Advice on planning application

Hi,

We just went sale agreed on a house and, barring any last minute glitches with our final engineering report, hope to get contracts signed reasonably quickly, though I have been warned by others that it can take time.

Anyhow, the house needs a lot of work and we are hoping to convert and build over the garage so we will need to get a planning application in.

We'll be renting while the planning is going through and then all the works are taking place so am looking to minimise the amount of time paying rent and drawing mortgage at the same time. We hope to have our application in as soon as the contract is signed.

Can anyone give any general advice on the general process of applying for planning permission, and how to avoid an application being rejected?

I have checked what the neighbours near us have done and have seen their applications on line, and have gone through an application that has been granted for a near neighbour who will be starting works soon.

I have been told by our engineer that the only potential problem is an objection from one or more of the neighbours. I was advised by a friend to be visible around the property and try to get to know some of them, let them know you are local and building a family home etc to reassure them.

Does anyone who has experience of the process have any decent advice to give on this process?

Thanks in advance.

spockety

Objections by neighbours are irrelevant unless they are on a point of planning law, you're dimishing their property through inappropriate overshadowing etc., or pointing out somewhere in your council Development Plan that your proposed development contradicts. These are things that should/will be picked up by the planner assessing your application in any case.

A neighbour, or even a load of neighbours objecting is not something to be too concerned about. Loads of planning applications are granted even where there is stern opposition in a locality.

Your architect will guide you through the entire process.

JimmyMW

Deleted User wrote: »

Hi,

We just went sale agreed on a house and, barring any last minute glitches with our final engineering report, hope to get contracts signed reasonably quickly, though I have been warned by others that it can take time.

Anyhow, the house needs a lot of work and we are hoping to convert and build over the garage so we will need to get a planning application in.

We'll be renting while the planning is going through and then all the works are taking place so am looking to minimise the amount of time paying rent and drawing mortgage at the same time. We hope to have our application in as soon as the contract is signed.

Can anyone give any general advice on the general process of applying for planning permission, and how to avoid an application being rejected?

I have checked what the neighbours near us have done and have seen their applications on line, and have gone through an application that has been granted for a near neighbour who will be starting works soon.

I have been told by our engineer that the only potential problem is an objection from one or more of the neighbours. I was advised by a friend to be visible around the property and try to get to know some of them, let them know you are local and building a family home etc to reassure them.

Does anyone who has experience of the process have any decent advice to give on this process?

Thanks in advance.

Get a letter from the current owner allowing you to apply for planning on the property and get the application in now. Its a financial risk if the sale does not go through but worth it time wise if all goes to plan.

JimmyMW

JimmyMW wrote: »

Get a letter from the current owner allowing you to apply for planning on the property and get the application in now. Its a financial risk if the sale does not go through but worth it time wise if all goes to plan.

Thanks. I had not considered that but will look into it as having our planning application ready to go as soon as we get keys would certainly save us some money.

spockety

spockety wrote: »

Objections by neighbours are irrelevant unless they are on a point of planning law, you're dimishing their property through inappropriate overshadowing etc., or pointing out somewhere in your council Development Plan that your proposed development contradicts. These are things that should/will be picked up by the planner assessing your application in any case.

A neighbour, or even a load of neighbours objecting is not something to be too concerned about. Loads of planning applications are granted even where there is stern opposition in a locality.

Your architect will guide you through the entire process.

Thanks. I suppose I am just trying to pre-empt any potential issues at this stage. I will speak with my architect.