Extending forward..?

[househunting123]

How easy is it to get planning permission to extend forward? I have viewed a house that has a huge wasted space in the front and a small garden in the back. Front has a detached garage that I'd get rid of and do a double story extension to the front to replace it. It would be outside the scope of permitted development.

How difficult is this kind of thing to get approved?! The extension would come forward level to the house next door which isn't as set back in its plot as this one.

Virtually impossible if it has neighbours.

It's detached on a corner plot if that helps...!

It might be possible if it doesn't go outside the footprint of the original garage.

It’s this top one here if that helps. You can see where the garage is relative to next door.

We have neighbours who were permitted to come forward (and sideways), but they went over the garage rather than knocking it down. It was quite physically dominating of our garden (we're sideways on), and they weren't allowed windows facing us (except a small frosted one), but they still got permission.

I think the fact you aren't going to come forward off your neighbours will be in your favour. You could try for outline permission to see what they think.

I am just in the process of doing this, corner plot detached house set back versus neighbours. We had an integrated double garage on the side of the house which we are converting, extending to two storey above and have built a new double garage out the front so the house is now an L shape. Next door and their neighbour are also L shape so it was considered sympathetic, however our new garage extends approx 1m further to the front than theirs now. No problem with planning

@What5hallido this sounds promising! Can I be cheeky and ask what the builders quoted for your job 🙈

One thing to watch is if there are any restrictive covenants preventing you from building in front of the house. I only mention it because we have this on ours.

Restrictive covenants are virtually impossible to enforce. Unfortunately. We have covenants on our house (no livestock or gypsy caravans among other things) from when the house was built 120 years ago. Who is going to enforce that?

Re planning: you could be ok if you're not going further forward than your neighbours. Someone on out road is doing this but they are in filling a L shaped house so possibly why they got permission.

I'd call and speak to a planning official at your council informally and they will quickly tell you if it's a hard no or a probable yes. They can be very helpful actually.

Have you gone on your local planning portal to see who has applied for planning permission in the area? You might find examples where people have done the same thing or made applications and got rejected.

I'm guessing that no two properties are the same and there is no real established building line here

Most Councils require two storey extensions to be set at least 1m in from the boundary as a rule.

I think you would be able to remove the garage and replace with a single storey extension. The two storey will depend on the impact on the next door neighbour rather than the streetscene. Have they got any windows in the side elevation facing your house?

Another consideration would be if the property is in the Green Belt - that only allows for limited extension to properties. If you are proposing 2 storey the size of the existing garage, that would probably be considered disproportionate and therefore unacceptable.

Thank you everyone, great points. It just seems such a waste to have all that unused space at the front!

I might try to get hold of a local planning official as suggested, I don't want to buy it and find out that I'm stuck not being able to extend 🙈

@Seeline no windows to the end of the neighbours house, no. I guess they could argue that we were overlooking their garden if extending on top, but could avoid that with careful window placement!

I've looked at all of the planning applications for that road, nothing particularly helpful but I have noticed that the guy opposite likes to submit very detailed objections...

You might get permission, you might not. What is certain is that you won’t get any guarantees before you buy it.

I think the way the houses are already you might be alright 🤞🏻If I'm looking at it right, the garage is already near their side and further forward so wouldn't make a big difference to them. If ur trying to go further out than the garage I guess that might be more difficult.

If ur only looking to buy this then u need to speak to someone at planning and find out if it's likely and how difficult to get permissions etc.

You can do a pre-application to ask. Costs a couple hundred pounds and you don't have to be the owner to make the application.

In case anyone else is wondering, I've spoken to a local architect who thinks it would be unlikely to be granted as double story extensions to the front of the house rarely are allowed, regardless of position in relation to next door.

On to the next plan!!

Thought I'd do a little update in case anyone else searches for similar on here.

I found a new architect who has more modern design experience and he was happy that a front extension would work - bought the house and made the application, happily there's no issues at all with extending forward and we're expecting approval through shortly! Being allowed to render it was a different matter 🙄