Think I've dropped a planning booboo.!need advice!

[and1c]

Ok, so I bought this house 6 years ago and it has always had a horrible half brick lean to porch on the side. So I decided to see if the neighbour minded if I demolished it and built something smarter and smaller. She didn't not surprisingly.
The old porch was concrete base, very poorly built and rotten. It also went to about a foot from her house wall and prevented me from getting round the side of my house due to a brick built coal house of hers that juts over the boundary.
so I demolished it, dug proper footings , and got a time served Brickie to put up a new all brick one, much thinner but a bit longer. total sq ft 3m ish..
I have done all roof etc (lean to pitched 3.6m total height) and everything is to current regs. I have photos also

Did I need planning permission ? Seeing as I was redoing an existing structure? my full survey never flagged up a lack of planning for the old porch !? I'm worried now that I might get the council planners knocking, is retro active permission attainable? The porch looks far better and matches the rest of the house superbly ..
Also, I omitted building regs thinking it was PD. (I now have read it must be two metres from
Boundary and it's only 1m at the closest point!

can anyone advise. Thanks

 

[big-all]

you must always comply with building regs without exception unless exempt generally as a temporary building only planning regs fully exempt in respect of permitted development
they are 2 separate requirements

has she commented or complained ??

 

[and1c]

Well I thought building regs wasn't needed for a porch unless it is over a main public sewer..?
No, the neighbour likes it as it makes both houses look much smarter. ! She was desperate for the old porch to be demolished as it looked such a mess! Is it possible to get building regs inspector (private one) halfway through the build? the roof is on but the inside is still bare and a BI could see a
Lot of the construction ?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

You don't need Building Regs provided you keep your front door in-situ.

You needed planning permission due to the 'within 2m of the boundary' criteria you mentioned. Once you knock something down it no longer exists so building something new is considered new development not repairing.

Really though its not worth worrying about IMO unless you're planning on selling soon. The worst you would get is some threatening letters if your council even took it that far, they would never be prepared to take it further unless your house was listed and the porch was any eyesore for instance. You could apply for retrospective planning consent if you really wanted to and you have the kind of mindset where you worry about these things. Then again they may just refuse ......

 

[and1c]

You don't need Building Regs provided you keep your front door in-situ.

You needed planning permission due to the 'within 2m of the boundary' criteria you mentioned. Once you knock something down it no longer exists so building something new is considered new development not repairing.

Really though its not worth worrying about IMO unless you're planning on selling soon. The worst you would get is some threatening letters if your council even took it that far, they would never be prepared to take it further unless your house was listed and the porch was any eyesore for instance. You could apply for retrospective planning consent if you really wanted to and you have the kind of mindset where you worry about these things. Then again they may just refuse ......

Thanks mate.
Herein lies the rub! I might want to sell the house late next year!
Additionally, I have since researched (like I should have before.,..) and it seems I do need building regs approval as it is pretty much directly over a public sewer (there's a drain cover at front and back of my property and this bridges it.

However , although i didn't know I needed BR permission when I built it, its done by the book, and each small end wall is built off concrete lintels going through the main house wall and resting onto the new 18" footings for the porch, thereby acting as a bridge over the clay pipe. The 3 metre long wall (which runs parallel to the house) is sat on the main footings and also runs parallel with the clay pipe.

Is it worth getting one of these private building regs inspectors out to see if he will sign it off before its fully built? even if I have to de build it a bit, its much easier with no door , floor etc

It seems like I could be digging myself into a hole doing that as I know they submit BR request document to council..

The other thing I thought of was that if I come to sell it and the solicitors are being awkward I could just pay the indemnity insurance for the other party which iirc is sub £100 in case they ever have problems due to no BR etc?? This is what my girlfriend had to do when she sold her last house and it had a few RSJs in from non BR load bearing wall removal!! (not by me I hasten to add)

Tricky choices as Ive already spent about £3k plus my time on it :/ Could prove costly I know :/ but its totally in keeping so I dont think council would moan too much planning wise

 

[big-all]

sorry i read it as a lean to building and a porch

 

[and1c]

sorry i read it as a lean to building and a porch

No!! Its a porch , attached to the side aspect of the house! The 'front' door (as it is the front entrance) is in place. Although I planned to put a radiator and have wiring in place from the new consumer unit that was fitted recently.Washing machine and dryer stacked on each other are the main reasons for the damn thing!! Not got enough room..

Decisions decisions.

 

[tony1851]

FMT; you mentioned the 2m distance, but isn't that to the footpath? If its a porch on the side of the house, wouldn't that be exempt (regardless of distance to boundary?)
Just wondering.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

tony, the 2m distance is to any boundary.

@ the OP, sorry didn't see your post with the drain part hidden in it. Is it definitely a public (shared) sewer? Or is just serving your own property? If shared then you really needed a
Build Over Agreement with your water company, this is basically permission to build over or near a shared drain. Its not quite as simple as just getting permission, it involves handing over some cash, they do a survey, give you a hint if they are likely to allow your proposals or not, fix any dodgy drains, sometimes homebuyers have to contribute to any fixes. You submit proposals for bridging any drains, they approve them (if acceptable) then you build. Building control oversee the works. Or that's the rough gist.

But you've not done any of that.

So if you got Building Control in now or a Private Inspector to keep the LA out of it for now, I'd expect them to ask you to get a Build Over Agreement sorted anyway, if you're a metre or two away from a build they can oversea and won't mind approving it but when you're so close I can't see them approving it. But you never know though.

Thing is, if there was a problem with the drain and the water company had to inspect and considered your build were to blame they'll be handing you the bill.

You could carry on and hope and indemnity would carry you through. Depends on the buyer, the survey if there is one and solicitor and how sharp they all are I would say.

 

[and1c]

tony, the 2m distance is to any boundary.

@ the OP, sorry didn't see your post with the drain part hidden in it. Is it definitely a public (shared) sewer? Or is just serving your own property? If shared then you really needed a
Build Over Agreement with your water company, this is basically permission to build over or near a shared drain. Its not quite as simple as just getting permission, it involves handing over some cash, they do a survey, give you a hint if they are likely to allow your proposals or not, fix any dodgy drains, sometimes homebuyers have to contribute to any fixes. You submit proposals for bridging any drains, they approve them (if acceptable) then you build. Building control oversee the works. Or that's the rough gist.

But you've not done any of that.

So if you got Building Control in now or a Private Inspector to keep the LA out of it for now, I'd expect them to ask you to get a Build Over Agreement sorted anyway, if you're a metre or two away from a build they can oversea and won't mind approving it but when you're so close I can't see them approving it. But you never know though.

Thing is, if there was a problem with the drain and the water company had to inspect and considered your build were to blame they'll be handing you the bill.

You could carry on and hope and indemnity would carry you through. Depends on the buyer, the survey if there is one and solicitor and how sharp they all are I would say.

Thanks for the detailed reply

Well, basically its a clay soil pipe that runs from my neighbours property , under the boundary wall, to a man hole cover on my path....under my porch!! and then straight along to another manhole at the front of the house, before it carries on and meets the main public sewer somewhere down the on the main road.

is this a private or public sewer? it would appear to be classes as private from a bit of research?!

She has in fact caused blockages/smells at the manhole cover at the back of the house - where my house and hers run in a T shape *from opposing sides* to the clay pipe that goes under the porch. (nasty smells in summer) and I've had the water company out once who have cleared her blockages... (paper..)
this I believe used the shared sewage fact which meant they would come and sort it. They just posted a card saying 'please dont put stupid things in your toilet@ or similiar.

they didnt say anything about the old porch being sat above it.

I think the indemnity is a very good option!! Rather than dig myself a whole world of trouble, possibly unnecesarily I think that may be the way to go.

As you say, is they don't have a full survey, its unlikely it will be noted, and if they do and solictor kicks up a stink, theres always the indemnity route I suppose!!

 

[tony1851]

tony, the 2m distance is to any boundary.

FMT; I might be missing something but I still can't see this. In condition (c) in the class D for porches, it says; "within 2m of any boundary (blah, blah) with a highway ." (p39 of the Guidance)

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

tony, the 2m distance is to any boundary.

FMT; I might be missing something but I still can't see this. In condition (c) in the class D for porches, it says; "within 2m of any boundary (blah, blah) with a highway ." (p39 of the Guidance)

Aye, agree that looks pretty clear, must chastise myself again!

 

[and1c]

tony, the 2m distance is to any boundary.

FMT; I might be missing something but I still can't see this. In condition (c) in the class D for porches, it says; "within 2m of any boundary (blah, blah) with a highway ." (p39 of the Guidance)

Aye, agree that looks pretty clear, must chastise myself again!

Thats good news then
thanks Tony1851

I am also 99% sure that the clay pipe Ive biult over is classes as a private sewer.... meaning my week just got a bit better! thanks again

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Its simple. A private sewer is a sewer that serves only your own property. Anything else is public.