Kitchen mods, new house, violates planning permission?

My mother bought 2 one-bedroomed flats (to make one large 2-bedroomed flat) whilst they were being built by Barratts. They totally changed the plans and made several changes to the layout so that she only had one kitchen and one front door and a larger lounge. She even got a reduction in price.

Penn

Some changes would require pp but obviosuly where the kitchen cabinets go has nothing to do with that. Rather than asking if they can , you could try saying you'll pay the price as long as they do x,y,z. I'd be quite surprised if they wont do anything.

NT

She is a SALES woman, so doesn't seem to have a clue. I am amazed you have to ask here rather than asking a site manager who will give you the correct answer. If you are not a time waster and will buy the house you can have what you like done to it at this stage. I've never heard of planning permission being required for altering a fitted kitchen layout! Surely common sense would have kicked in at this point.

You were speaking to the oily rag. Try the engineer. It's YOUR MONEY for God's sake!

or walk away, this is persimmon after all. bad omen :(

True.

Complete and utter b*****ks, planning would only be concerned with appearance and window locations. And, from bitter experience, even if they agree to the mods, once you have paid them all the money they will do absolutely nothing and you will get the original kitchen (due to "admin" problems), since kitchen mods cost them real money, say 1 man-week or £1000-£2000 with overheads.

So subtract the cost of a kitchen from the purchase price and only pay when the kitchen is to your satisfaction or buy it seperately from a kitchen company.

john2

Yes, the planning department of your local Council.

Where, incidentally, you will be able to access *all* of the records wrt the housing development you're going to buy on - including the other phases that will no doubt be in the pipeline. There will also be copious information detailing the misgivings either the planners, the planning committee or the public had before permission was given.

It absolutely amazes me that people don't use this resource more often, especially when buying a new-build house.

Chips.

Well you have to get planning pemimission for some things..like a chimney for example, so rearranging fires is not easy. Apart frtom that planniong law relates mainly to te exterior size and shape.

Building regulations are another matter - there is much in the fittings of a house that falls under these regulations..things that are a bugger to move are toilets, as the pipework for these is heavily regulated and needs to be done at groundwork stage, and any heating devices like boilers, whose flues must be sited appropiately.

But the real reason is of course that the builder can just about manage to control his team of escaped gibbons and achieve a house that meets standards if its all done according to a fixed set of detailed plans. Any deviation requites re-drawing of plans etc. In other words teh real reason is they can't build it differently without involving time and extra expense on their part.

You MAY be able to but the house without a kitchen and bathrooms fitted, at a discount...but frankly what most people do is accept the house with the crap installed, and start saving up to replace it immediately.

If you want a house built to your spec, buy a plot and build one yourself.

They may have already ordered a job lot of standard kitchens at a discounted price.

The building regs used to require a kitchen to have a "Ventilated food cupboard" which was usually located on an outside wall ventilated with airbricks. I don't know if they still do.

However, BCO would expect to see a working bath, WC, and sufficient kitchen for food preparation (ie sink, cupboard - possibly ventilated - and some worktop) before giving the house its completion certificate marking it as fit for habitation.

Without a completion certificate, mortgagors will be very wary of lending on standard terms.

Owain

In article , snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com writes

Sounds like bullshit to me, if true I await a visit from the local council about my kitchen which I had totally altered a few years ago.

Mike

The message from Derek ^ contains these words:

If they did then every house on this estate fails to comply!

When did you last see a BCO on a large scale development?

PhilC

Just about every day.

Seemingly having a "Ventilated food cupboard" was part of the criteria used to decide whether a house was fit for habitation during the slum clearances.

My house built 1976 had one.

DG

The message from Derek ^ contains these words:

This estate of around a thousand houses was built in the late 60s early

Post the advent of the REFRIGERATOR these were deemed less necessary.

The message from The Natural Philosopher contains these words:

Well ventilated fridge radiators would help cut fuel bills somewhat. I've seen loads jammed into tight fitting fitted kitchens with no effort at all made to allow the heat to escape.