Can you start without planning permission?

It is always strongly recommended that no work commences until all of the necessary planning and building regulations approvals are secured. Doing so would be at your own risk!

For any construction work you will require building regulations approval and structural engineering calculations. Any good builder will tell you they can’t quote let alone start work without these but sadly some less reputable builders might not be so forthcoming. Additionally party wall agreements may be required and if so, these should be considered and dealt with from the outset.

Starting work without these risk enforcement action from your planning authority. If the wrong materials are used if the design is not up to standard, worst case the build could be unsafe and best case costly retrospective repairs or a full rebuild may be required.

There are never any guarantees with planning permission, this is because ultimately the planning authority makes the legal determination, there could be hidden constraints and planning permission can be subjective.

If you do receive an enforcement, you would be given 28 days to secure retrospective planning approval or put the property back to its original state. Unfortunately, retrospective planning applications are always a matter of urgency and are often more complicated. For this reason, they are usually more expensive than other planning applications.

In addition, as with any type of planning application there is never any guarantee of gaining planning approval. Once submitted the planning authority has 8 weeks to assess and reach a decision at which point, they will approve or reject the application.

If construction has not started and the planning authority requests minor design changes in order to approve the application, this is easily done. If construction has finished there is no option to amend the design so, the decision will only be based on what was built which may limit the likelihood of success.

If you would like to find out what is required for your conversion to flats, the likelihood of success and the costs, contact us to speak with one of our expert planning consultants today.

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