Changes to property without planning permission

[IntoTheFloodAgain]

I’ve tried to figure this out from my local council website, but I’m hoping someone can explain it in laymans terms

Posted to soon! More info to come

My house has a front and back porch.

The back porch is definitely something that the previous owners put up. The perspex roof is joined onto a brick shed. Roughly 1.5x2m in size.

The front porch, recently I have been thinking that this has also been put up by the previous owners, rather than part of the original build.

The front porch is adjoining NDN porch, so I previously didn’t think anything of it (they are almost identical)

However, looking at the rest of the houses in the row most of them just have an open porch, which is a brick wall to one side, a flat roof and a post on the other side.

Mine and NDNs porches are enclosed. Looking closely, it looks like the enclosure has been built onto the wall and roof that the others have. Both are wood cladding, so don’t really match the rest of the property.

The only houses on the street that have an original porch are semi detached, the side I live on are terraced. Apart from our porches, the terraced houses are identical.

Hopefully I’ve explained this well.

My concern is, if planning permission was required and not requested or granted, what do I do now? Is it a case of paying a fee to get it approved? Or does it need to be torn down?

I’d like to get an idea before I contact the council, as ime they are not very helpful with initial enquiries and you just get passed between different people.

I’ve checked on the planning portal, and there are no applications recorded.

The reason I’m bothered about this, is I am interested in replacing the porch, and I’m worried I’m going to open a can of worms when I contact the council about my own plans.

It may be part of permitted development. In any case if it's been up more than 4 years I don't believe they can take enforcement action. Did you buy your property? This is something that should have been flagged at the conveyancing stage. Pop into your local planning office and see what they say, it is possible to apply for retrospective pp anyway, although it might not be granted.

Thank you for replying.

Yes I bought it a couple of years ago.

When I viewed it, the back porch at the time looked like more of an open shelter, like a bin storage. I have a feeling they maybe took the door off for viewings for whatever reason, maybe to make it look bigger (the door is also joined onto the brick shed, very smart looking).

The front porch, at first glance doesn’t look out of place, so I never thought to query it.

The previous owner had lived there for a very long time, NDN also.
I don’t know much about the subject, but I wonder if regulations were different when they put the porches up.

The planning portal only has records going back to 2005, and there’s nothing on there.

The porches definitely look older than 4 years old so maybe I’m worrying over nothing.

As above: from your description, it sounds very much like the work would have fallen within Permitted Development rules, anyway, so wouldn't have needed permission.

If you can prove it was done more than 4 years ago, you can apply for a Lawful Development Certificate.

Otherwise, if the work did require PP, then you could apply for retrospective Planning Permission. In theory, such an application should be determined as if the work was not already there, but in practice they tend to cut you a bit more slack because:

a) It's bad PR for the Local Authority to be seen to be heavy handed in such situations and;

b) If they refuse it, they've then got to move on to enforcement action (which will ultimately end up forcing the work to be removed), which is a hugely bureaucratic, time-consuming and expensive process for them.

There is no point in submitting a retrospective application unless the Local Authority initiates enforcement action against you, though (which is unlikely unless someone reports you to them) - best to let sleeping dogs lie.

Thanks @sensus. I was mainly concerned if it would come up when I come to apply for things like a conservatory, or replacing the front porch with a bigger one.