Planning Permission For Garden Buildings

Whether it’s a conservatory for reading, a pavilion for dining or even a play house for the children, few things tend to be more satisfying than being the owner of a gorgeous garden building. However, there are few things worse than buying one of these structures, only to have the council demand that you tear it down because you haven’t got the proper planning permission. Yet sadly this happens to thousands of people yearly, who don’t realise the unfortunate need for appropriate planning for a simple outhouse in their garden.

Not all garden buildings need planning permission, but enough of them do to make it well worth investigating before you invest in what might be a massive mistake. Due to their relatively small size and casual use, the majority of sheds, greenhouses and pavilions class as minor ancillary buildings to the primary residence and therefore don’t require planning permission to be constructed. However, as normal residences and commercial buildings are subject to council tax, building control and far stricter levels of planning permission than ancillary buildings, you will have to apply for planning permission if your garden building is going to be used for domestic or commercial purposes. For instance, a small shed that might otherwise not need planning permission will still need permission to be constructed if it is for use to store stock or as a base from which to operate a business.

House extensions always require planning permission and hence it is smart to discover ahead of time whether your garden building is going to be considered an extension rather than an ancillary building. This is usually true if the building is going to be within five metres of the house and over ten cubic metres in volume. Should your garden building be considered an extension, it'll then increase the general size of your home; this can be worth considering because this increase in size might make it the case that other ancillary garden buildings, which were previously further than five metres from your house, have become within five metres of the enlarged house and may be considered further extensions without planning permission.

As long as they are further than five metres away from the house and not for domestic or commercial purposes however, garden buildings may be up to ten cubic metres in volume without requiring planning permission and those with flat roofs could be up to three metres high. Garden buildings with apex roofs are usually a further metre high again without requiring permission to be constructed. However, if ever the garden building you are planning will be closer to a road than your main building, it is likely to require planning permission, it doesn't matter what size it is. Also, if over half the land surrounding the initial building is going to be covered with additional buildings, this will certainly require planning permission. To this extent, it's worth discovering exactly how much of the house is ‘original’ and just how much has been added prior to you start planning to build new structures.

Finally, if you are aiming to build any garden building in an area of outstanding natural beauty, a conservation areas or even a natural park, it will certainly require planning permission. Listed buildings also have independent restrictions on the ancillary buildings than can be constructed within the grounds so, as always, it’s best to check before you build.

By: Mas Smith

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Chip is an experienced consultant and has been advising small and medium sized businesses in planning permission laws for over 10 years.