The councils require you to get permission from them when you are changing anything in your property that has a visual affect. You don’t have to pay anything to anyone in order for your plans to be approved. But the services you use in order to prepare your application will cost you.

The law requires you to obtain approval from the local authority to make any constructional changes to your property; this includes adding or removing walls, doors windows, rooms, fences, gates, loft extension, rear extension for kitchens, conservatory etc. its good practise to inform your local authority or consult with the planning department detailing your proposal of works before you invest any money in construction.

There are different types of applications that cover different proposals. For example; if you are intending to convert your existing loft in to a bedroom; you may need to submit an application for Certificate of Lawfulness, but if you intend to change the shape of your roof (dormer loft, hip to gable or a mansard conversion); you may need to make a Full Planning Application.

If you are extending your house at the rear within the limits of permitted development; you may not be required to make a planning application as it’s already permitted, the council may ask you to submit a form/statement and some drawings to let them know of the developments.

Anything you do; you will need a set of drawings of your property.

Without a well informative, scaled and technically detailed set of Plan Drawings; most likely; your application will be returned to you stating that “it is invalid” they will ask you to submit drawings produced by professionals communicating the design in order for it to enable them to assess your application.

This is when you hire our service; our qualified surveyors will meet you at your convenient time to survey the property which usually takes less than 2 hours.

Within 3 working days of the survey; we will create the presentable architectural drawings of your house, complete the appropriate application form, Edit and produce a photo evidence document, produce a statement justifying the proposal, acquire OS maps of your property and put together a Project File for you. Please see the “Get your planning permission” page for more details

Once the Planning Application is approved, or you received the Certificate of Lawfulness or the council have been informed of your permitted development intension; you may wish to proceed with arranging meetings with your builders.

Before the builders start working on your project; you will need to apply for a building controls certificate. This is the law and your building will be unlawful without this certification from the local authority or any other building control officer from council approved organisations confirming that the building or the transformation process has complied with the UK regulations.

To have this completed by the council; you will need to submit a Building Control application form with the full set of Existing and Proposed drawings, material specification list, installation diagrams illustrating the technical specification of the material to verify that it meets the UK building regulations.

This is when you contact us again, if you decided to hire a different architectural firm for Building Control service; they will charge you a lot more in comparison to us as we would already have the plan drawings of your property in our files and therefore; we will not require another survey in your property.

We will create an application on your behalf which will consist of the drawings, technical information about the UK regulation compliance, the completed application form etc. please see the “Get your Building Controls Certificate” page for more details.

This will take us up to 2 working days to complete and have it ready for you to submit.

There is no waiting time for approvals from the council; you are free to start building 48 hours after the submission.

The building control officer will contact you to arrange visits to check the work and to ensure that the builders are following what has been stated on the application.

During specific progressions of the construction; the building inspector will need to be contacted to attend the site and sign off the compliance check list. We would like to be there too, just to support you and assist in the checking process.

Once the checklist is ticked; the building officer will sign off the entire transformation and issue a Certificate of Building Regulations.