Any property lawyers around - conservatory complaint and planning permission

[PussinJimmyChoos]

Am posting on behalf of my friend. She moved into a new build last year and this year, they decided to add a conservatory onto the back.

They went to the planning permission of the council, her DH queued for an hour, only to be told they had a website where you could check which part of the house you were adding to and see if planning permission was required.

They checked it out and for the size of their conservatory, no planning permission was required as its under certain height, width etc and so they built the conservatory

They received a letter from the council last week stating that there had been a complaint about the conservatory and as a result, they had to apply for planning permission retrospectively and if its not granted, they must take it down

Is this correct? What avenues of action are open to them? It seems madness that the website said one thing and now the council are doing another

Its not blocking the neighbour's sunlight afaik, nor is it an eye sore - its new and stylish

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if the have complied with the following, are not in a conservation area/listed building etc and within permitted development (i.e. including any prior extensions) Then I would suggest writing a letter to the council explaining how they comply with all of this & therefore don't think they need PP, asking the planning officer to explain why they say they do

Re what betsyboop says - provided their permitted development rights haven't been taken away, (says in the deeds). We are on an estate and our pd's have been taken away so we had to apply for planning for our conservatory even though normally we wouldn't have had to - ie if we looked up on our council's website it would say that we don't need it. However, we didn't have to pay anything.

Not sure if this is the case, but it could be.

Would agree with Helennn - especially if the property is a new build. It is quite common for Council's to remove pd rights when granting planning permission for the whole estate. It should have been revealed on the search the solicitor carried out when your friend purchased the property. It may be on their deeds, but to be certain, they should ask the COuncil.

Ask your friend to have a look at neighbouring properties of similar build type to see if anyone else has put a conservatory on, if she's brave she could give them a knock and ask what they did. I think if permission is granted for others it can set a presitent for others so this may be useful when contacting pd.

Other thing as well is did they build it themselves or get a contractor?, most contractors do checks on clients behalf and send in plans etc, if they used a contractor she should have paperwork which states whether checks were carried out.