Loft conversions in Lewisham borough

[butterbeanplant]

Hi MN! DH and I are looking for a house in a few areas in SW London, many in Lewisham Borough (Catford, FH, Sydenham). I was told by an estate agents that Lewisham makes it easy to get permission for a loft conversion..actually you don’t even need permission. Anyone know if that is true or how I would find out? I called the council and they directed me to a planning website but its for the whole country.

Anyone in the same boat?

Loft conversions can be done under permitted development (ie no planning permission needed) if you meet certain requirements about not messing with front elevation, staying within existing ridge line, and only extending a certain amount of cubic feet. Rules may differ in conservation areas.
I'm in a neighbouring borough but no idea why Lewisham might be different

All the requirements are on the planning portal that you where directed to, think the previous poster covered them pretty well. I'm not quite sure why Lewisham would have it's own set of rules. I just had one in the borough of Greenwich and that's where I got my initial info from.

Thanks both! Guess I'm just being dramatic

So the thing to do is to go to Lewisham county council website and look at the planning permissions. Put in your street and you will most likely see many neighbours have submitted for planning. If they were recently allowed, you're in the clear.

We did a loff conversion in the Lewisham borough 4 years ago. It was a straight forward dormer conversion and we did not need to get planning permission, just got a building regs certificate afterwards.