Arhictect / Legal / Builder advice required please

[levad]

Back in 2004 a planning application went in for a 2 bedroom house and 2, 1 bedroom apartments to be built in our road. The 1 bed apartments were built and finished and have had two or three differnet tennants come and go from them since.

Today, 7 years on, a builder was measuring up the land and said he was going to build the 2 bed house. Is the planning application still valid? All I can see in the conditions is that:-

"The development hereby permitted shall be begun before the expiration of five years from the date of this permission. REASON: The time condition is imposed in order to comply with the requirements of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. "

There has been no work done to start the development of the house, no land cleared, nothing marked out. Can the house still be built or are there grounds for refusal / (further) appeal. The original application was appealed by residents due to lack of parking and access issues but this was turned down.

Ta.

 

[Hacienda71]

It will depend if the consent was for the total development. If it was, then by completing part the development is considered to have been started and they can complete it in future. I have a feeling they should get a particular certificate from the local authority confirming this has happened but I can't remember the name of the top of my head. The time of commencing condition of the original pp has therefore been met.
If it was two separate applications then they may need to renew the consent for the house, giving you the ability to appeal.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

It should be fairly easy to confirm the situation with the planners. Just ask. If you have the original ref no so much the better.

 

[dellzeqq]

Back in 2004 a planning application went in for a 2 bedroom house and 2, 1 bedroom apartments to be built in our road. The 1 bed apartments were built and finished and have had two or three differnet tennants come and go from them since.

Today, 7 years on, a builder was measuring up the land and said he was going to build the 2 bed house. Is the planning application still valid? All I can see in the conditions is that:-

"The development hereby permitted shall be begun before the expiration of five years from the date of this permission. REASON: The time condition is imposed in order to comply with the requirements of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. "

There has been no work done to start the development of the house, no land cleared, nothing marked out. Can the house still be built or are there grounds for refusal / (further) appeal. The original application was appealed by residents due to lack of parking and access issues but this was turned down.

Ta.

H71 has hit the nail on the head. If it was one permission then he or she will probably have no difficulty. The only question is whether or not the house permitted can be constructed in accordance with the Building Regulations, which have been revised since 2004 - but, even then, I'd expect the Council to simply agree to a minor amendment through an exchange of letters.

It the two bedroom house was the subject of a seperate permission, then his or her position is slightly more complicated. A new application would be required. The chances of that new application being refused is slightly less than zero, although the conditions may be more stringent second time around, particularly with respect to sustainability. More complex applications that have S.106 agreements attached to them can sometimes run in to trouble as Councils get ever more ambitious with these agreements.

 

[Dewi]

Back in 2004 a planning application went in for a 2 bedroom house and 2, 1 bedroom apartments to be built in our road.

If single application then the development has commenced, end of discussion. There's some interesting details on what does and doesn't counts as starting a development but completing a building leaves no doubt.

Small developers can sometimes take several years to complete a site, this one must be going for a record.

If you want to object it might be worth seeing if there are any other conditions to the consent which may not have been discharged in full?

Building Regs are nothing to do with Planning.

 

[Over The Hill]

Sounds like a lose/lose situation.

If it is deemed to have started then you lose.

If it is not and he puts in for the same plans again he will certainly get it granted again (given that the objectors lost their appeal having gone as far as they could).

It would only be if a radical change in local policy has affected the land that it would hit problems.



I tend to think that every infill house saves a bit of countryside from greenfield development.