Lawful Development Certificate in Kensington and Chelsea

Where a certificate does help in the borough

It helps the owner of a whole house outside the directions, where the project is modest and the proof matters for a sale. A rear addition within the standard limits, an outbuilding in the garden or a roof alteration that stays on the right side of the Order can all be confirmed. The single-storey rear limit is: 3 m (attached) / 4 m (detached) beyond the original rear wall, single storey.

It also helps a different kind of owner: the one whose lower-ground floor, rear lightwell or subdivided flat was altered years ago without paperwork. A certificate of existing use or development records what is already there as lawful, based on dated evidence such as council tax records, utility bills and photographs. We organise that file for you.

A basement is a different subject. The borough's Basements SPD sets its own demanding tests, and that work is outside what we draw on this site.

Mews houses and garden-square properties need particular care, because plot depth is shallow and neighbours are close. We show every boundary distance on the block plan, so the eaves and height tests can be read straight from the sheet, and we photograph the party walls so the baseline cannot be disputed later.

Evidence an existing-use certificate needs

For work already built, the burden of proof sits with you. The officer wants dated, independent records: council tax and electoral entries, tenancy agreements, utility accounts, estate agent particulars, aerial imagery and photographs with a traceable date. One document rarely settles it, so we line several up on a timeline and note the gaps.

We also draw the building as it stands, with the floor areas and the layout of the part in question, so the officer can match the paperwork to a physical space. Where the evidence is thin we say so plainly, and we may suggest a retrospective planning application as the safer course, since that route does not depend on proving the passage of time.

How the borough decides

Kensington and Chelsea granted 94.3 per cent of its decided householder applications and handled 95.6 per cent in time. The adopted plan is the Local Plan 2024 (New Local Plan Review), adopted in 2,024. A certificate is not weighed against it, but when the Order does not reach your project the plan becomes the test, and a planning application in Kensington and Chelsea takes over.

Given the odds, we do not recommend a certificate where the answer is likely to be refusal. We would rather say so by the end of the first call, with the specific direction or designation that blocks it, and move straight to the application that fits.

Set, fee and period

A set contains a location plan, block plan, floor plans, elevations and a section, checked by a second technologist before you see it. The council's fee is separate: Half the normal planning fee (householder: £274). The statutory period is 8 weeks. If the answer is no we weigh a redraw, a planning route or a planning appeal with you.

Allow for the council to ask questions. Officers can seek a clarified boundary or a sharper photograph, and a fast, complete reply keeps the file moving. Once a certificate is in hand, the same survey supports your building regulations drawings without a second visit.