Getting planning permission -worth it?

[Babiesandboardgames]

Have just bought a house
Pluses...
Great neighbours
Near station
Great garden
Lovely kitchen and appliances all left there in situ
Basically loads of pluses.
I realise , we're super lucky.
Unfortunately, it's not really a forever home. Its just a tad small, and has already been extended downstairs . To be the perfect home it just needs to be a tad bigger.
So we could at some point submit planning permission to extend upstairs . It's a victorian cottage, and no other houses have an upstairs extension from what we can see via satellite/ street view.
Wwyd?

1. Pay the architect fee to extend upstairs over the downstairs extension. You do pay around 2k for this service but it's worth the risk of it not being approved by the council, if everything else about the house is amazing.
2. Move when you outgrow the house , you will find another just as good when you need it.
3. DIY the plans yourself on the planning portal to save money, then if the council turns them down you havent wasted so much money.

Which of these options should I pick?
Thank you wise mumsnetters x

OP Several (all?) councils offer a pre-planning enquiry service, for a fairly modest fee. That might help. You could ask whether - in principle - an upstairs extension would be considered. If it's a flat 'no', then you know where you are and have not spent much money. If it's a 'possibly', then you should hope to be given some guidance about the sort of thing that's more likely to get permission. You could then base any more detailed application on that information.

@scottishnames

Never knew this information.
Sounds so obvious but thank you, that will be my first step

@scottishnames & @Babiesandboardgames although they offer this service there are a few things to think about
Some councils have withdrawn this service to householders due to lack of resources so it's not always available.
The service provides advice but it is not in anyway binding to the council and we've found the advice of one officer is often contradicted by the ruling of another upon submission so is a complete waste of time and money.
I would suggest the best starting point is trying to see if your council has a householders guide for extensions (usually found in the planning section of the council website) which will summarise their guidelines for what is and isn't acceptable. Often this guidance if you can find it is easy to understand and should allow you to get a broad brush view on whether or not what you want to do is acceptable.
Also check whether or not you actually need planning permission or whether your plans would fall under the permitted development rules - this advice is available on your councils planning pages or the planning portal.

@wonkylegs

Thank you. I've looked at the site and thry have a detailed guide ... really helpful thanks xx

Can you see whether any other houses along the road have done similar? If a precedent has been set then it’s more likely it would be approved

I would look on the local planning portal and see what has been passed and rejected and who the architects were. Then I would have an initial conversation with those architects. We also found the pre-planning meeting incredibly useful. In fact they gave some really useful advice about splitting our applications into two amongst other things.