Planning application

[Molynoox]

Hi all,

I'm going to be building a double garage for a client in a few months and they don't have planning yet. They have asked for my help.

The question is do I simply ask a planning company to handle it for us or shall i just handle it myself. Based on your experience is it worth the hassle and is t easy enough to do?

Supporting info

• I've seen the planning applications for the 2 or 3 neighbours that have already had it done and in fact I've built the garages based on those applications so I'm at least familiar with the designs and the documents to an extent.
• I'm already putting together the more detailed 3d drawings for each build and I can easily enough create 2d drawings from those.
• If I handle it myself, my goals would be to potentially save money / earn money by doing it myself, and also I like the idea of learning more about the whole process rather than just having sub suppliers handle it.
• I appreciate this is probably not the best forum for such questions, but there are plenty of smart people on here that I trust and that I know have been through planning before, for example @deema who is doing his mega workshop build and @HOJ and others like him that do this sort of thing for a living and have more experience than me

Here is one I have just finished for somebody on the same street, the design will be almost identical.

Thanks
Martin

 

[Deadeye]

Sounds like you've already decided...but fwiw those are excellent reasons for the decision!

For context, I've done planning for an extension and it was absolutely fine. And I knew nothing about it at the start!

 

[Fitzroy]

I did a planning application for my workshop. It’s not a complicated process, and you can download the applications others have submitted to copy from.

I think where you can burn time is with overly complicated plans and drawings. Looking at other applications can give you a view on what is acceptable. A few in my area were from fairly rudimentary hand sketches.

There can also be some back and forth with the planning officer.

The level of complexity of the process steps up considerably if you then need a building warrant, perhaps only a Scottish thing, as you then need to show sections, insulation and how you meet the building criteria.

I’d estimate my workshop application took me about 15hrs in total, I doubt you’d make money on the first one but I’m sure you could get this down to less than a day with some practice.

Fitz

 

[Molynoox]

I did a planning application for my workshop. It’s not a complicated process, and you can download the applications others have submitted to copy from.

I think where you can burn time is with overly complicated plans and drawings. Looking at other applications can give you a view on what is acceptable. A few in my area were from fairly rudimentary hand sketches.

There can also be some back and forth with the planning officer.

The level of complexity of the process steps up considerably if you then need a building warrant, perhaps only a Scottish thing, as you then need to show sections, insulation and how you meet the building criteria.

I’d estimate my workshop application took me about 15hrs in total, I doubt you’d make money on the first one but I’m sure you could get this down to less than a day with some practice.

Fitz

Exactly the sort of info I was looking for, cheers
I'm more than happy to burn time on this one if it means I learn a thing or two and potentially pave the way for more efficient / profitable applications in the future.

 

[Matt635]

I’m a town planner. For householder projects, which is what this would be, you don’t necessarily need a consultant to assist unless it’s particularly complicated. The plans need to be to scale (2d) and the forms completed correctly, but the forms aren’t difficult. The local council might have some extra information requirements, but they should have a ‘validation checklist’ on their website which will explain what else you need, if anything.

 

[John Brown]

We did ours ourselves for an oak framed double garage. Went through ok. Made a couple of mistakes, but got there in the end.

 

[Molynoox]

Thanks everybody.

Anybody got an idea on the cost for a consultant to handle a planning application for a double garage?

I have contacted one for a quote but not heard back yet. I will also need to contact the local council and find out the cost to make the application if I did it myself.

Martin

 

[HOJ]

Could you do it under PD, or are you over on the height? otherwise, for a garage, I would suggest that fairly simple plan and elevation drawings are all that will be required, along with a clear site location plan, showing the boundary's and position of the proposal, relative to adjacent buildings and surroundings.

You may have to produce a design and access statement, but there are plenty of examples on the planning portal to read and can be used as a guide/template to suit your situation.

Planning fees are fairly standard across the board, for a householder application probably be £328.00,

A pal of mine had a "consultant" do an application for a very small extension, cost him £2K, drawings were very simple:

 

[Molynoox]

Could you do it under PD, or are you over on the height? otherwise, for a garage, I would suggest that fairly simple plan and elevation drawings are all that will be required, along with a clear site location plan, showing the boundary's and position of the proposal, relative to adjacent buildings and surroundings.

You may have to produce a design and access statement, but there are plenty of examples on the planning portal to read and can be used as a guide/template to suit your situation.

Planning fees are fairly standard across the board, for a householder application probably be £328.00,

A pal of mine had a "consultant" do an application for a very small extension, cost him £2K, drawings were very simple:

View attachment 187361

Thank you I'll report back later once I've got things moving. Looks like I'll be doing this myself.

 

[HOJ]

@Molynoox gota say in all the years, I would have never thought about putting white lines on the garage floor, cracking job

 

[Molynoox]

@HOJ yeah the customer wanted to be able to auto park his car and it needed the white lines to do so. I just used masking tape and it worked pretty well. Car managed to park itself too.

I have to say the mezzanine floor is always my favourite with these builds, so much space up there, would make a brilliant workshop

Martin

 

[Molynoox]

Could you do it under PD, or are you over on the height? otherwise, for a garage, I would suggest that fairly simple plan and elevation drawings are all that will be required, along with a clear site location plan, showing the boundary's and position of the proposal, relative to adjacent buildings and surroundings.

You may have to produce a design and access statement, but there are plenty of examples on the planning portal to read and can be used as a guide/template to suit your situation.

Planning fees are fairly standard across the board, for a householder application probably be £328.00,

A pal of mine had a "consultant" do an application for a very small extension, cost him £2K, drawings were very simple:

View attachment 187361

oh yeah, and its well over PD as its 5.47m tall. I think PD would allow 4m for dual pitch and 2m away from boundary

 

[Jacob]

As already said - if you can tell the planners fairly accurately what you intend, the drawings don't need to be professional standard and planners are generally helpful, within reason.
I've seen some very rough sketches passed!

 

[BucksDad]

When was the last time you built a garden room? glad business appears to be going well

 

[Jacob]

When was the last time you built a garden room? glad business appears to be going well

Who, me?
Haven't done a garden room but have done a few planning apps, biggest was the last one - a chapel conversion. 3000 sq ft. Quite a lot of work involved, planning and building regs, as it was a major makeover.
The only real problem was obsessive next door neighbour who did everything he could to stop it happening. Was never clear why as the alternative uses were potentially much more un-neighbourly.
Actually next project is a "garden room" - basically a greenhouse type extension to existing garage/workshop, to function as work area, greenhouse, garden room, workshop solar heat source.

 

[BucksDad]

No, not you Jacob. Do try and keep up - considering you spend the most time on this forum out of anyone. The question was directed to @Molynoox - who set out to start/run a garden room company but has spent most of his time building garages it appears

 

[Molynoox]

When was the last time you built a garden room? glad business appears to be going well

Good point. It does seem to be more about garages at the moment. I'm happy with that direction though, I would like to do house extensions too and in the future maybe houses.

In his little culdesac there are 5 houses:

1 - just moved in and they want me to build them a cartlodge
2 - built them a garden room last summer
3. Just moved in and want me to build them a cartlodge
4 - just built them a cartlodge
5 - built them a cartlodge in May this year.

So I've done 3 out of the 5 with the other 2 pretty much confirmed.
Only 1 is a garden room

 

[BucksDad]

Brilliant and great idea to be a general builder rather than garden rooms. You can be Essex’s version of Robin Clevett and work on nice premium projects with good clients

 

[SDev]

Very interesting thread. Obviously a lot of experience and expertise on planning here. At the risk of hijacking someone else’s discussion, does anyone know if replacing one outbuilding with a bigger one of the same height will require planning permission? It’s at the end of a 50m garden, within 1m of boundary. PD says only 2.5m high at this distance but the existing shed is 3.6m high. I want a bigger workshop! Nothing on any planning portal and you can’t phone the planning department without paying £200 for formal pre planning advice.

 

[Blackswanwood]

Very interesting thread. Obviously a lot of experience and expertise on planning here. At the risk of hijacking someone else’s discussion, does anyone know if replacing one outbuilding with a bigger one of the same height will require planning permission? It’s at the end of a 50m garden, within 1m of boundary. PD says only 2.5m high at this distance but the existing shed is 3.6m high. I want a bigger workshop! Nothing on any planning portal and you can’t phone the planning department without paying £200 for formal pre planning advice.

As I understand it the PD rules were written to specifically say what you can do so if it doesn’t say you can do it without permission you cannot.