dragonl,
Use it or lose it is the motto you have to bear in mind with Planning Permissions.
You have five years to build from the Date of Grant of Permission.
You used to be able to apply for this to be extended within the final year of the permission, i.e. not AFTER the expiration date.
Originally this was limited to houses that were "substantially complete", ie up to wall plate level/ at the eaves.
The minister introduced new regulations following on the collapse of the housing market and the link has been posted on AAM previously.
I had heard that these regulations were originally intended for developers and estates IIRC, but I don't see how single houses could be excluded.
Anyway the BIll came in in 2009 and became
http://www.environ.ie/en/Legislation/DevelopmentandHousing/Planning/FileDownLoad,25759,en.pdf (<br />
The Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2010)
This is a link to the PDF File of the Act
It is originally linked to on http://www.environ.ie/en/Legislation/DevelopmentandHousing/Planning/ (this page on the DOEHLG Website) which gives an overview of planning legislation.
Sections 28 and 29, Pages 51 et sequitur, Amending Sections 42 and also 42A (inserted by Section 238 of the National Asset Management Act 2009) the Appears to refer.
=========================
Other sections of the original Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, are also affected and any application would have to be correctly worded to avail of the Act's provisions.
I strongly advise that you retain an architect with planning competence to investigate what is needed and make the application for you as any new law usually has a few speed bumps built-in.
The problem isn't that you wouldn't have a clue, its that the officials in the Planning Department mightn't know the new law very well and trip both your goodself and themselves up without meaning to.
=========================
I remember when the new provisions for making planning applications came in.
After March 2002 something like 70% of applications were getting refused in Dublin City because of the nit-picking attitude of some planning officers.
Applications were getting taken in by officials after a cursory review at the planning counter only to be returned three weeks later by post because of relatively minor matters picked up on by the Planning Officer.
=========================
Some were utterly incongruous. For example - The North Sign fiasco. Ordnance Survey Maps didn't have a North Sign at the time.
They didn't need one, since everyone knew that the convention with those maps was that North was to the top when you were looking at them and the writing was "normal".
But because the Act specified that all plans had to have a North Sign on them, Ordnance Survey Maps without a North Sign were being refused as part of an Invalid Application.
I even heard that some punctilious Planners used to look for North Signs on Elevations and Sections!
=========================
I was one of those that pressured the Ordnance Survey and the Minister to put North Signs on the Maps.
You'd be surprised how many conversations and complaints this led to!
They have nice little arrows now.
But this illustrates why its wise to engage an architect to make the application on your behalf.
ONQ.
[broken link removed]
All advice on AAM is remote from the situation and cannot be relied upon as a defence or support - in and of itself - should legal action be taken.
Competent legal and building professionals should be asked to advise in Real Life with rights to inspect and issue reports on the matters at hand.