Planning for sunroom

C

Carebear

Registered User
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I am a new user so please understand any mistakes I make!

At present I am building a house, I am awaiting my carpenter to start on my roof. I put in plans for a bungalow and decided now that I want a sunroom built on at the back of the house. I know that you don't need planning permission for a sun room at the back of your house as long as it doesnt exceed the roof of the house and does'nt exceed a certain square footage.

I was told by a family member that I cannot build this sunroom now because it was'nt on my origanal house plan submitted to the council. If I go ahead and build the sunroom now will I get into hassle with the council and my engineer even though I know that I dont need planning for this sunroom.

Any advice would be appreciated.
 
You are supposed to do it after the house is built.

To be honest though, lots of people "use up" their 40 sq. m. exemption when building the house. Provided the Council don't know about it while it is being built (and it is unlikely they would), then it shouldn't be an issue.
 
Superman:

I wonder will it be an issue with my engineer though as he is giving me my interim certs for my mortgage??
 
I'm Very interested in doing the same with my new build tbh!! The only place where I can see it being a problem is when the engineer is issuing the cert of compliance at the end. Normally there is a stage payment for this, i've tried to get this stage payment to be as small as possible. My guess is itll be much cheaper to build it now. If you run into problems you could always apply for retention! Just make sure if you are doin this that the rest of the house is exactly to the plans submitted. The last thing you want is the council calling out and measuring everything up with a ruler!!!!! Best of luck and i'll be watching the replies to this post with interest!!
 

Is this not a grey area though.... at what stage is the house classed as beingbuilt...when the roof goes on for example?

ninsaga
 
ninsaga said:
Is this not a grey area though.... at what stage is the house classed as beingbuilt...when the roof goes on for example?

ninsaga
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Yeah we are 15 years in our house and my wife insists that we are not finished building yet.
We did the sun room without planning because we did not need to apply for it. We had the option of paying £25 at the time (5 years ago) to get a cert from the council stating that we were within limit, i.e. that we left at least 25 square metres of open space when the work was finished. We opted not to get the cert. This will only be an issue if ever we sell. Even then, they will still give you the cert if you simply show evidence that the sunroom complies with that 25 sq. M. regulation.
 
Is the sunroom foundation part of the original house foundation?
If not, and if the engineer didnt have a hand in the design of that foundation as well as other tying into the rest of the building, I wouldnt blame him for not signing off on it.

Planners can be very strict with deviations from the originally submitted plans, even if it is exempted.
My boss had to apply for retention as he had changed a patio door into a window on the rear of his house. Its nasty but there ya go.

I'd consult your engineer, tell him what you want, build it to his spec and apply for retention on it. Then again , your planner might be easy going and let you off.
 
No the foundations of the sunroom wont be the same as the house. Approx the size of the sunroom would be 10 x 12 ft to the back of the house. To be honest I cant understand why this should be a problem with the council because you dont need planning for this build as they say on their own website - bit hypocrictical really?? I'm only concerned what my engineer would say? I should have included a sunroom on my original plans but the way planning is gone so strict I wanted to get planning first time (which I did) so just submitted plans for a house, we werent sure we would be able to budget building a sunroom along with the house but thankfully we can afford it now and everyone has told us we are better to build it now and not leave it on the long finger!!
 
I was talking to my block layer today and he said I dont need planning for this sunroom as it's to back of my house & doesnt exceed the size, he also said my engineer cant stop my intermim certs if I was to build this sunroom. He said the size not be exceeded is 40sqm to the back of house.
 
nt00deep said:
So is it 25 or 40 sq.m. ?
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Not sure what the 40 Sq. M regulation is, possibly an upper limit on the size of added floor space on original house plans? All I am sure of is that if you tack a sun room onto your back, you need to get planning permission if you intend to leave less than 25 Sq. M. of garden when you are done.
 
40sq.m is the maximum size of an extension/sunroom that you can build to the rear without the need for planning permission and 25sq.m is the minimum amount of rear garden that must be left for any extension to be considered exempt.

As far as building the sunroom or extension at the same time as the main house i find that it tends to get done quite a lot although your intention to do this should be cleared with whoever is issuing you certs.

As far as planning goes they can't really issue enforcement to remove an extension that is considered exempt development and if this somehow did happen then you could make either a Section 5 application (an application seeking a declaration that your development is exempt) or indeed apply for retention.

So the main thing would be to clear it with whoever is signing your certs and your cert of compliance.
 
Has anyone actually built their sunroom without permission while they were building their main house, and if so, how did they get on with their Engineer/c.council
 
Not much info here carebear,

Mod,
Could you move this thread to home and garden where there might be more interest!

I'd be interested to see if anyone has gone through this themselves with a new build!
 
Hi,

Could you move this thread moderator? It might get more replies in the the home and garden forum!

Thanks
 
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