Retrospective planning application in Haringey

Conservation areas and Article 4 directions

Haringey publishes 33 named conservation areas and 25 Article 4 directions, mapped as 25 areas. Inside either, work that looked like permitted development when it was built may never have been lawful at all, and that is a common reason owners end up here.

The borough also has 289 Historic England list entries, of which 258 are Grade II. If your house or its curtilage is listed, planning permission is only part of the problem, because listed building consent is a separate matter that we flag during the free constraints check.

Knowing which designation applies decides the whole shape of the application, so it is the first thing we map for your address.

How Haringey has been deciding householder cases

The council decided 689 householder applications in its latest published year and granted 90.3 per cent, with 94.3 per cent decided inside 8 weeks or an agreed extension. Those are borough-wide figures for every householder project, not a forecast for yours.

Houses are the minority here: only 38.9 per cent of households live in a house or bungalow, so many retrospective cases involve converted flats, maisonettes and shared gardens where neighbours are close. We pay particular attention to the daylight and outlook of the adjoining flat, because that is where objections tend to come from.

Haringey also handled 396 lawful development certificate applications in the period, which shows how many owners test the permitted development route. If your work might in fact have been lawful, a lawful development certificate in Haringey may be the better first move.

Time limits, the fee and what follows

The enforcement clock for most unauthorised building works is now 10 years from substantial completion, so work finished several years ago is not automatically safe. The householder application fee is £548 and the council has 8 weeks to decide a non-major case.

If the council refuses, you have 12 weeks from the decision notice to appeal a householder case, and our planning appeals support in Haringey covers that step. Floorspace you added may also carry community infrastructure levy; the borough schedule gives £443.52/m² (Western zone); £276.16/m² (Central zone); £60.24/m² (Eastern zone), depending on zone.

One national policy line is worth knowing: Evidence that unauthorised development was intentional should be given substantial weight. An honest account of how the work came about is therefore part of the submission.

Evidence worth gathering before the survey

Start with dates. The council will want to know when the extension was finished, and a dated builder invoice, a bank transfer or a photograph with a visible timestamp settles the question faster than memory. If a previous owner built it, the sale particulars and the seller's information form often carry the clue.

Next, collect any earlier permissions for the property. Haringey keeps an online register, and a neighbour's consent for a similar extension next door can become a useful precedent that we cite on the drawings. Finally, tell us about any letter from the council. A notice changes the order of work, and we would rather know on the first call than discover it halfway through.

Drawings, price and related services

A retrospective set normally contains a measured survey of the building as built, existing and proposed plans, elevations, a section and the location and block plans. Our planning drawings in Haringey follow the same standard, and a second chartered technologist checks every sheet before it is issued.

Pricing is a fixed quote after the free constraints check, because the work to record varies from a shed to a full rear addition. For the wider picture, see architectural drawings in Haringey and the retrospective planning service overview. Neighbouring boroughs are covered too, including Hackney and Enfield.