Lawful Development Certificate in Camden

Flats, terraces and the allowance you actually have

If your home is a flat in a converted building the position is stark: Householder permitted development (Sch 2 Part 1) does not apply to flats or buildings containing flats. The householder route is then closed, and we say so in the first reply.

For a house, the type matters. A loft in a terrace has the smaller allowance: 40 m³ (terrace house) / 50 m³ (any other house) additional roof volume. A rear extension is limited by depth: 3 m (attached) / 4 m (detached) beyond the original rear wall, single storey.

Where a plot is tight, eaves height near the boundary often decides the design: Eaves no higher than 3 m where within 2 m of the curtilage boundary.

Timing against Camden's record

Camden recorded 137 certificate applications in its latest return. On its householder planning applications it decided 394 cases in the latest year and granted 89.1 per cent, but only 77.7 per cent were decided within eight weeks or an agreed extension.

The certificate has its own period of 8 weeks, but the in-time figure is a sensible warning. If a builder is waiting, we advise you to build slack into the programme. We do not promise a decision date, because the council controls it.

When a certificate is not the right tool

If a conservation area or direction removes the right you need, the route is a householder application. Our planning drawings in Camden are drawn for that. A basement adds its own test, and Camden publishes a basements guidance document, so see basement impact assessments in Camden for that work.

If your project is already built, retrospective planning in Camden is the way to regularise it. For a loft in particular, our loft conversion drawings in Camden page shows how the borough's own rules shape the design.

Surveying a tight Camden plot

On a narrow Camden plot the boundary is close to the work. That puts the eaves rule and the half-width side limit at the centre of the design, so we survey the boundary position as carefully as the house.

We measure the house, the garden and every existing addition on one datum, and mark which parts are original. The allowances in the Order are counted from the original house, and a previous extension may already have taken some of them.

For a two-storey rear addition the test is stricter: Over one storey: max 3 m beyond the original rear wall and not within 7 m of the rear boundary. In a narrow garden that distance is often the limit that decides the project.

The council also publishes its Design CPG (Camden Planning Guidance) and Amenity CPG (Camden Planning Guidance). They guide an application, not a certificate, but we keep your drawings ready for either route in case the right you need is withdrawn.

Fee, drawings and who checks them

The council's fee for a proposed-use certificate is: Half the normal planning fee (householder: £274). It is paid to Camden. Our own price is fixed up front and includes a check by a second chartered technologist.

The set has a location plan, block plan, floor plans, elevations and sections to scale, with every figure the Order tests marked on the sheet.

For the borough overview see architectural drawings in Camden. Neighbouring councils are Islington and Westminster. The national rules are on the Lawful Development Certificate page.