Planning permission needed or not .. confused.com

[Kat1985]

Hello everyone.
Just new to the forum hoping you lovely people can give me some advice/guidance.
We are planning to build a lean to single story extension to the side of our property (attached to the house) with the following sizes height 2.5 metres width 2.4 metres and length 7.9/8 metres, external single door to the front and sliding doors on the back made fully out of timber painted and felted roof,my garden tapers at the rear end leaving me only 61cms( 2ft) gap from the boundary fence to the lean to ...(only at the back end) as you come forward to the front of the garden and area where the front of the lean to will sit the gap is well over 9ft... To the boundary fence ...do I need planning permission for this project?? Is it allowed tone attached to the house?? Would it be better as a detached outbuilding ?? Or say a non combustible material frame for the lean to ,to be attached to with a small gap onto the house??? I can get pictures of the area if this will help ,I've been on planning portal direct gov afew garden building sites a planning advice site afew forums, all saying different things, am planning on contacting local office advice team...the lean to is going to be used for storage and keeping some of our guinea pigs in we show and breed, many thanks and hope my post is clear x

 

[tony1851]

Ordinarily that would not need planning permission as long as the width of the lean to was not more than one-half the width of the house.
BUT, one of the conditions of permitted development is that the materials of construction should be similar to those of the house.
Also, if you sell the animals as a business, it might need planning permission, depending on the intensity of use.
Don't bother asking at you local planning department; whatever you ask, by default they will say it needs planning permission (even if they are not sure themselves, which is quite often the case).
Building Regulations would also come into play, and you may find difficulty in complying with fire regs if it's built in timber.

 

[^woody^]

BUT, one of the conditions of permitted development is that the materials of construction should be similar to those of the house.

Just like conservatories.

 

[tony1851]

Just like conservatories.

They are specifically exempt from that condition, along with porches.

 

[Kat1985]

So am looking at a no ??

 

[tony1851]

Correct, unless you can clad it with some imitation board looking similar to your existing wall finish.
And assuming you can be certain the council would not regard you as running any sort of business from the extension.
But you might still fall foul of fire regs.

 

[Kat1985]

Ok thank you ,

 

[^woody^]

They are specifically exempt from that condition, along with porches.

In which case the op constructs something conservatory-like or garden shed-like with timber panels which do not need to match the house.

Above all, that the materials do not need to be similar in any case. It's been defined, and we've discussed it previously.

 

[Kat1985]

Thank you for your advice, we have taken down the framework, and had a reshuffle on plans and ideas, we are looking to build a summer house in our back garden 20ft long by 8ft wide no higher than 2.5 we are leaving a 1ft gap to the fence for air flow and maintenance of fence (which we replacing in due course) and able to make get round-the-clock back if by tight push lol to clean and make any repairs, spoke to local office she said(if you follow the planning portal on sizes and instructions it's fine) I am singing we can go up to the boundary fence leaving a small gap as long as the height doesn't go above 2.5metres we are more than a 1metre from our house,I spoke to owners yesterday as they rent it out,and informed them of my plans and they were fine with me replacing fence as some is only 3ft height and new renters have small child and we have pets...... And they are fine with summer house??? Can I just double check am within my rights to have it within 2metres of boundary line if under 2.5 ,many thanks

 

[tony1851]

That would satisfy the criteria for permitted development.
However, under Building Regulations, a detached building of floor area more than 15 sq m. which is within 1m of the boundary must be constructed of substantially non-combustible materials, otherwise a Building Regs application is required.
At 20'x8' (overall size?) you are probably just about at the limit for exemption from Building Regs.
Having said that, the country is littered with tens of thousands of old timber garages and sheds right up to boundaries, and no-one bothers!

 

[Kat1985]

Hello tony1851
The sizes are
M2 floorspace 14.87424
6.09m x 2.440m, is length and width and 2.5m for height, and it's now 2inch shorter as that's how he cut the boards (lol), what a minefield so as long as we stay with in the sizes we are ok... Ppl place sheds along fences it's so difficult to navigate, I appreciate your advice

 

[garyo]

M2 floorspace 14.87424
6.09m x 2.440m,

Watch out for confusing 'internal floor area' with 'external size'. You're comfortably within 15m2 if the numbers above are your external dims.

 

[Kat1985]

We have now chopped 2ft off lol... So 18x8 ft thank you tho am not very good with measurements lol not to be let loose with a tape measure I believe is my husband's comment hahaha