Planning Permission:

If you live in England or Wales, you do not usually require planning permission for a new conservatory unless you live in a conservation area or a listed property. Another case where you might need planning permission is if your property has already been extended in some way. Most properties have a development limit of 50 – 70 cubic metres (depending on where you live). If the original property has been added to, some of this ‘permitted development’ area may have been used up.

It is also worth noting that occasionally ‘permitted development’ rights may have been withdrawn from a property and any extension no matter how small needs permission.

Other occasions where planning permission is required:

• Proximity to a public footpath, road, or gitty
• Location to detached garages – if the conservatory will finish within 5 meters of the detached garage

Our home surveyors can advise on planning requirement for your property. If planning permission is required then you can obtain it yourself from plans we supply or we can handle everything for you. Usual cost is around £280.00. This includes the of applying for planning permission and the architects fee’s to draw up and submit the plans.

Typical time for planning permission approval is 6- 8 weeks depending on when the planning departments meeting takes place. Allow for our architect to visit site, draw up and submit the plans. If you expect to wait a maximum of 10 weeks you should not be disappointed.

If you do require planning do not worry, it is normally just a formality. In all our years of building conservatories we have only had one planning dispute on green belt land, which was resolved.

Once planning permission has been approved there are usually only two stipulations:

• The project has to be started within 5 years of planning approval
• The external materials should match / complement the existing property Building Regulations:

Building Regulations:
If you live in England and Wales, conservatories are usually exempt from building regulations. As a general rule to qualify for this exemption, your conservatory should meet the following criteria laid out under the 1991 Building Regulations:

1. The extension has a completely transparent or translucent roof.
2. The extension’s walls are substantially glazed (no more than 25% of its wall area should be brickwork).
3. The extension has a floor area not exceeding 30m2.
4. The extension is sited at ground level.

Our home surveyors can advise on building regulation requirement for your property. If building regulations are required then you can obtain it yourself from plans we supply or we can handle everything for you. Costs for building regulations vary depending on the size of the proposed construction. Our architects fee to draw up the plans and submit them is £120.00.