I'm planning on getting some work done to my home, which falls under the scope of needing full planning permission. Having submitted everything online via the Planning Portal, my local council planning office emailed me to confirm receipt of application and to request more information which hadn't come through the Planning Portal.
Getting them to confirm what they need and how they want it has been like getting blood from a stone - it's been a painful process. One of the things they asked for from the get-go was a particular survey, which I had to instruct & pay for at great cost (well over £1k). I duly sent in the results of the survey, only to be told explicitly (and, thankfully, in writing) that the report is not (and never had been) needed. I now know it is on their website that an application like mine would be exempt from the survey, but I didn't know that and just took them at their word when they told me they couldn't proceed without it.
I am quite peed off by this, as you'd expect. I have emailed back to ask what happens to the money I paid for the survey, but so far I've heard nothing. I don't know if I'm in part to blame for not thinking to check that they were giving me the correct advice, but as they are the "experts" in these matters, it never occurred to me for a second that they may be wrong.
Has anyone else been in a situation like this? What did you do? I can't afford to just write off the money I've spent, but do councils compensate for their errors?
TIA