Building without planning permission?
Question:I am planning to build a roof terrace but need planning permission. If i do it without planning permission can anyone tell me the risks involved? I have heard there may be problems selling the house if i dont have planning permission - is this true?
Answers:
The answers provided so far are about as useful as a one armed window cleaner.
In the UK, to actually construct something without planning permission where it is needed is not in itself an offence. However, the Council have a discretionary power to serve an enforcement notice requiring that the structure either be modified or, if totally unacceptable, removed altogether. It is the failure to comply with such a notice that is the offence and the maximum fine is currently £20,000 (unlimited on indictment in the Crown Court).
As for selling the house, it is inevitable that the purchasers solicitor will check this out and would advise his client not to touch the property with a barge pole if you haven't got the right consents.
Why dont you just get planning permission?
You cant advertise your house as having a roof terrace when you come to selling it if you didnt have permission, which also means that when someone moves in to your house, they wont be able to get insurance for that part of the house so should anything go wrong with it, theres nothign they can do.
not selling the house is the least of your worries. you can apply for retrospective planning permission, but if denied the council can demand you take it down, which could mean you would waste thousands of pounds.
They can and probably will make you take it all down again.
Without proper permission or a building permit they may fine you and make you remove it. If you do it and they don't catch you or know about it, when you go to sell the house it may cause problems, you may need to remove it then or obtain a late permit and have it inspected to be up to code.
if you require planning permission and dont get it you could face the following problems.
a. if the council find out they can request that you take it down.
b. if you go to sell your house and you dont have the required documents, again you could be asked to take it down or worse case scenario your sale will fall through because you dont have all of the documentation relating to the house. HOWEVER i think that the documents are on,y viable for 10 years (please check this out as it may be different now)
yeah there will be problems especially because of the new homeowner report we will all have to complete in about 3 months
dont risk it. i had to wait a year to get planning for double glazing (!!) but i wouldnt have taken the risk to just go ahead
You could be forced to pull it down and your own expense. If you refuse, you could eventually face jail.
As for selling your home, I wouldn't buy one that had something added without permission as it may become MY responsibility and cost to pull it down and any solicitor would be able to find that out when doing the contracts.
If you do and sell - you could have problems BUT you may have problems before that with the local council telling you/forcing you to take it down
When you come to sell the house the surveyor will ask about planning permission for the roof terrace. If the local council get complaints they could make you remove it, but I think after 12 years if no one has objected you have more binding rights, but if you sell the solicitor for your buyer will have to take out insurance to protect the purchaser.
It sounds like you are in the UK. In the USA, if I were to do something w/o planning permission, I would get it stamp certified by a structural engineer. That way, when you need to get it retroactively approved, it would be much easier.
Get a bunch of friends over and get this done over night, of over the week-end, try to get this done in the shortest amount of time possible, so the city doesn't see what you are doing.
I think you know the risk, but after all these people tried to help you will still go and do it. So make a start pay out many hundreds of pounds and lets se what happens.
I don't know where you are located, but I have heard in our area of NYS, that if you build without the right permission, you could be asked to remove whatever structure or improvement you have made at your expense. We even had a guy move a home from one site to another, and he didn't have the right permits and was asked to tear down or remove the structure. He had owned the home for 30 years, but he site was new. I would err on the side of caution and get the right permits. Better to be safe than sorry.
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