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Category: FAQ

When Can I Start Construction?

27/03/2023 by Milana

It is strongly recommended that you do not start construction until you have all the necessary approvals, including planning permission and building regulations.  

It’s important to bear in mind that Planning permission can never be guaranteed even if we think it has 100% chance of being approved, ultimately the planning authority will decide rightly or wrongly.

To put this into perspective, the national statistic for appeals won is 1 in 3. This means that when councils refuse a planning application, they have made a mistake in their judgement at least 33% of the time.

We understand the excitement and temptation to start work straight away however, it is very important to stress that even for something that we think could be permitted development, ultimately only the local planning authority can decide.

For anything that is likely to be considered permitted development we would always recommend applying for a Lawful Development Certificate. This is the only way to obtain a legal determination that it is permitted development and does not need planning permission.

If you start works without the required consents you would be at risk of enforcement action. If you have started or already completed the build and you receive an enforcement notice, you would have 28 days to submit a retrospective planning application which is not guaranteed to be approved.

If the build is complete we can no longer advise you on a design that would meet the planning policies and instead can only justify to the best of our ability why what you built should be approved. Depending on what has been built this can be very difficult retrospectively.

If retrospective planning permission cannot be secured, you would have to demolish the build and put the property back to its original state, which can be a very costly mistake.

If you are building something small and cheap like a fence you might feel comfortable with the risk but for anything more significant most are not comfortable with the risk.

A good question to ask is how much is your budget for the build and would you feel comfortable gambling with this amount?

If the answer is no then we would strongly recommend that your first find out whether you need planning permission and if so, how likely this would this would be to be approved.

If you would like to know the what is required and the feasibility for your project we can conduct a planning appraisal.

You can use our online Cost Calculator to get an instant free no obligation estimate.

If you would like to find out whether your project is feasible, whether it requires planning permission and get an accurate quote for architectural design please Contact Us for a free no obligation consultation.

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