Planning Conditions - Discharging them (simple ones) - your experiences please - Help !!

[herbgarden]

We have our planning consent in place for our extension.

The extension is being constructed in breeze block (ie not a brick which is going to be the final finish) and then the whole of the house including the existing construction will be rendered.

One of our conditions in our planning consent says we need to get consent for materials "before we commence development".

My original conversation with the planner made me think that when the time came for tiling and rendering that the planner would (in her words) "pop up" have a look and then if all ok the condition would be discharged.

I've e-mailed two or three times to confirm the tile type and render colour.

Finally today I've had an e-mail from the case officer which directs me to the planning portal where I need to submit a formal application with more flippin' plans and pay the fee of £25 for the approval. What's more she re-iterates that we can't start development until this "issue is resolved".

Our roof is all but tiled. Our render starts in September.....What really can they do? Ask us to take our tiles off ? /stop the build? I've submitted our form today so we get it rolling.

I just find it ludicrous that they really could stop you from even laying a foundation until you've chosen your roof tiles?....

If they ask us to stop building work the builders can move inside as the house is watertight but I'm also slightly irritated that what was described to me as a fairly informal passing of a tile and a wall colour has turned into another application procedure !

What are your experiences. We don't have an agent nor is our architect sorting our plans etc

Now that local authorities can charge for the discharge of conditions, most of them are doing so and making it a far more formal process. Although it is stressful, you do have to go through their procedures and get the conditions signed off (or appeal to the planning inspectorate) as it would cause untold hassle otherwise when you come to sell.

Can you get your architect prepare a formal notice with the details for approval? You don't need to stop the work until its all approved but the planners can require you to change things if they don't like them so it is on risk.

Ah ok, that's fine then. I appreciate they are under no obligation to approve just because we've put them up already but I'll get the application in....I suspect we'll be fine - we live in a road where all the houses are different and neither the tiles nor the render are unusual colours/types....
Thanks for your reply - that was really helpful.

I'd do the work myself rather than pay an agent to sort it out. You need to fill in the standard form that you can find on the planning portal or on your local council's website and submit it with the fee of £25.

Depending on what your condition specifies you will have to provide a certain level of info. i.e. if it specifies details to be submitted then usually the manufacturers details of the tiles, including name and colour details, and colour of the render will be sufficient.

If it requires samples then submit a single tile with the form and fee and specify that render will be used on the walls.

The legislation specifies that the Council must make a decision within 13wks otherwise you get your fee refunded. However, government guidance specifies that for a minor householder condition application this should be carried out within a few weeks not as long as 13wks.

It's unusual to have to submit plans for materials to be agreed but as you've been advised to do that then maybe the wording of the condition requires that.

One final point, each time you apply to discharge a condition it will cost you £25 but you can apply to discharge as many as you like in one go with one form and £25 fee. You should check that there aren't any other conditions that you need to check as well.

Sorry there's rather a large amount of "specifies" in that post

Doh "conditions that you need to discharge as well"

Thanks ! I've filled it in tonight and submitted on line- My architect has only done our plans I've done all the submissions etc to the council. I gave the manufacturer of the tiles and render and colours and then also gave a weblink to the items being used. They're very mainstream items. I send the fee by cheque so I then sent a note and said I could drop samples to the council if I needed to...we should get the render sample colour at the end of the week
We'll see what happens !

Good luck with it, hopefully it'll be straightforward.