What does 'Planning Consent' mean when buying a property?
Find out what Planning Consent means when you are buying a property. 'What does Planning Consent mean?' plus over 150 other property related terms and jargon in plain English
Planning Consent
The Town and Country Planning Act 1947 requires that properties built after this time require consent from the local authority. Properties that have substantial changes made to them also require planning consent - in other words a house converted into apartments in 1970 would need planning consent as would a house that adds a large extension.
It is important to note that some small extensions in certain areas do not require planning consent - check with the local authority for exact details in your area.
If you want to find out if the property you are buying has got planning consent the files are freely available at walk in centres operated by the local council. Some also have on-line databases accessible over the internet.
If you want to check that a change to a property (such as an extension) as got planning permission then:
- Check with the local authority if the change needed planning consent - a surprising number of alternations don't.
- If the change should have had planning consent the local authority often has walk in services where you can check and many also offer the service online.
Planning Consent or Planning Permission
These mean the same thing and are used interchangeably depending on the sentence. For example:
- "We got planning consent to build the extension".
- "We have planning permission to build the extension".
Planning consent is also often referred to as Planning Permission.
To learn more about what you should look for when purchasing a property pick up a copy of my ebook How to Really Buy a Property.