The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Money
Home extension refused? Here’s how to appeal it – and win
More than 30,000 planning applications are turned down every year. But overturning council decisions is not as hard as you may think. Martin Gaine explains
Home extensions are a peculiarly British obsession. In other countries, when people need more space, they move. Here we stay put and get the builders in, sometimes dramatically increasing the size of our homes. But first you must get past the planners, and that is not always as straightforward as homeowners hope and expect.
All but the most modest changes to a house need full planning permission and, although 88pc of householders’ applications in England are approved each year, that still leaves more than 30,000 families suffering the disappointment of a refusal. When I worked as a council planner I was always surprised how many people whose applications were rejected just gave up on their plans entirely.
When Jamie Wadman and his wife, Jennifer, were refused permission for extensions to the dilapidated 1980s bungalow they had just bought in Brighton, they had no intention of giving up. As a builder himself (he runs Stylo Renovations), Mr Wadman had a good idea of what kinds of extension were possible. “We just knew that the decision was wrong – most of our neighbours had built the same kind of thing,” he said. “But we also had no choice but to fight – we bought the bungalow purely on the basis that we could extend it; without the extension the house just wouldn’t work for us.”
They appealed against the council’s decision to the planning inspectorate, a central government body that is independent of local authorities and has the power to overturn planning refusals. The appeal was free, it was decided on the basis of written arguments and it took just three months. The couple were delighted when it was successful and planning permission was granted; they have recently moved into their new home.