Architectural Services FAQs

This is the most common question we get asked at DWG Plans whether it be at our free consultations or just an enquiry.

Some forms of extensions/conversions can be done without the need for planning permission.  This work falls under the town and country planning (general permitted development) (England) order 2015 amended part 1 & 2 (The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015)

This order outlines what work can be done to a house in England without the need for planning permission. In short, it’s called permitted development.

What work falls under permitted development you ask? Below is a list of projects that can be done to a house under permitted development without needing permission. Although there are several rules that would need to be followed for each extension/conversion that would need to be strictly adhered to for it to be permitted.

• Porches
• Rear extensions
• Side extensions
• 2 storey extensions
• Loft conversions
• Conservatories
• Outbuildings (sheds, garages, summerhouses, swimming pools)
• Hard surfaces (driveways and patios)
• Fences, gates and walls
• External render and cladding

Each of the above projects and its rules can be found by clicking the link on the project above.

If however you are unsure that the extension/conversion you are going to be doing is permitted development then you can submit a Lawful Development Certificate application to your local council along with plans for the extension/conversion to ask the question and obtain formal written confirmation that it is permitted development.

It is worth noting that not all buildings fall under permitted development. Flats, Maisonettes, listed buildings, and properties within areas of outstanding natural beauty would require planning permission for all types of works.

Porches – No extension can come forward past the line of the principal elevation – that’s usually the side of the house that faces the street. For example, you can’t add a new bay window without going through planning permission.

The only permitted development allowed on the front elevation is a porch with a maximum footprint of 3 square metres and no more than 3 metres in height. It must also be set back at least 2 metres from the boundaries of your property and from the road.

This covers any extension across the rear elevation of your property. From side-return extensions to extensions that span the full width of your house.

Maximum depth:

Single storey rear extensions can come out by up to 3 metres for semi-detached, terraced and link-detached houses, and by 4 metres for a detached house, based on the original plans of the building, or as it stood on 1 July 1948 if older.

You can apply for prior approval (neighbour consultation schemes) for rear extensions up to 6 metres for semi-detached, terraced and link-detached houses, or by up to 8 metres for a detached house. This needs to be done before work starts. Your local authority will consult with your neighbours and decide whether prior approval is required before work can go ahead. Factors that can influence their decision include your neighbours’ ‘right to light’.

This will usually require plans to be produced to show the intent of the works. DWG Plans Ltd can help produce all the necessary plans and submit the correct application form.

Maximum height:

No more than 4 metres. Any part of the roof falling within 2 metres of your neighbours’ boundaries must be a maximum height of 3 metres.

Maximum area:

Rear extensions must not come out further than the side of the house, and you can’t cover more than half of the land around the original dwelling (including outbuildings and sheds). The extension also must not come within 7 metres of the rear property boundary.

Appearance:

Your choice of materials must be similar in appearance to the original house.

You can add extra downstairs living space to your house with a side extension. However, two storey side extensions don’t fall under permitted development rules and would require planning permission. DWG Plans Ltd can produce all the necessary architectural drawings and submit the planning permission drawings if you do need planning permission.

Maximum width:

Side extensions must not exceed half the width of the original house.

Maximum depth:

The side extension can extend out further than the back of the house, projecting into the back garden by up to 3 metres for a semi-detached, terraced or link-detached house, or 4 metres if detached, based on the original plans of the building, or as it stood on 1st July 1948 if older.

Maximum height

The highest point of the roof can’t exceed is 4 metres. Any part of the roof falling within 2 metres of your neighbours’ boundaries must be a maximum height of 3 metres.

Property boundary:

There’s no restriction to how close you can go to the boundary with your neighbours, although it is always wise to talk to them about your plans first. However you may require party wall agreements with your neighbours if you are building on, astride or impacting the neighbours foundations.

Wrap around:

Full width wrap around extensions aren’t allowed under permitted development rights. But a partial wrap around is permitted, provided the total width of the extension at its widest point does not exceed half the width of the original building.

Appearance:

Your choice of materials must be similar in appearance to the original house.

Need an extra bedroom or make the current bedrooms larger then a 2 storey extension could be the way to go providing the following requirements are met.

Where can you build?

Two storey extensions can only be built off your property’s rear elevation, but not the side or front elevations.

Maximum depth:

You can extend a maximum of 3 metres from rear elevation on semi-detached, terrace or link-detached house, or up to 4 for a detached house. You cannot extend the ground floor further than 3m if you are doing a 2 storey extension. Both stories must be 3m for it to fall under permitted development.

Maximum height:

The height of the roof ridge and eaves can’t exceed the height of the ridge and eaves on the original house. Any part of the roof falling within 2 metres of your neighbours’ boundaries must be a maximum height of 3 metres.

Maximum area:

The extension (including any existing extensions and outbuildings) can’t exceed more than 50% of the total land around the house.

Appearance:

The pitch of the roof should be the same style as the existing roof and tiles and other externals materials should match. The pitch of the new roof should also match the existing house. Any second storey windows must be obscured glass and their opening parts must be at least 1.7 metres above the floor.

There are a few different types of loft conversion. These include:

• Roof lights only – this is the most straight forward option, which usually this involves interior changes only, with the simple addition of Velux-style windows to the existing roof
• Dormer conversion
• Hip-to-gable conversions
• Mansard conversions
• L-shaped

One or more different types of loft conversion can be used in a single project (for example, dormer windows can lend extra head height to mansard or hip to gable conversions). The following regulations apply to them all:

Street view:

Dormers can’t be built on the front elevation of the house under permitted development (this is usually the side that faces the street). The only change at the front can be rooflights (Velux-style windows) which can project up to 15cm from the roof surface.

Maximum height:

Loft conversions can’t be higher than the highest point of the current roof.

Maximum volume:

The total increase in roof volume can’t exceed 50 cubic metres for a detached or semi-detached house, or 40 cubic metres for a terrace. Dormers must be set back a minimum of 20cm from the eaves.

Access:

The loft staircase must have at least 2 metres head height clearance.

Appearance:

New windows on the side of the house must be frosted and their opening parts must be at least 1.7m from the floor. Balconies or verandas are not permitted, but Juliet balconies that have no platform are allowed. New roof tiles and windows must match existing.

In order to avoid a full planning application for your conservatory, you’ll need to ensure your project meets these rules.

• Sits to the rear of the house (not the front)
• Must not extend beyond the rear wall of the existing house by 3m if an attached house or 4m if detached
• Uses similar building materials to the existing house
• Takes up less than 50% of the size of the land around the original house (“original” being the latest of when the property was built or if it was built before 1948, then as it stood on 1st July 1948)
• Is less than 4m in height (or less than 3m if within 2m of a property boundary)
• Has eaves and a ridge that are no taller than the existing house

Garden rooms are classed as ‘outbuildings’ and can be built under permitted development rules. The rules for outbuildings cover structures that are within your property boundaries but not attached to your house. This includes garages, summer houses, and sheds, as well as less obvious buildings like tennis courts, swimming pools, ponds and containers used for heating oil.

Position

Outbuildings can’t be built more forward than the front elevation of your property (the front wall of your house).

Maximum height:

They can be up to 4 metres high if they have a dual pitched roof, or up to 3 metres with other types of roof, eg a flat roof.  Any part of the roof falling within 2 metres of your neighbours’ boundaries must be a maximum height of 3 metres.

Maximum area:

The outbuilding must not exceed more than half of the original footprint of your house when it was built or on 1 July 1948, if it was built before then.

Features:

Decking around your outbuilding is fine, but you cannot build verandas or raised platforms above 0.3 metres in height.

Designated areas and protected buildings:

In National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Broads and World Heritage Sites, the maximum area covered by all outbuildings that are more than 20 metres from the house is limited to 10 metres.

If you’re on designated land, any outbuildings to the side of your house will need to go through planning permission.

You can replace or install a new hard surface in front of an existing house without planning permission for driveways if the area is less than five square metres. For some small front gardens, that will be enough for a ‘wheel tracks driveway’, i.e., one that has just two paved tracks where the wheels of your vehicle go. 

If you require a driveway larger than that, you can still avoid the need for planning permission by laying a permeable (or porous) surface, such as gravel, permeable concrete block paving, or porous asphalt — if the rainwater is directed to a nearby lawn or flower border to drain naturally.

If you are converting some or all of a front garden into a driveway, then you will probably need to drive over a pavement to get to it from the road, in which case you will almost certainly require a licence and/or planning permission for dropped kerbs from your local authority.

If the driveway is in front of your house, i.e., between the road and the principal elevation of your property, then you will still need planning permission to widen it. However, this only applies if you are proposing more than five square metres of traditional, impermeable driveway that does not allow water to run into a permeable area, like a lawn or flower border.

If it’s on land other than your front garden, i.e., not between your principal elevation and the road, then there will most likely be no restrictions to the type of driveway area you can cover using impermeable hard surfaces without first completing a planning application. Providing that they are at, or near, ground level, you should be clear to undertake this project.

Do remember, though, that what you think, or want, the principal elevation of your house to be, may not be the case. This is usually where your house is on a corner, and you have a main road on the side and front of the property.

If your road is a classified road (A, B,C,M) or on an adopted road then you will require planning permission to drop the kerb to the front of your property otherwise a dropped kerb would fall under permitted development.

You would still need to gain the correct permissions from the highway’s agency and a fully licensed contractor with the right permissions to do the work.

You will not need to apply for planning permission if you wish to erect a new; or alter, maintain, improve or take down* an existing fence, wall or gate if the following conditions are met:

• in regard to its height:
• it is next to a highway used by vehicles (or the footpath of such a highway) and it would not exceed one metre in height (from ground level); or
• it would not exceed two metres in height (from ground level) if elsewhere; or
• if an existing fence, wall or gate already exceeds the limits above, that its height would not be increased.
• no part of the site is a listed building or within the curtilage of a listed building.
• no part of the fence, wall, gate or any other boundary involved, forms a boundary with a neighbouring listed building or its curtilage.
• the right to put up or alter fences, walls and gates has not been removed by an article four direction or a planning condition.

If any of these conditions are not met, then you will need to apply for planning permission.

*In a conservation area, you might need permission take down a fence, wall or gate. 

You do not need planning permission for hedges as such, though if a planning condition or a covenant restricts planting (for example, on “open plan” estates, or where a driver’s sight line could be blocked) you may need planning permission and/or other consent.

Updating the external appearance of your house with render or cladding is usually allowed under permitted development rules, provided the materials you using are of a similar appearance to those used in the original construction of your house.

However, altering the outer fabric of your home can impact both its safety and its thermal insulation properties – which means you will need to obtain a building regulations certificate if:

• More than 25% of an external wall is re-rendered, re-clad, re-plastered or re-lined internally
• More than 25% of the external leaf wall is rebuilt
• If you’re adding cavity wall insulation (formaldehyde gas emissions will need to be checked)

It’s important to note that cladding needs to meet fire safety standards, and you may need to upgrade the thermal insulation performance of your walls to meet building regulations.

If you’re planning to change the appearance of your home with render or cladding, or you live in either a listed building or designated area, then you will need to submit an application for planning permission.

Flats and Maisonettes
Any work to flats or Maisonettes would require planning permission.

Houses in designated areas
More restricted permitted development rules apply to what planners refer to as ‘designated areas’. These include:

• Conservation areas
• National parks
• Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)
• World Heritage Sites
• The Norfolk or Suffolk Broads

Local authorities also have the right to limit permitted development rights for certain areas by issuing an ‘Article 4 direction’ – which refers to Article 4 of the GDPO. This might happen for instance, if they want to preserve the character of an area. 

Some newer homes
Occasionally, newer houses will have their permitted development rights removed as a condition of planning consent when they are built. Usually this should be listed in the covenants in the deeds of the property.

Listed buildings
Different rules apply, and you’ll need to obtain listed building consent as well as planning permission.

If you’ve used up your permitted development rights
Buildings that have already been extended may have used up part or all of their permitted development rights during their history. You can extend your home more than once, but the total size of all extensions added to the original building as it stood on 1 July 1948 (the date modern planning regulations were introduced) can’t exceed the current limits.  

Wrap-around extensions
This popular type of extension is not covered by permitted development rights due to their large size. However, a side-extension can partially wrap around your house under certain circumstances.

If you are still unsure that the work, you are doing is permitted development then DWG Plans Ltd always suggests that you apply for a Lawful Development Certificate.

This application is to ask your local council if the work you are doing is permitted under the permitted development guidelines and requests that they review the information/plans provided and issue a Lawful Development Certificate.

This Lawful Development Certificate is extremely useful as it does 2 things.

• It gives you peace of mind that the extension or conversion that you are building is permitted development.
• When it comes to selling your property, the new owners have the reassurance that the extension or conversion that you have done is permitted and aids in a smooth transaction of the house purchase.

In order to obtain this certificate, you will no doubt require some planning drawings, site and location plans and a Lawful Development Certificate Proposed Use application form along with the correct fee would need to be submitted to the Local planning department.

Contact DWG Plans Ltd to get a free no obligation quote for your project.