if the proposed works to the rear of the house fall within PD would you need to actually include them/make any reference to them on a planning application for the works to the front of the house?
On the one hand I’m thinking yes just so that you can have clarity with the council/neighbours from the off and avoid any awkward conversations and the like at a later date, but on the other hand I think no because if you technically don’t require formal permission for the rear dormer then do you really need to inform them about it?
Although there are several historical precedents for front facing dormers on the street (next door neighbour being one of them) I know that this isn’t any kind of guarantee that the council would approve a similar extension for him, and if his application was to also show a full width dormer being constructed to the rear my gut feeling is that it would be even less likely to get past the planners.
The other thing I was thinking about is if the rear dormer is included on any submission to the planners and the application is subsequently refused, would he technically still be able to build the rear dormer under PD anyway? Or would the fact that it was included on a rejected planning application jeopardise that at all?