No planning/building control for conservatory?

[mickey house]

Over 20 years ago I put in a small conservatory which is used as a utility room, but it brought me over my permitted development allowance. I called my council planning office last week and the lady I spoke to said that providing I still have the original outside door (to the garden) in my kitchen then I don't need planning permission or involve building control.

I am pleased with her response, but can't find anything online to support this, and I don't always accept what people tell me over the phone as being gospel, so has anyone heard of this rule. I ask because we plan to move in the future and want to get everything in order?

[Juliemack]

Not sure what your question is? Are you replacing it? If the original structure was over the permitted development allowance then you should have had planning permission when it was first built. The door issue is only a building regs thing as its to do with heat loss etc. If you were removing the internal (originally external) doors your conservatory would become an extension that would require permission under the building regulations.

Edit - lots of good info in the link below...

planningportal

[Tinkerbell]

Originally Posted by mickey house

Over 20 years ago I put in a small conservatory which is used as a utility room, but it brought me over my permitted development allowance. I called my council planning office last week and the lady I spoke to said that providing I still have the original outside door (to the garden) in my kitchen then I don't need planning permission or involve building control.

I am pleased with her response, but can't find anything online to support this, and I don't always accept what people tell me over the phone as being gospel, so has anyone heard of this rule. I ask because we plan to move in the future and want to get everything in order?

See more...

When we sold our house 6 years ago this cropped up with a small conservatory/leantoo used like you as a utility boot room with access to the garden.

As it wasn’t “tied” into the existing house walls and had the original back door still in place, it was not deemed anything that needed permissions

But that was over 6 years ago and it’s more anecdotal than law!

[olgaandcoda]

My husband has just built one for his mum and it dyes the need planning permission is it’s an additional room with the kitchen door in place. Also not heated permanently, I.e. central heated plumbing from the main house connected. He has an electric wood burner effect plugged in. The planning rules have been relaxed over the years. You should be fine.

[JLH]

I have just been looking at planning permission , the house that backs on to us has just built a loft extension which now means from their two loft windows they can now see right into my bedroom window. It seems no planning is needed so I shall have to go and buy a blind (just have curtains) and have my bedroom in constant darkness! I know realistically the chances of them staring out their window into mine may be slim but you never know !

[Chrissie H]

Have you checked with the council about this? Although they didn’t need planning permission for the conversion that doesn’t necessarily mean that they can look into your bedroom. My neighbour had to put opaque glass in some of their windows in their conversion because they could see into someone’s bedroom window. They didn’t even realise that they could!

[Clamshell]

The rules for exemption from the building regulations for a conservatory are as follows:

1 - the internal floor area must be less than 30m2
2 - it must be predominantly glazed (including a glazed or polycarbonate roof)
3 - it must be thermally separated from the rest of the dwelling - I.e, the existing external quality doors still in place
4 - it must not be connected in to the main house heating system (I.e only a plug in heater)

It it meets those requirements, it’s exempt

[mickey house]

Originally Posted by Clamshell

The rules for exemption from the building regulations for a conservatory are as follows:

1 - the internal floor area must be less than 30m2
2 - it must be predominantly glazed (including a glazed or polycarbonate roof)
3 - it must be thermally separated from the rest of the dwelling - I.e, the existing external quality doors still in place
4 - it must not be connected in to the main house heating system (I.e only a plug in heater)

It it meets those requirements, it’s exempt

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Thanks for the above because the link I was sent and googling I can't find anything to support what the building control lady told me.

The lady never mentioned about the heating, but fortunately it isn't connected to the house heating system. It's only about 8' square (has the washing machine, tumble drier, freezer etc in there). It's all glass with a poly roof, so sounding positive.

I used up all my permitted development allowance with my loft conversion and small extension.

Thanks again.

To clarify, I am selling the house in the future and wanted to clarify that it won't cause a problem because it's gone over my permitted development allowance, and I thought I might have to apply for retrospective planning permission.

[Juliemack]

The planning portal is not an easy website to navigate fro some reason, here's the page that's specific to Building Regs and conservatories...

planningportal/inf...nservatories/3

Btw - permitted development changed a few years ago so your loft extension and any other extensions are not added up in the same way as they used to be. Originally the basic PD limit was 70 cubic metres, that's not the case now.

[Juliemack]

Originally Posted by Chrissie H

Have you checked with the council about this? Although they didn’t need planning permission for the conversion that doesn’t necessarily mean that they can look into your bedroom. My neighbour had to put opaque glass in some of their windows in their conversion because they could see into someone’s bedroom window. They didn’t even realise that they could!

See more...

If the loft conversion did not need planning permission the Council will have no control over windows.