Workshop shed planning permission

[Marchy]

I must admit my experience has been similar to Big Shots in terms of non-commital planning officers. There's a uesful article here (Do I need planning permission for my shed?), which is more recent than the DIY source but basicaly a recap of the planning portal.

I hate to say it but it tempting to do first and ask later - so long as you're not going to p~ss off your neighbours. My neighbour had a long but narrow garden (like mine) and built a large 'shed' at the bottom which was totally within the planning rights but due to the narrowness of the gardens totally overshadowed my garden.

 

[user 5027]

I built a shed a few months ago. It was squeezed into a back garden of a house I rent out. It's measured 7m x 3.2m x 2.5m It had a pretty large roof overhang all the way around. Due to a little error on my behalf the she was 100mm to tall. I was dobbed in by some one and the planning enforcement officer came round. They were fine. I said, IF they wanted I would prop the shed roof on acro's, cut 100mm out of the shed and drop the roof back down. She went away and in the end said she would allow it. I then said I would not paint it dell-boy luminous yellow

 

[billybuntus]

The links in this thread appear to be out of date. I'm heading towards drunk and looking to buy a new house and the prereq is that I can have a workshop in the garden.....so before I commit to an offer I'm having a peek at this..

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permis ... /miniguide

 

[Pond]

The links in this thread appear to be out of date. I'm heading towards drunk and looking to buy a new house and the prereq is that I can have a workshop in the garden.....so before I commit to an offer I'm having a peek at this..

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permis ... /miniguide

Having been through this shed building bo11oks myself, I would say you can read planning portals and 'permitted development' rights until you are blue in the face, but the only way to be sure is to speak to a planning officer at your local council, they will come out to the site and advise.

And I can tell you from bitter experience, it pays to be sure.

It's amazing how people who you thought were reasonable and nice neighbours become NIMBYs over the smallest thing. :evil:

 

[BB73]

Lol, my wife is a planning officer!

 

[Coaster]

Hi Folks, I'm intending to build a shed and just rang my local planning office who refused to discuss the matter. They are sending me a form to fill in but I really don't want to get involved with drawing plans.

My shed will be 12 feet square (13.38 sq. metres) and will be 1.1 metres from the boundary. My garden is huge and that represents nowhere near 50% of its area. It will be 2 metres high.

Having read this thread I get the distinct impression that I will not need planning permission. Can someone confirm that for me please?

I must say that you guys sound a lot more helpful than my local planning authority.

 

[Coaster]

Or maybe not.

 

[Deejay]

Morning Coaster

You said I really don't want to get involved with drawing plans.

A couple of freehand sketches with dimensions and a few photo's of the site should be enough to let the planners make a decision.

Might be a worth the effort to get something in writing.

Whereabouts are you?

Cheers

Dave

 

[Woody Alan]

If you are confident that you don't need planning permission and if is as described then I don't see the need to ask planning anything, especially if they can't answer simple questions on the phone. The main issue is, are you likely to be infringing? if so who will complain, do they have justification to complain i.e is it affecting their life in some way.
Even if you were to fractionally technically breach planning in some way, if to all practical purposes you are causing no harm or have ill intent, even after a visit from planning enforcement they won't neccessarily enforce because they have been mandated by the government not to chase people for money for planning if it is a given that they would get planning automatically.
For example I want to put up a fence between me and my neighbour of over 2metres because he has a utility window looking directly across the back of my house and his property is higher. He is in agreement about the fence height but wants to insist I get planning (which he can't until I do it). I called planning enforcement who sound more helpful than your lot and they told me unless I exceed 2.2 metres they won't enforce it'll go down as a technical breach. When I mentioned my neighbour had raised his ground before putting a summerhouse on it they said he is in breach because he's nearer than 2metres to the boundary and his summerhouse height is greater than 2.5metres from the original ground level. They are still not going to pursue it though.
The planning officer actually told me to put it up at 2.2m and the worst that would happen if they really had to enforce would be the planning fee and I would definately get the permission anyway.

Alan

 

[bingow]

Hello ,

May be someone can help solve the problem i am facing now.
My garden is 50 meter long. Before building my garden room i read all the details on planning portal and came to conclusion of building garden room of 2.95 meter height (flat roof) and 30 sq meter area with 1m from one side of boundary line , 1.5m from another side and approximate 3m from rear side. The garden room construction is completed. Annoying neighbour has complained council about the garden room. My garden room is not causing any trouble to the neighbour, infact it is adjacent to their (small) garden shed. We donot overlook their garden as we dont have any windows at the rear or either side of our garden room. Infact it is around 3m away from their fence. Our neighbour can actually over look our garden from their top bedroom windows. Now the only mistake i did was to build garden room with 2.95 meter height which is not within 2m from all sides.

Do you think enforcement officer will disapprove my outbuilding? How can i get out from this problem? Does applying for planning permission solve this?

Please help me with this.

Thanks.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If your local office is anything like ours, go to see someone rather than phone. I did, over a few problems I had with my plans and they saved me probably top side of £1000. Carry your plans and any details with you and see how it goes.

Phil.

 

[Lons]

Do what Phil said and go to see a planning officer with all the information. Hold your hands up, say you built it in good faith in the belief you were following guidelines and ask his advice. Hopefully the worst scenario would be a retrospecting application and the fee.

What exactly is your neighbours complaint? If not justifiable, then it makes not difference to permission. It would need to be a serious inconvenience to them for the planners to refuse.

Bob

 

[bingow]

Thanks Phil and Bob for prompt reply. I have already sent council mail regarding all the details along with the outbuild pictures and dimensions around the boundary fence. Also explaining all the considerations before building it. But will do as you say.
The complaint in the letter states "It is alleged that a detached timber outbuilding has been erected in the rear garden of your property without planning permission" . Complaint doesn't say anything about disturbance to the neighbourhood. It makes me angry as neighbour could have spoken to us directly first before logging a complaint. I have never troubled them ever.


Thanks,
Bini

 

[bingow]

Planning enforcement officer visited site and advised to apply for planning permission due to height of outbuilding. Will see how it gets through.

 

[cammy9r]

Hi, been lurking here on and off for a few years now and thought i would add to this post concerning Scottish law on planning permission for sheds.
As of the 6th Feb 2012 the rules are:

Class 3A.
(1) The provision within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse of a building for
any purpose incidental to the enjoyment of that dwellinghouse or the alteration,
maintenance or improvement of such a building.

(2) Development is not permitted by this class if—

(a) it consists of a dwelling;

(b) any part of the development would be forward of a wall forming part of the
principal elevation or side elevation where that elevation fronts a road;

(c) the height of the eaves would exceed 3 metres;

(d) any part of the development would exceed 4 metres in height;

(e) any part of the development within 1 metre of the boundary of the curtilage of the
dwellinghouse would exceed 2.5 metres in height;

(f) as a result of the development the area of ground covered by development within
the front or rear curtilage of the dwellinghouse (excluding the original
dwellinghouse and any hard surface or deck) would exceed 50% of the area of the
front or rear curtilage respectively (excluding the ground area of the original
dwellinghouse and any hard surface or deck);

(g) in the case of land in a conservation area or within the curtilage of a listed
building, the resulting building would have a footprint exceeding 4 square metres.

My local BCO was not concerned about out buildings provided it was over 5 metres from any dwelling, no one lived in it, there was no sanitary ware installed and no solid/fossil fuel heating.
If any of this is breached then a building warrant would be needed.
As to boundary/construction materials it is whatever you choose be it brick or wood as long as it is over 5 metres from any dwelling.
Upto 15 sqm it can be made from twigs but from there to 30sqm it must be of sound construction to regs. This is not enforced unless over 30sqm, so how do they know? best be on the safer side though. With regards to height it follows with planning rules.
Edit: usual rules apply to installation of power supply if needed
That has been my experience with Renfrewshire Council, quite straight forward really with just a phone call. I started my build back in december but it has had a few setbacks, the latest being with Scottish Water.

 

[Lons]

it has had a few setbacks, the latest being with Scottish Water.

Hope that's with the water company and not the stuff we're getting from the sky this year :lol: :lol: Especially with what's predicted today / tomorrow :shock:

 

[tack1000]

Hello

First post so bear with me.

Read all that has been said about do's and don't on sheds.

My question is.

If the footprint of the shed was 10 SQm but the roof over hung one side or all the way round making it say 15 SQm what is the ruling based on, the plan view or the footprint?

I actually want a 30 SQm shed with an over hang to give and outside hard standing but under cover. This will take it over the Max 30 SQm rule IMHO

Thanks in advance.

 

[mrpercysnodgrass]

The regulations are for the footprint of the building, so you should be fine with an overhang and provided you comply with all the other regulations regarding the position of your workshop ect, (the distance of 1m from your boundary will be measured from the overhang to the boarder). You should not need planning permission up to a footprint of 30SQm unless it is a commercial enterprise, then you need planning permission no matter what size your workshop is.

This article explains it well http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permis ... buildings/

Hope this helps.

mrpercysnodgrass.

 

[skipdiver]

Can anyone confirm that you can only go to 2.5 MT height if within 2 metres of the boundary, and if so, is this a recent rule because i have built 2 block and tile workshops in the past and both were the maximum 30 sq mt floor area and both were 4 mts to the ridge. They were also both a metre from the boundary and on both occasions, the BCO turned up unannounced and left with no issues.?

I am about to break ground tomorrow on my latest workshop, having moved house at the weekend. I am not going as big as usual due to my narrow garden, but intend to build it 6mts long by 3.6mts wide and about 2 feet from the boundary fence for maintenance. It will be block and render with a tiled roof and more than 20 mts from the house. I intended to go 2.4 mts to the eaves and 4 mts to the ridge to allow sheet materials to be stood up inside and room in the roof for storage.

As i said, i have built bigger before closer than 2 mts to the boundary and had no issues when the BCO has turned up (no doubt sent by nosy neighbours) and was wondering if anything had changed since my last build in 2008.

Really want a 4mt high pitched roof but cannot come away from the boundary by 2 mts due to the narrow nature of my garden.

 

[cammy9r]

Hi Skipdiver, yes you are correct in that you can build no higher than 2.5m if within 2m from the boundary without planning permission. Do you get on well with neighbours. If yes tell them what you propose, if they are happy then you probably wont have any problems with planning.