[Sort of OT] Lapsed planing permission

[Tony Wood]

Background;

The house we are in had planning permission granted in 1985, but the guy that owned it never built the thing so it lapsed. We have got a copy of the plans from the council.

The f****ng council refused planning permission for the extension we wanted to build due to a f****it/hypocritical neighbour that, even though he built an extension to his house on our side to within the same distance from our boundary as we wanted to, decided to object and hire professionals to object for him which resulted in it being refused (even the pros we had and spoke to off the record cannot believe it was refused) - long story, don't ask.

Question;

So, does anyone have experience of re-applying for planning permission and whether the fact that it had been granted previously would stand in good stead?

I'm sure this f****ng neighbour will object whatever we do (unless, as he's stated, we do an extension exactly like he has - which doesn't give us the study that we need to advance my wife working from home so is no bloody good to us)

Any advice duly received......

T.

[No-one]

I think if it for the same plan (that you submitted), that five years have to elapse before you can resubmit.

Councils and planning permission are something that I have similar feelings to you on. Appealing is a waste of time and effort unless you have bundles of money to throw at it, in which case even green belt land is open to development..

[Barley Twist]

That matches my (expensive) experience - a building was erected based on an old approval - and was soon served with a demolition order. Managed to get retrospective permission after an appeal, but the building had to be changed considerably and lost a good deal of its value and utility.

The point about "criteria applying at the time of the new application" should be well heeded - and that incudes the vagaries of the current Council .... Barley Twist (Please put out the cats to reply direct)

[Roger Mills]

Yes, this is true. I've just looked at the confirmation of planning permission which I received last year and it says "The development hereby permitted must be begun not later than the expiration of five years from the date of this permission".

Anyone care to speculate as to how little you need to do to be deemed to have *begun*?

Roger

[Lobster]

If it's not already too late, can you not grit your teeth and sit down with the neighbour and talk it through, and hopefully come to some sort of compromise as to what he will accept? Even if it's not exactly what you want? Having got agreement in principle from him, then is the time to submit a *new* planning application for a

*different* structure; anything else is likely to cost you big time in legal fees etc.

IMHO this is vital before submitting a planning application. When we had an extension built a few years back, the very first step we did before spending any money anywhere was to sound out the neighbours feelings (fortunately for us they were fine with it; but I'm convinced that keeping them in the loop the whole time was of real benefit. There's nothing more likely to get a neighbour's back up as receiving a letter out of the blue from the council planners.)

Also, it's often possible to go in and chat to the planning officers before you actually submit, again sounding them out before cash is spent.

Good luck! David

[Tony Wood]

In message , Tony Gent writes

'Fraid not :-( - he got the plans then shelved it completely. Basically he submitted 2 sets of plans - one for a ground floor only extension, then one to build on top of it. Built the first (and apparantly ensured the foundations were string enough to support the top floor) and didn't even start the second. Does make me ask why he bothered submitting them in the first place!

T.

[Tony Wood]

In message , Lobster writes

I know what you're saying, but yes - it's too late really. As far as I can tell he will only accept an extension on totally the other side of the house to him, which is useless to us due to the layout of the houses

- all it would give us is bigger rooms, when we want a study.

See, I know what you're saying, but IMO it's not really anyone's concern until the point of submission - why should I have to ask in advance what I can do? I took advice from the "experts" and they said that what we wanted to do should not be a problem, I'm a huge believer in live and let live (which is what I thought when a separate neighbour came round to talk about whether we were going to object to this neighbour's planning permission request because their builder had a slot free and it hadn't been approved when they wanted to start it. If I'd have known then what I knew now I'd have objected just to screw up his builder's timeslot and bugger them)

Perhaps that is a useful approach. But again, I truly believe that the local planning office was badgered so much by this neighbour (who has the "gift of the gab" due to him being a salesman by trade - I could go into the military campaign he went into to stop our plans) that the permission was refused based on his over-the-top campaign. Like I say, no-one else saw the problem with what we planned. He even got the next door neighbour but one, who happens to be chairman of our Parish council, who also voiced an objection even though it would hardly be visible to them, along with a local councillor who's one of his mates, to object....! Apparently this is the only time in memory that the parish council has objected to a private planning permission - make of that what you will. Yes, I'm bitter, but I feel justifiably so.

Can I rephrase the question a little now - does anyone have experience of re-applying for a lapsed planning permission and whether it has it been rejected or re-granted? I'm happy to go with the stats.....!

T.

[gaz]

If I can slightly sidetrack this thread, does anyone know if there is a time limit after buildings have been modified where they cant come along and make you remove or change it?

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Simply lifting the first spadeful of dirt that was part of the intended works, I would argue.

[fred]

In article , Tony Wood writes

Doesn't that mean the two storey extension was started but never finished ;-), so you could carry on whenever you wanted.

But I suppose, he obtained a completion certificate for the first storey extension and so that is the end of it . . . .

Any mileage there?