minor amendment to move house onsite location?

i have planning permission for a house which i hope to start building in the spring. however where the house is sited on the block plan is totally unsuitable for me (too far back) and i'd like to move the location of the house directly forward 5 metres. this would still leave a 24m distance to the site boundary in front and would bring the house in line with my neighbours house next door. As it currently stands the front line of my house would be almost level with the back wall of their house.

At the time when i applied for planning, the local planners refused me permission twice so i ended up taking it to an bord pleanala who granted me permission on appeal. i had a terrible architect and i only got to see the block plan of the site after i had fired him and was doing the appeal to an bord pleanala myself. I hated the location of the house where the architect had put it, but by then it was too late to change it as i was anxious to get planning and didn't have the time to go back to the council a third time with a different plan.

now i really want to push the house forward before i start building (my neighbour has no objection to this) and my engineer has recommended submitting a minor amendments letter. he thinks it would be looked upon favourably as i would be moving my house forward to be in line with the existing house next door and that it would look more aestheticly pleasing to the planners. plus i still meet the minimum setback distance requirements.

my only concern is that the planners would not look favourably on this amendment as they were the ones who refused me planning twice in the first place and i ended up bypassing them and getting it from an bord pleanala. this is known as a notoriously difficult planning office, my engineer doesn't usually deal with this office so he's not quite aware just how difficult they are!

any advice would be appreciated. if anyone has any experience of a minor amendment such as this i'd love to hear about it.

my other option would be to go ahead building it where i want and apply for retention later if necessary. i think i might have a better chance applying for retention later because if the planning office still refused retention then i'd still have the option of an bord pleanala after that but then the whole thing gets extremely messy.

any advice/experiences would be greatly appreciated.

All planning authorities can be a pain at times - don't let it rankle.

Seek a section V declaration in relation to the relocation if you must but I can tell you now that I don't think its exempted development and if they really want to "get" you you're giving the planners a stick to beat yourself with.

If you went the planning route, I think that you might notice a different attitude from the planners however now you have the permission in the bag if you went back looking for a revision to previously approved site layout - I'm not sure what the wording is because I haven't relocated a house like this before.

The planners in general cannot advise you to break planning law, so treat any assurances that retention will be alright/will be granted with suspicion. Grit your teeth and apply for permission. You should have no problem finding a competent architect to take over the job, assuming you paid your ogirinal architect his fees.

Post here if you need any more advice - plenty of sound heads on this forum - or you can PM me.

ONQ.

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do planners normally look favourably on minor amendments? do all planning departments have this option?

Firstly and just to clarify your query in the context of the thread in which you raised it bb12 this is not a minor amendment, but one requiring a permission.
Even on a rural site 5M is a sigificant relocation and could require changes to foundation design and groundworks on a sloping site or one with poor ground or a rocky sub-stratum.

Now you may find a planner who would think this minor. In fact in a 10 acre field with a 100M driveway on flat land, the repositioning of a house 5M in any direction might actually be classed as minor by some planning officers. But not by most.
In most cases I think it would be considered significant.

Now in relation to a general query in minor matters, there is no "favourable" look that planners have to give these days. Most know the rules and stick to them. They'll either require you to seek permission or not and then they'll either grant it or not. To find out in advnce of lodging permission what they are likely to say you request a section 5 Declaration in the matter under review - pay €80 and it takes 4 weeks.

ONQ.

If your planning is not in danger of running out ( 5yrs total), then you have nothing to loose by trying what you suggest.
You cannot loose your existing planning even if the new application is refused.

I have no qualified experience in this area, except as someone who had to jump through the hoops a few times to get what I wanted finally.