Listed building consent for like for like?

[GovernorMarley]

Would really appreciate advice from anyone with more knowledge,/experience than me. Our house is grade 2 listed. It currently needs quite a lot of work including replacement of blown render, chimney repairs and roof overhaul/inspection.

We had a specialist conservation surveyor advise us on what is needed and all plans are on a like for like basis.

The council have just refused a certificate of lawfulness for the work on the grounds that it is "extensive" and said we will require listed building consent. This delay will mean we are unable to complete the repairs before winter. The house is already very damp and I'm really concerned to delay further.

Any advice? Have only just got refusal so am planning on talking to council, contractor and surveyor today.

Honestly?
That amount of work on a listed building would need listed building consent - who was it who advised you that a certificate of lawfulness would be appropriate?

I work in this area and whilst I can appreciate your frustration, suggest you apply for LBC now and get any priority work done before the winter if possible - it sounds like you've approached the right people for advice, just not the right ones for approval.

Improper or half arsed repairs can be seriously detrimental to older buildings so whilst it may be like for like, Historic England will want to know for sure. I've seen walls near to collapse because someone used the wrong render.

Sorry - I appreciate that's not what you wanted to hear.

Thanks. I do appreciate the advise although you're right it's not what I wanted to hear!

We've done LBC applications before so can put another through.

The surveyor was the one who suggested cert of lawfulness. He did have additional suggestions for improvements which clearly would have needed consent but things have moved at a snails pace with arranging the survey in the first place and then getting people experienced with lime render, lead gutters etc has been like pulling teeth so I never envisaged getting this close to autumn without progress.

I did try to talk to the council at the very beginning but apparently our council no longer has a conservation officer and no one was able to help us hence the decision to pay for a specialist survey.

Getting the urgent stuff done first isn't straightforward as storms in march brought some chunks of render down in places which will require significant scaffolding including over roof.

The contractor we are using specialises in conservation work and recently did similar render/roof repairs to a large commercial building in the same historic group as our house. No consent was sought for that so, again, I thought we'd be ok.

Oh well, guess we need to plug on. Thanks again.