A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing
December 30, 2020by Eve PardoeUncategorized
(also file under: don’t believe everything you read on the internet and the problem with loopholes is that you can hang yourself with them).
Garden room ‘home offices’ are flavour of the month at the moment, with still no end seemingly in sight for Covid lockdown measures.
Almost every manufacturer of off-the-shelf garden rooms will tell you that their designs are compliant with Permitted Development rules, and that you don’t need permission for them.
There are ALL SORTS of potential trip hazards, here, not least that there are confusing differences between the exemptions for Planning and those for Building Regulations, but we’ve just had an example drawn to our attention of another one that often gets missed.
The question was how you measure the heights of such buildings and in THIS CASE (hyperlink to: https://logcabins.co.uk/how-to-measure-the-height-of-a-log-cabin/) the manufacturer is quite right in that the rules say that on sloping ground you’re allowed to measure from the highest pre-existing ground level immediately adjacent to the building.
What they’ve failed to spot is that there is a separate, quite clear rule saying that no outbuilding – no matter what overall height – is acceptable as ‘Permitted Development’ where it would ‘include the construction or provision of a verandah, balcony or raised platform”.
Don’t take anything you’re told by manufacturers and suppliers of these buildings as Gospel truth and before spending £thousands on such a builing, we’d urge you to talk to us about checking your precise circumstances and requirements, and obtaining a ‘Certificate of Lawfulness’ if necessary, to avoid problems further down the line.