Garage conversion plans in Kensington and Chelsea

How the council decides

Kensington and Chelsea decided 664 householder applications in its latest published year, granted 93.7 per cent and met the statutory deadline for 91.9 per cent. The grant rate is high, but about one decision in twelve misses the deadline, so plan for a thorough officer and a decision that may run past the target date.

A high grant rate in a heavily protected borough says the schemes reaching officers have been shaped to the street before submission. It is a fair guide to the quality of drawings expected, and a poor guide to how any one garage will fare.

Route: certificate, application or neither

Where a garage sits outside every direction, is not listed and keeps its existing door appearance, the conversion may need no permission. The council's statistical returns list only 25 certificate applications in the latest year, so local precedent is thin and a written position is worth having: see Lawful Development Certificate in Kensington and Chelsea.

If the building is listed or within the curtilage of a listed house, listed building consent is needed as well, and we prepare that application with the drawings. For everything else needing permission, the council's fee is £548 and the sheets are as in our planning drawings in Kensington and Chelsea.

The value of the space

A flat in the borough averages £971,688 and a terraced house £2,429,086, and only 17 per cent of households live in a house. A garage that becomes a study, gym, guest suite or flat is therefore valuable space, and it is worth drawing precisely. The model we make in three dimensions is used by many clients to brief an interior designer before work starts.

Our building regulations drawings in Kensington and Chelsea cover insulation, ventilation and escape, and the tighter fire strategy that applies when the room is next to a protected stair. Where a conversion puts a new bedroom at the back of a deep plan, the escape route is often the real design problem.

Mews garages also come with neighbours who can see in. We show window positions against the facing buildings, set glazing back from the line of the old doors where the elevation allows, and indicate any obscured panes, so the officer sees the privacy answer on the elevation itself, and we keep the door-line detail faithful to the original joinery so the conservation team recognises what it is being asked to approve. Where a garage forms part of a larger house, the sheets mark the line between conversion and main dwelling, which helps the later sale or the lender's valuer.

Fixed price, checked sheets, next steps

£695, VAT included and agreed before we begin. A second chartered technologist reviews each sheet, and we redraw at no charge if the council asks for changes. Drawings follow the survey by about a week. Because so many garages here are shared with neighbours or owned under a lease, we ask early for the title plan and any covenant on alterations, since a landlord's consent is often needed before the council's decision matters at all.

Read architectural drawings in Kensington and Chelsea for the borough overview, and look at Westminster and Hammersmith and Fulham next door.