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OTS of us live in lovely period properties, but doing them up can be stressful and more involved than you might think. Here’s how to go about it. Local councils sometimes remove (or partially remove) permitted development rights from houses (flats and maisonettes don’t have permitted development rights anyway), which can mean you need planning permission for most changes to the exterior.

This often happens in conservation areas – the council will be keen to preserve the historic look of the conservation area – but it does make renovating a property more complicated and time-consuming, as it usually takes eight weeks to get a decision from the council.

Getting planning permission can be tricky – you may think it’s safe to ask for a like-for-like replacement, but that’s not always the case.

I recently applied for planning permission to redo a roof in a conservation area and wanted to replace the leaking plastic guttering with new plastic guttering.

However, the council said that any replacement guttering would have to be cast iron (as it was an opportunity to improve the appearance of the conservation area), which would have greatly increased the cost and probably have been too heavy for the existing roof structure.

We also had rotten sash windows and, while double glazing was allowed, the council had rules about how many millimetres were allowed between the panes of glass, not something we had even considered, or something most people would notice.

Alterations to a listed building can be even more complicated and will usually require listed building consent from the local council, which is a similar process to applying for planning permission (you may need planning permission too).

The council’s conservation officers may insist you use traditional building materials and techniques (even in places that can’t be seen, such as under floors).

These are usually more expensive and specialised than standard ones – traditional lime plaster instead of conventional modern plaster, for example – and replacements will often have to be on a like-for-like basis.

This can have a knock-on effect when you come to decorate.

Specialist paints, such as distemper, that allow the walls to