Dropped kerb/drive planning permission - who was 'at fault'?

[Jojobump1986]

We've just been made aware that our drive might not have planning permission & the very low kerb we drive over every day isn't an official council-approved dropped kerb. We've owned the house for 2.5 years now & the neighbours have only just mentioned this after we objected to their son parking right across our drive! The neighbour said that the previous owner did the drive himself at about the same time as they got divorced so that's probably why things haven't been done properly.

DH has just looked through all our paperwork & found a letter from our solicitor querying whether there was proper consent, among other similar questions & the response details the planning permission for other things (lean-to & loft conversion) but no mention of the drive/kerb.

Just out of curiosity, who would be considered 'at fault' for this not being highlighted? I suspect that it would be cheaper & easier to apply for retrospective (is that the right word?) permission & get a proper dropped kerb put in than to try & make it someone else's issue now!

My guess would be that it is probably easier to sort it out yourself. You can find out your councils policy Here. I think soe councils can do the work for you at a charge (I know they used to)

Did you house purchase details mention a driveway?

It's a shame your solicestor didn't follow it up.

Yes, 'off-street parking' was mentioned. Would our solicitor be at fault for not chasing it up or would it be their solicitor's fault for not answering our's question?

DH is concerned about the drainage issue now. The drive slopes down towards the house with a drainage grate at the bottom but we have no idea where the water drains to so he's concerned that it's been illegally connected to the drainage system. From what he's read, we only need planning permission for the drive itself if it's 'impermeable' but we have no idea whether there's any kind of membrane underneath & we're reluctant to try pulling bricks up to have a look!

What a faff! Why can't people just do these things properly in the first place?!

Oh, I wouldn't know but you could always ask. It does sound a bit odd. If the lw curb appeared to be already dropped it might be that everyone thought it was ok.

You could try posting on MoneySavingExpert.Com. They have more traffic in their forum for this type of thing (I think)

Can't help re whose fault it was.

However, if I were you I would approach the council to ask for a dropped kerb. I did this with my house - filled in a form, waited for permission and had to approach the council's recommended choices of contractor, who came and inspected the kerb, grassy verge, drains etc. The contractor also replaced my existing driveway with tarmac (optional extra!). I have since sold the house but at least had the correct paperwork/licence to enable the sale to go through without any problems.

It seems that solicitors are getting more thorough (my solicitor when buying the house 15 years ago "missed" the fact that part of the garden was unregistered and it caused major problems when selling recently, not sure I'll get anywhere with it though) but the point is you'll likely have trouble selling in the future if you don't sort this out.

Good luck.

" Off street parking" does not mean 'own driveway'.

DD has a small driveway that slopes back towards the house with a grid infront of house wall on the ground. I don't think it is connected to a drain but has soil/ground underneath, as she has weeds and grass growing through it .

Oh, I would have thought off road parking would have to be attached to a driveway????

When we moved into our house, the previous owners had used a fairy liquid bottle as a downpipe and a flower pot / Sainsbury's carrier bag as part of the drains.

Some people cut corners at every given opportunity.