Are you selling a house that requires planning permission or doesn’t have council approval? The chances are you should not expect to sell your home quickly. If you are trying to sell it without planning permission, you may not have realised it is un-mortgageable and unlikely to attract buyers on the housing market.
Why? Because if you have made any alterations to your property without permission, it’s illegal. Does that mean you can’t sell your home? Not quite.
First, let’s cover some basics.
What Work Requires Planning Permission?
Depending on how long you have lived in your house, it is reasonable to assume you have made some changes to it over the years. If any of those changes involve the actual structure of the property, such as the addition of an extra living room or sunroom conservatory or loft conversion, you need to get local council approval for most of these alterations.
How Do You Determine if Planning Permission is Required?
Most of the alterations noted could be categorised as PD or permitted development. PD is a term used to describe works planning permission should technically be required but that permission is considered to be granted in line with a general PD order. In these scenarios, no written consent or planning permission application needs to be requested and accepted.
The problem is the rules around the subject of permitted development are quite particular and if you have made extensive improvements to your property you may have breached them.
Understanding the Rules of Permitted Development
The problem is the rules around the subject of permitted development are quite particular and if you have made extensive improvements to your property you may have breached them.
For example, you are allowed an extension to the rear or side of your property, as long as it is less than 15% of the original property size. If the property is part of a terrace, however, it needs to be 10% of the original property volume.
Planning permission is required, however, if the extension has a greater volume than the original property of 115 cubic metres, is higher than the roof height of your property or covers more than 50% of the garden.
Furthermore, if you have already had an extension built that increased the size of your property by around 5%, for instance, you would need to obtain planning permission to add more to it.
Simply put, it is generally considered the responsibility of whoever is carrying out the work to ensure it complies fully with local regulations.
What Can You Do If You Are Selling Your Home Without Planning Permission?
If you are trying to sell your house without planning permission, there are several options open to you.
Get Planning Permission Approved
The most straight forward option would be to correct the issue by obtaining planning permission or getting the appropriate council approval before you put your home on the market or sell it.
The downside is the regularisation process is unusable on work completed before October 1985.
It can also be a bit of a double-edged sword as the process can be more expensive and complex.
Council Approval can be Expensive to Obtain
As approved inspectors do not have authority to undertake work involving the approval of alterations already completed, the council will charge for their services. Not only that, but the charges will be higher than if you had got permission at the proper time.
A regularisation application is the only way you can find out if your work was non-compliant or compliant.
In the very worst-case scenario possible, it may be the council requests you restore your building to its original condition, which could cost thousands and take many months. Not to mention the fact it could decrease the value of the property.
What Are the Alternatives? What Should You Do Next?
If you are looking to sell your property and have made alterations to it, potentially without planning permission, but the other options are not viable, your only option is to choose a cash buyer firm like The Homes Buyer. We will buy any property, even one without planning permission for work completed on it.
That way, you get peace of mind that you can get cash from the sale of your house and do not need to worry about dealing with planning permission and the local council.
