Flat conversion drawings in Bexley

Gardens, Green Belt and who lives where

Bexley is a borough of houses: 75.3 per cent of households live in one, and 68.6 per cent own their home. Domestic garden covers 25.1 per cent of the land, so the amenity-space test is usually met by splitting the garden, with a clear path to the rear for the upper flat.

The council area also holds green belt: polygons cover 17 per cent of it. Houses at the edge may be near open land, and we check whether a conversion needs any extension to work, because adding floor area near the Green Belt is judged differently from changing the layout inside.

London's wider rules apply too. The Plan asks for Min 5 m² private outdoor space for 1-2 person dwellings plus 1 m² per extra occupant, min 1.5 m deep and wide, and a floor-to-ceiling height of 2.5 m in London for most of each flat.

Application, fees and how Bexley decides

A conversion always needs permission: Use of a single dwellinghouse as two or more dwellings is a material change of use. Our planning drawings in Bexley carry the application, and the national fee is £610 for each dwelling.

Small schemes are decided as minor applications, and Bexley decided 238 in its latest year, granting 82.4 per cent and deciding 94.1 per cent in time. They are borough-wide numbers and not a prediction for your address.

The Article 4 direction on shared homes applies in Bexley, so a scheme that is closer to a shared house than a pair of flats needs a different route.

Drawing the three practical tests

The corridor test is geometric, so we draw it. Every route from a front door to a bedroom and from the stair to the street is dimensioned on the plan. A semi-detached house often has a narrow hall that passes the test for a single family and fails it when two sets of doors have to open into it, so the dimension is worth checking before the layout is chosen.

The entrance test is about independence. Each flat must have a lockable front door that opens into a self-contained space, and a shared hall that gives access to two doors is acceptable only when each flat is complete behind its own door. We show door swings, letterboxes and meter cupboards, which officers look at more than owners expect.

The amenity test is about the garden. Where it can be divided we draw a fence line, a gate and a path, and give the ground-floor flat the larger share. Where it cannot, because the plot is short or awkward, the guidance allows a communal garden, and we draw seating, a washing line and a bin area so the space is plainly usable.

Bexley granted 94.6 per cent of its 877 householder applications and decided 99.4 per cent in time. Those are extension figures and not conversions, but they show a council that is organised about timetables, and clear drawings keep a conversion inside them.

Levies, sound and the work after consent

Bexley charges CIL at £40/m² (Zone 1); £60/m² (Zone 2), plus indexation depending on the zone, and the usual small-build exemption is lost because The under-100 m² CIL exemption does not apply where a new dwelling is created. The Mayoral charge is band 3 at £30.3 per square metre, indexed.

Sound is next. Approved Document E sets the targets for conversions: Separating walls 43 dB DnT,w+Ctr (min); floors and stairs 43 dB airborne (min), 64 dB L'nT,w impact (max) for dwellings formed by material change of use. The building regulations drawings in Bexley show the floor and wall build-ups that achieve them.

Price and related pages

Flat conversion drawings for two flats start at £1,195, VAT included, with free redraws after council comments and no promise of a result. See architectural drawings in Bexley for every service we offer in the borough, or flat conversion drawings in Westminster for a very different setting.