Posts Tagged ‘Alterations’

With massive increases in fraudulent claims, Insurance Companies being hit by multiple natural disasters and premiums levels fluctuating widely, can you control the risks that are inherent in owning or occupying residual property?

Picture the scene – you have just opened your annual renewal documentation and the premium seems reasonable. What do you do? Some will hit the “Go Compare” websites and get cheaper premium quotations. Some cannot be bothered and simply file the paperwork (doing nothing is a great option as this usually means your policy will be automatically renewed).

What is wrong with this little scenario?

The answer is “nothing”, in many cases. However the right answer must be based on your own particular circumstances. I would argue that never has a time existed whereby are you more strongly recommended to STOP, THINK and REVIEW before you decide what to do.

Question ONE – Has the policy cover changed in any way OR does it include all that you need? Often the excess payment is incremental based on what is being claimed; Often the list of exclusions has been extended but you would need to very carefully read the small print to find such changes; often cover has been limited in some way. You need to make sure that you are getting value-for-money before you decide to renew.

Question TWO – Have you completed any works, improvements, alterations that either increases what needs to be covered or which might adversely affect the Buildings Insurance Company view of what risks they are taking in extending cover to you. Remember you are under a duty to inform Insurers if anything has changed or is unusual.

These two questions are fairly simple but do you know the real import of them? Do you know what might happen if you ignored the ground rules, buried your head in the sand, renewed blindly and then had to make a claim during the next year?

Firstly you have to understand what insurance is not. It is not a cover-all-get-out that absolves you from well maintaining your home. If you have something that you know is going to wear out after a finite period, you ignore it, it fails and causes house subsidence, are you covered? Probably not but this is a grey area. EG: If you have underground drains made from pitch-fibre your drains will fail very quickly now because we know they have not stood the test of time.

What would happen if you planted trees over your drains or too close to your home and in ten years time the tree roots cause damage that results in house subsidence – are you covered?

What happens if you completed an attic conversion, installed a Conservatory, replaced your old, single glazed windows with state-of-the-art double glazing and you fail to tell Insurers and then have a claim that includes these items? Are you covered bearing in mind your cover did not reflect the added cost of these items?

If your insurance level was correctly assessed many years ago and has been index-linked ever since and you make a claim and Insurers say you are under insured and will not pay out the full amount to reimburse you? Have you a case for complaint or not?

If only the answers were simple.

First let’s put to bed a few myths: The home value has nothing to do with the correct “sum insured” for Insurance rebuild purposes: Index-linked policies can easily get out-of-sync over the longer term (leaving you either under-insured or having paid inflated premiums unnecessarily).

In recent years some Insurers have decided to de-complicate Buildings Insurance and simply tell you that having taken data from the Loan Valuation Report they automatically insure your home for the correct amount. This is great, provided the Loan Valuer has got it right (and do not forget that often you do not nowadays get a copy of the Valuers Report to be able to check these things).

In my own case my Mortgage Company simply stated that my home is now insured as a two bed house. I explained to them it was built as a three bedroom home but that I use it as a two bedroom home. After eight years residence here I still cannot get a simply letter to categorically state that I am not under-insured (anything a staff member cannot understand gets placed at the back of the queue and is never actually answered).

So – how can you cut though all this nonsense and ensure you have good, effective cover?

In fairness the Insurance Company industry has begun to get its act together but with increased competition for short term customers (introductory deals that are not renewed OR companies placing the best deals with new customers rather than with loyal existing customers) we are all changing Insurers with greater frequency.

Upon your annual Buildings Insurance renewal PROinspect suggest a STOP and THINK policy review would be wise. The following questions are core data needed to assess how you approach your Buildings Insurance renewal:-

1-  have you improved your property in any way?

2-  does anything influence your home or has that degree of influence materially increased?

3-  have you adequately maintained your home so as not to allow risks to develop?

4-  if your cover is index-linked, how many years has this indexation applied?

5-  has the offered cover changed in any way at all compared with last years cover?

6-  if you have gone to a Comparison Website are quotations all on the exact same basis?

7-  do you live in/on a floodplain?

8-  do you live in an area of shrinkable clays?

9-  is your home and site liable to surface water flow damage (not associated with sea and river flooding)?

10-  do you live in an area prone to coal-mining, landslip, radon gas, etc… (high risks)?

11-  have you made any claims in the last year? Have these been resolved/agreed/closed?

Whether you would be well advised to take your business elsewhere, at lower annual premiums, depends of the answers to these questions. If your home is unchanged within its risk-free location and environment then the chances are that accepting the lowest premium for an agreed and defined level of cover is just the ticket for you.

However, for the rest of us, millions of occupiers, the situation is much more complex. The rest of us must carefully weigh Premium quote –V- Degree of Cover –V- Risk Assessment (of your own home and what affects it).

The quote is a given (assuming you have fully declared all relevant information to Insurers); the degree of cover is a given (but look out for small print changes or exclusions); what is not a constant is the Risk Assessment aspect of the renewal.

At what stage does increasing vandalism in your housing district need to be declared to Insurers on renewal?

How do you know if tree roots are affecting your drains if when you flush the toilet the waste goes away freely?

If your home has never flooded, and is not in or near a floodplain, how do you know if your home is at risk of water damage due to exceptionally high rain storms due to climate change?

The name of the game is to know you are one step ahead of Insurers and you do not place Buildings Insurance cover at risk. To achieve this you must understand what influences both insurance premiums and your home.

Let me explain one further aspect to consider: you have a nice home and have never had any problems or made any claims. On renewal you consider the premium quote is too high and go elsewhere knowing cover is slightly restricted but you will be saving £150 during the year.

Suddenly, nine months later, your home begins to crack and distort – you have subsidence. The Insurance Company Loss Adjuster says structural underpinning of the house foundations is needed plus many reinstate works. The cost is £75,000. Your excess payment is £1,000. However, then your troubles really begin . . . . . .

Insurers say that the cause of the subsidence is a fractured drain caused by excavations associated with the paved patio you laid yourself behind the lounge after you had a large tree removed. This work was completed 18 months ago – 6 months before you changed Insurance Company. In essence the cause of the damage, and claim, pre-existed the start of the Insurance cover and you did not declare the risk.

If you were under-insured by say 25% then any claim at all would be reduced by 25%. But, in the example just quoted above the Insurance Company could decide not to honour your claim at all. Conversely, new protocols between participating Insurance Companies might mean that if any liability is accepted then the current Insurer will pay part and the previous Insurers a further part.

So, a summary might be to say that premium level is not everything. Look beyond the premium, check the degree of cover and then Risk Assess your home and what influences it. Have you done anything that might trip you up later on when you have to make a claim? However, if funds are low and you have no alternative but to look for the cheapest possible premium quote then do so but whilst perhaps setting certain minimum degrees of cover for certain risks.

Unfortunately we have recently entered a period of high subsidence risk due to low rainwater rates over the last year or so. Cyclical patterns suggest subsidence rates will soon soar and so changing Building Insurers might just be one risk too far if you live in a clay based soil area.

At PROinspect we ensure we consider any survey completed for customers includes appropriate advice about Insurance risks of flooding, storm damage and structural movement. By this route you can reduce the risks you take. In exceptional cases we might consider the risks are so real and high such that Market Value is adversely affected – our report opinion of Value may enable you to purchase at a discounted sum to allow for such risks.

ALTERATIONS ADD VALUE AND ARE A WISE INVESTMENT?

Aren’t they?

During my career as a Surveyor and Valuer I have seen it all – strange people and strange homes plus interesting people and a few absolutely marvellous homes.

Piranha in giant fish tanks in your main bedroom, polystyrene tile cladding heaven to student condensation and smoke invoked squalor all in one day. I have seen DIY heaven and hell, from bedrooms with a WC in them to showers in a kitchen.

However, what does surprise me is that many people think they have added value when, in reality they have decreased value and at a high cost to themselves.

Most of us have seen the TV Shows that revamp homes, often at low cost and effort from what is considered to be a poor starting position. What the following is designed to show is that YOU REALLY MUST THINK before you completed any DIY or get any Contractor in.

Think – think – think and think again.

1. What is a defect? Nothing is perfect and so do I really need to fix it?
2. Can the defect wait or would a delay cause even greater problems?
3. Do I need any permissions, consents or approvals before I do something?
4. Am I maintaining property value or causing value to fall as a result of my actions?
5. Do I need to increase the Buildings Insurance cover after an improvement?
6. Do I need to serve a Party Wall Act Notice on my neighbour(s)?
7. Is the land I am building on actually mine?
8. What Health & Safety regulations surround what I am about to do?
9. The list is endless…………….

Let me get something off my chest – I have adverse reactions to several matters that I mainly saw in my early career when in the Portsmouth-to-Fareham areas (not that bad taste is restricted to these areas – trust me, bad taste is generic):-

• Polystyrene tiles – these melt on your head and also release toxic fumes in the event of a fire but people seem to think they keep the heat in and so they are OK – not so, avoid them at all costs.
• Gnomes – now I like to think I have a good sense of humour but when you see gnomes in gardens (anyone number above, say, one) and my hackles are instantly raised: houses with gnomes usually mean the owners are “of an age” or “of a mind” that clashes with me. The gnome lover seems to fall under the spell (of the gnomes?) of becoming unable to understand “good taste and decorum”. With gnomes often you will see all manner of other offending matters – usually those in this listing but many more as well. I apologise to the worlds’ gnome lovers, and to any gnomes reading this article and to any Gnome Council members who get to hear of my comments, but why do gnome lover homes incorporate so many naff features? (naff is a technical term reserved for Gnome homes).
• Stone-Cladding – the world does not need reconstituted stone cladding in any shape or form. It can damage cavity wall ties; it bridges wall damp proof courses and causes dampness; it looks awful (even with contrast colour stones intermingled) and we all know that it basically screens a home lot of trouble.
• Non-matching-neighbour-improvements : these are usually found on terrace housing, often also on semi-detached houses. You know: you reclad your roof with red tiles and next door does their roof with blue tiles. You have large pane, while plastic double glazed windows, your neighbour has leaded-lights with mock-Tudor-simulation-wood brown double glazing installed. Stand back and can you really say the streetscene has been improved by such diversity?
• Dark Kitchens and kitchen units – Upgrade the kitchen: good idea and one that will probably add a lot of value to your home. Well, it would have done if you had been sensible about it. Why would anyone want dark cupboards with dark wall tiles and dark floor finishes? Keep it light! And whilst in this rant, what about lighting? Does one sickly old-style light bulb in the centre of the ceiling really inspire gastronomic delights?
• Over Technical works – I once inspected a rural home with the biggest decking area you will ever see: the whole of the rear, large garden. The owner reported that he had installed three miles of plastic pipes within which ground water heat exchange was taking place. Several hours later I understood what he had done – an early form of ground water heat exchange – but his buyer (my survey client) was not so understanding and decided he would buy elsewhere. I am not being “ungreen” here – indeed I actively encourage energy improvements but the problem is “will your potential buyer like what you have done?’.

On a serious note, what I am saying here is that many “improvements” are not on the positive side: indeed many detract from good function, high value and actually reduce saleability and perhaps value. However, beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder!

Now, lets’ move on and discuss the real issues:-

WORKS could be described as any alteration, renewal, revision, covering or other such work that alters the current state and condition or function of a building or building element or service.

For some of these things formal Consents will be required because they are either potentially dangerous or might adversely affect another party if things don’t go according to plan. Let me illustrate ……..

EG – If you live in a home that adjoins, or is close to (within defined dimensions), another home and you wish to alter or adapt a party wall (not just a wall but instead anything that affects the neighbouring structure) then you must either contact that person and agree all aspects of the works scheduled OR serve a Party Wall Act notice which is a legal document and which has legal consequences.

EG – If you live in a Listed Building and/or within a home inside a Conservation Area then many works must first be outlined and then approved by Conservationists before anything is done. Indeed, in some cases if you fail to maintain such a home your Local Authority could enter your land/home to complete essential repairs and recover the full costs from you even if you objected to the works in the first place!

EG – For matters such as Asbestos Removal, Replacement Windows and Boilers only certain prep-Approved Contractors can complete the works and even then strict Health & Safety regulations apply (perhaps greatly increasing your costs).

If you choose works that do not require pre-Consents or the input of “others” you still cannot ignore all others. English law states that you even have a duty to ensure that burglars are not unnecessarily injured and if you have Contractors in and fail to tell them of a hidden danger then you could be sued of such people come to harm.

What is annoying to a Surveyor and Valuer is that nothing prevents people from choosing to complete stupid works. To improve insulation and reduce condensation many people place sheets of polystyrene under thick wallpaper or even add polystyrene tiles on ceilings. Such materials are lethal in the event of a fire in the building and could even invalidate Insurance cover in certain scenarios.

What is annoying to Surveyors and Valuers is that some people over-improve their homes. For any area the local property market will have a price ceiling over which homes really do not increase in value whatever you do to them. Therefore it is a common fault for such owners to not recognise this and to waste money on a new swimming pool only to find nobody wants to subsequently buy their home.

Home owners are encouraged to think of the basics —–

• Is a repair essential?
• If a leave it, will it cost much more later or spoil the intended function of that element?
• Has the element/service/appliance reached the end of its useful life?
• Can I get a grant or discount that makes the work proposed more affordable and a better investment in that by the time I move on the work will have paid for itself by reduced annual maintenance or energy costs?
• Is the work generally well considered by potential buyers?
• Will the work cause any offence or breach any Regulations or law?
• Do I need to get structural calculations done or plans drawn up?
• Will I have to remove the work/element in order to dispose of the home (I once saw a £25,000 shower pod within a small 2 bedroom Victorian terrace home in a rural village – the owner had to remove the pod (through the roof) before anybody would even consider buying the house: the so-called improvement actually put people off buying.

You need to focus on the real issues —–

Will what I do improve saleability?

Will what I do increase or maintain the mortgageability of the home?

Will what I do be legal?

Will what I do follow modern tastes, styles and trends?

Will what I do breach any lease or restrictive covenant?

Will what I do impact adversely on anyone or other building?

Will what I do breach any Right-of-Light?

Will what I do maintain or improve my property value?

You would be amazed how many people bend or breach these common-sense rules to their ultimate detriment.

Most people move within 5 years-or-so and so why would anybody waste money for a short term benefit? Health grounds? Special Access reasons? Special reasons to stay – like living next door to parents? etc…… These are the exceptions.

So – the next time you may be thinking about a sizeable expenditure on your home, why not take professional advice to protect yourself and your wealth?

Firstly, let’s dispel a myth: if you ask an Estate Agent to give you a Valuation what do you get? They call them a Free Market Appraisal and some might not put that opinion in writing. Why? Because what you get is simply an opinion: it is not a professionally binding opinion and liability does not stem from that opinion (you cannot sue them).

Secondly, let’s dispel another myth: if you request a Loan Company mortgage Valuation what do you get? One – the valuation is prepared for loan purposes and the sum quoted may be lower than market value for in-house Loan Company reasons unrelated to your needs. Two – if you are buying a brand New Home the chances are that in this post-recession world the loan company will have instructed their Panel Valuer to down-value your purchase because the security offered (the new home) is in its re-sale value when it is not “new”.

Football in the sun: before the rain.

Valuations can be needed for Court purposes eg: divorce settlements, Probate and Capital Gains tax purposes, Tax Planning purposes, to advise of whether alterations may be wise and economic, for sale or purchase etc……. The circumstances that surround the request may lead us to consider other market and property aspects that alter our opinions of worth.

So, what is the definition of market value?

The only way to get a professional opinion of value, one where you can sue the Valuer if he/she is wrong, is if you request that report yourself. The wise purchaser does this via either a request for a private valuation or asks for a private survey that includes an opinion of market value. The most popular form of survey product can fits this description is the R.I.C.S. Homebuyer Report (for details see elsewhere on this site).

PROinspect can provide Market Valuations. We would need to inspect the property and complete market research, including a analysis of price-paid data (that is historic) and take into consideration the market and the property.

Why would you need a professional opinion of value? This depends on why you need advice and whether you agree that independent opinion is of worth. Some might say that a Loan Company valuer can provide an impartial opinion – conversely, the credit-crunch has told us that millions of mortgagees are out of pocket because of the Banks and of home buyers had taken advice from professionals outside of the Estate Agency and Loan Company then perhaps the hole they are now in wouldn’t have been so deep.

If you believe that a Sellers’ Estate Agent and your own Loan Company place your best interests over their own then you do not need PROinspect.

If you don’t believe this then use the CONTACT FORM to ask for help and advice once you believe the time is right for you. Initial advice is free so what have you got to lose?

This very much depends on what level of inspection is being completed and the complexity of the property.

A good Inspector we have risk and database researched your property before he/she arrives. This process should have raised various questions that will probably be added to the Inspectors normal list of standard queries.

Any Inspector will need to know the history of the land and buildings. This broadly splits into the following areas:-

• Tenure/Legal
• Planning and Building Control
• Limitations or special instructions (imposed upon or for the Inspector)
• Risks
• Documentation, Certificates and Service records
• DIY
• Insurance Claims
• Premises age and the dates of material changes/problems/events

So, the Inspector will not want to be bothered by your Pets/Dogs. Similarly young children may best be taken to neighbours/friends. A tidy environment is always easier the inspect than an untidy and unclean home.

The Inspector will want to get at and into all rooms and areas and so unlocking the garage, shed and side gate will all be appreciated. Moving the car off drainage inspection chambers is also a good idea; as would be taking the car out of the garage or car-port.

If you can take copies of important documents these will be invaluable to the Inspector but it is our experience he/she can just as easily take photographs of such documents.

So what questions and/or documents are important?

1. How old is the house?
2. Is it Listed (which Grade), in a Conservation Area or in a Smoke Control Area?
3. Are any Council Plans/Proposals known of that may affect the house or its plot?
4. Boiler age/installation and service/repair records.
5. Is mains Gas available and metered?
6. Are all other mains services connected and metered?
7. What private services are connected: do they pass to and from only public land OR do they pass over/under private land (and are they shared)?
8. Date of electrical system tests or of re-wiring/alterations.
9. Date of double glazing installation (FENSA certified or under Building Control?).
10. Planning Permissions and/or Building Regulation Approvals.
11. Who designed and constructed (and when) the Conservatory.
12. Lease details.
13. Any off-site buildings or parking facilities? Full details needed.
14. Do any off-site shared facilities
15. Management provisions, fees and charges + name and contacts details.
16. Tree Preservation Orders?
17. Trees removed: and when?
18. Have any Insurance Claims, Party Wall Act Notifications, Neighbour or Boundary Disputes happened – full details/outcomes needed.
19. Extensions and/or improvement or conversion plans, dates, descriptions.
20. Inserted insulation? Type, when and by whom?
21. Have the drains ever blocked, been repaired or renewed? Are any chamber covers hidden from view?
22. What works have YOU done, OR have been done by non-professional or non-specialists?
23. What fixtures and fittings form part of the purchase price and will be staying in the home when the sellers move out?
24. Which site boundaries do you believe to be yours?

Anything you can do to provide certainty to your answers would be invaluable to the Inspector. Remember that anything you can produce to help the Inspector here will probably go into his/her Report and both their client and that clients legal team will have one less thing to worry about – if you take the time and effort to fully cooperate here you are rewarded with less uncertainty at a later date.

Much of the above may be included in the Home Information Pack: at the time of writing these words it is our experience most Sellers, Solicitors and Estate Agents are not bothering to request these details are produced “up front” and so the existing marketing/legal system is not entering in to the spirit of HIPs: in our opinion this attitude is to the detriment of all home buying transactions.

NEED ADVICE?

Try the SEARCH Box facility (below, left), click on an Article Heading (below, left) or simply read on….

• BUILDING SURVEYS with or without VALUATION advice
• HOME VALUATIONS by an RICS Registered Valuer
  
• HOMEBUYER REPORTS or SELLER SURVEYS
• AUCTION or QUICK-WALK-THROUGH Appraisals
  
• Update your BUILDING INSURANCE SUM INSURED
• Is DAMP REALLY DAMP or actually CONDENSATION as a result of your lifestyle?
• Is that CRACK the beginnings of SUBSIDENCE?
• Divorce or Negligence Court-Compliant EXPERT WITNESS Reports/Valuations.

Hello, I’m Stuart Parrett. I am a truly independent, knowledgeable and experienced Chartered Surveyor and housing specialist. I am in the PEOPLE and HOMES Business where Information Discovery is all important.

I survey homes for faults and worth/value but it is not what I do but HOW that separates PROinspect from competitor surveyors.

THE HOUSE DOCTOR IS IN:

HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

SOMETHING of VALUE for you —-

1-  Do you have a SEPTIC TANK DRAINAGE system?

NEW Environmental Permitting Regulations cover even old septic tanks, which may previously have escaped regulation, but are now controlled and must be formally registered with the Environment Agency by 1^st January 2012. Failure to register is a criminal offense. Click this link PrivateDrainageChanges2012 for an Environment Agency Brochure that explains all.

2-  CONDENSATION SEASON IS UPON US – have you looked in the back of the wardrobe recently or in “that corner”?

Cold = drop in dew point = cold surfaces will attract condensate: Quick Fix – create airflows and reduce the amount of vapour in the air. Longer Term Fix = Raise the wall temperature by lining it with XXXX; properly kill off mould spores; introduce sensors that apply venting or temperature changes to the environment. Simple.

What often works is opening the window for as long as possible during and after sleeping/baths/showers/cooking (this removes water vapour that then cannot condense on your clothes and walls). You loose heat during this process and so you need to learn how to achieve these goals intelligently without icicles forming on your nose.

For more information on me, my CV etc… – click here and scroll down. Alternatively, look me in the eye by watching a short VIDEO – CLICK HERE. TheHouseSurveyor at YouTube will also deliver several important messages for those looking to purchase or those you wish to become Residential Surveyors and/or Valuers.

Those who have kindly provided testimonials for me say that I can be considered a safe pair of hands, somebody who is a real communicator and a provider of detailed and robust opinions.

Good reasons for using me in the central south coast area include that I take the time to listen to you and then help you make the right choice of survey product and have it completed at the right time. After this I genuinely communicate with you and don’t simply mail a report to you and that is it. No, I am always available for questions and meetings because you need to be re-assured your purchase is both a wise investment and you are not buying a problem.

I protect the biggest investment you’ll ever make in your life – your home – and I work with you every step of the way…..

I’ve brought together a lot of valuable information to help you organise property problems, alterations, private surveys and other services surrounding ownership, maintenance, sales, purchases and Expert Witness Reports.

CALL ME for a free chat and advice on 078 3636 3040 —

• THE GOLDEN RULES OF SELF-PROTECTION DURING HOME BUYING =

1. When your “offer” has been accepted make sure you already have a loan deal secured in principle
2. Make sure you DO NOT agree to a combined Loan Valuation and Private Survey
3. Actually speak to a Surveyor (PROinspect down south) – do not accept an Assistant or a Secretary
4. Find out your Survey Product options, fee costs and the manner in dealing with any special concerns you have
5. Do not fall for quick deals or “linked” services often packaged by costly middlemen Agencies.

STUART PARRETT

.

Browse the site and when you’re ready to ask for advice give me a call or fill in the Form on the right. To get the best out of us you need to be briefed as to your options, survey costs and a lot more. As a starting point be as specific as you can as to what you need from us – use the CONTACT FORM (top right on your screen): EG: Detached house – perhaps 50 years old – £400,000 agreed – Building Survey with Valuation needed – being sold by XXX Estate Agents.

PROinspect are led by Stuart Parrett who has an unrivalled pedigree as a specialist Home Surveyor of over 35 years Hampshire experience.

If you wish to read even more of my views on a host of house and survey matters go to ezinearticles.com by clicking of the above icon. Or follow me at Twitter (@SurveyAuthority).

ARCHIVE ARTICLE from OCT 2008

Planning a change without Planning?

October 2008 is the right time!

October 2008 is to herald many changes this year. You and your clients may need to revise action plans to reflect these alterations to the current status quo……..

Planning policies have been relaxed (see below) and all Residential Lettings will require an EPC. However, also all those homes still on the market for sale, but which did not qualify for EPCs, require an EPC. The seller will be under a duty to deliver to the purchaser a valid EPC before Exchange of Contracts. Do you and your clients know this?

The Planning change is that various forms of development will not require any Planning Consent:-

Extensions?

All single or two storey side or rear elevation extensions, up to 3.05m (10 feet) deep, are now exempt. Building Control Consent may be needed and, by the way, don’t upset the neighbours and you may need Party Wall Act notifications to those neighbours.

Loft Conversions?

Also loft conversions are affected. From October these will not need Planning Permission if they are less than 40 cubic metres (1,412 cubic feet) in volume in terrace homes, or 50 cubic metres (1,766 cubic feet) for detached and semi-detached homes.

Don’t forget that headroom height will need to be at least 2.3m to be a habitable room – this is an important consideration when it comes to maintaining or creating additional value in your home.

Driveways?

Another Planning change affects pavings. No permission will be needed to lay a driveway over 5m long, as long as it is laid with porous material such as gravel, permeable concrete block of porous asphalt. Before we all rush off to hard-surface that side/front area of land please consider water drainage and whether planning permission would be needed to create an access onto a highway.

Miscellaneous – freed from the need for Planning Permission:-

• Solar Panels (roof mounted or free standing).
• Replacing or maintaining a garage.
• Fences, walls and gates (under 1m high by a road and 2m elsewhere).
• Porches with a floor area of less than 3 sq. m.