Shrimpsvoices

Someone in the Morecambe area is selling a house. When they bought it, it had a kitchen extension already built. Now they are selling it, the people who were buying it have questioned whether the extension had planning permission. Is there a simple way to find out? They've no idea when it was built as it was before their time as owners, so can records be searched by address? I'd presume these are public records, but if the only search criteria is by date, they'll never find it.

Does it cost much to do so?

If it hasn't got permission, how easy is it to get retrospective planning permission?

Are they going to need to get a lawyer?

Put the address/postcode in here, you might come up with something

http://www.lancaster.gov.uk/planning/vi ... -decisions

They could go into Palatine House in Dalton Square and ask.

I sold my house in 2001 and in 1990 I had an extension built on. I went in and paid a small fee and they dug it out and gave me a copy of the required paperwork to hand to the buyer's solicitor.

About 10 years ago we had a less than 1meter extention put onto our kitchen, we were told we would not need planning permission because we were within certain perameters. When we came to move out the survayor was unclear even. When we asked if we could find out he said we would be charged for planning permission anyway, and if it was needed the work already done would have to be ripped out and the building put back to it's original size, for which we would be charged. I know for fact that the extension still exists and we have not lived there since just after it went up.

Thanks folks!

I'll let them know about Palatine House.

If the extension was built without planning permission then the council has a time limit to make an enforcement order. I believe it's 7 years.

I was told this when I applied for planning for my conservatory. The officer came round to view and told me I should have had planning for a raised deck (1 storey) at the back of my house but if I could prove it had been there over 7 years there wasn't an issue.

Sakhalin Shrimp wrote:If the extension was built without planning permission then the council has a time limit to make an enforcement order. I believe it's 7 years.

I was told this when I applied for planning for my conservatory. The officer came round to view and told me I should have had planning for a raised deck (1 storey) at the back of my house but if I could prove it had been there over 7 years there wasn't an issue.

Nice one! Ta. They've lived in the house for eight years and it was there when they bought it.

Not just quite as easy as that

http://www.engineersjournal.ie/2013/07/ ... year-myth/

https://galwayplanningblog.wordpress.co ... r-7-years/

7 years ago my daughter bought some property in Barrow which had had a kitchen extension built onto the house taking up a good half of the rear yard. When it came to signing the deeds our solicitor noticed that there was no mention of the extension and on subsequent questions to the local council they confirmed that no planning permission had been applied for which was approximately 4 years prior to my daughters purchase. The council took the view that to retrospectively apply for planning permission was a needless exercise. However what they did decide to do was to issue her with a formal written statement that basically said that they had decided not to enforce a retrospective planning application that could be used in any follow up sale by our solicitor. Sure enough when she came to sell the property some 4 years ago, our solicitor issued the latter to the new owners solicitor and the sale went ahead with no problems.

By the sounds of it every council has their own view on things like retrospective planning but thankfully common sense prevailed in our case.

When we had a conservatory built onto our house the local council didn't want to know which surprised the conservatory manufacturer based in Clitheroe because it was thought that being in an AOB that planning would have been a prerequisite. I suppose what all this suggests is that there are no hard and fast rules with regards to certain types of extension either new or existing.

We were advised it was 10 years that the council can go back and challenge (though this was just verbal advice, and I didn't need to verify as ours was built over 15 years previous).

In any case, the buyer can take out an insurance policy that removes any liability for them should the council come and request any alterations be made. Usually they're about £100-200 depending on what the issue relates to.