Retrospective planning applications in Enfield

Article 4 and the front of the house

Enfield applies Article 4 directions across 33 areas, which remove permitted development rights for specified changes. Typical examples are alterations to front elevations, roofs facing the highway and boundary walls. If a builder changed a window pattern or replaced a front wall in such an area without permission, that is a case for a retrospective application.

We also look at outbuildings in rear gardens, which are common in the borough. A garden room used as an office is ancillary; one with a bathroom and a bed starts to look like a dwelling, and the application has to describe what is actually there.

The borough also has 24 conservation areas and 301 listed building entries. We check the address against the council constraints map before quoting.

What the figures say about householder work

The council decided 934 householder applications in its latest year, granted 83.4 per cent and decided 92.4 per cent in time. Minor applications were granted at 71.6 per cent. These are figures for ordinary cases and tell you nothing about a retrospective one, but they show an active householder service.

A retrospective case is often decided by how fully the file explains the history. We include a dated timeline of when the work was done, using invoices and photographs, so that an officer does not have to guess.

The council also recorded 636 certificates of lawfulness, and owners with older works should consider them. The time limit for most building works is 10 years, and a lawful development certificate in Enfield is the right tool once it has passed.

The council's planning search lets anyone see earlier applications on a property. We read that record before we quote, because a condition attached to an old permission can matter more than anything else on the page.

Prior approvals in Enfield

For larger rear extensions the council granted 35 prior approvals and refused 27 in the government return, a closer split than in many boroughs. If you built under a prior approval, check whether the extension matches the approved depth and height. A small difference can take the work outside the approval.

An honest account of how the extension came about matters too. National policy gives weight to deliberate breaches, and a clear explanation that the owner relied on a builder's advice is better than silence.

Our prior approval drawings in Enfield help with new notifications, and a retrospective case starts from the measured extension.

Fee, timing and delivery

The householder fee is £548, the council has 8 weeks to decide, and a refusal can be appealed within 12 weeks.

We provide the survey, as-built drawings, a statement on the Green Belt and design questions and the submission, checked by a second MCIAT chartered architectural technologist. The Enfield hub lists all our services there, and the retrospective planning hub explains the law that applies everywhere.

Send us the address, the dates of the work and any letters from the council. If the council has already written to you about the building, tell us at once, because a notice changes the order in which things should happen.