Can you start without planning permission?

Ultimately it is your decision however, building without all the necessary approvals in place is very risky and potentially extremely costly. Even if we think your basement is likely to be permitted development there are never any guarantees, because ultimately it is your planning authority who makes the decision based on the final design.

For any construction work you will almost certainly require building regulations approval and structural engineering calculations. Any good builder will tell you they can’t quote let alone start work without these but sadly some less reputable builders might not be so forthcoming.

Starting work without these not only risks enforcement action from your planning authority but if the wrong materials are used if the design is not up to standard, worst case the build could be unsafe and best case costly retrospective repairs or a rebuild may be required.

There are never any guarantees with planning permission and in fact nobody can even guarantee that something will be permitted development. This is because ultimately the planning authority makes the legal determination, there could be hidden constraints and planning permission can be subjective.

For any basement we think would be considered permitted development, it is always strongly recommended that an application for a lawful development certificate is made. This is the only way to get a legal determination that what you want to build would be lawful and does not need planning permission. Of course, for a basement that does need planning permission, commencing work before getting planning permission approved would be a breach of planning law liable to potential enforcement action.

If you do receive an enforcement, you would be given 28 days to secure retrospective planning approval or put the property back to its original state. Unfortunately, retrospective planning applications are always a matter of urgency and are often more complicated. For this reason, they are usually more expensive than other planning applications.

In addition, as with any type of planning application there is never any guarantee of gaining planning approval. Once submitted the planning authority has 8 weeks to assess and reach a decision at which point, they will approve or reject the application.

If construction has not started and the planning authority requests minor design changes in order to approve the application, this is easily done. If construction has finished there is no option to amend the design so, the decision will only be based on what was built which may limit the likelihood of success.

On a daily basis we receive enquiries from clients who have received planning enforcements and either need to secure planning permission or demolish their development. 99% of enforcement cases are clients who were sure their development was permitted having either read some info online or been mis-advised by their builder.

Sometimes they could have been permitted with a few minor changes to the design. Sometimes they were permitted at the time of the build but the planning authority have subsequently imposed planning constraints removing their permitted development rights, meaning they now need retrospective planning permission. Finally, sometimes it was never going to be permitted development.

For these reasons it is always recommended that no work commences until all of the necessary planning and building regulations approvals are secured. Doing so would be at your own risk!

If you would like to find out whether you need planning permission for your basement or the likelihood of success before you start work on the project, contact us today to speak with one of our experts.

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