Advice for householders
Some alterations to your home such as:
- Extensions
- Dormers / roof alterations
- Outbuildings
- Hard surfaces / decking
- And some other specified works
might not require planning permission and could be carried out as a permitted development, if they satisfy certain limits and conditions.
To find out more please use the planning portal guides
Free enquiry service
You can use our pre-application enquiry service to find out if your proposed alteration would be a permitted development or need planning permission.
To use the service download and complete the Householder planning enquiry form[pdf - 142kb].
Please make sure you answer all of the questions and provide a sketch of your proposed alteration, including measurements in metric. An example sketch is shown on the form.
Benefits of using the service
- We aim to send a written reply within 28 days.
- We will advise if your proposal is a permitted development or needs planning permission.
- We will usually include advice from Building Control about whether or not your proposal needs building regulation approval.
- Our reply can also be useful when selling your property.
Properties that do not have permitted development rights
Flats, including 'Tyneside flats', do not have the same rights as houses.
The council also has the power to withdraw permitted development rights and there are two types of situation where this may happen:
- Where the character of an area, such as a conservation area, would be threatened by permitted developments, the council can issue an 'Article 4 direction'. These affect a number of properties in the Westoe, Whitburn, East Boldon and West Boldon conservation areas.
- On modern housing estates where extensions or alterations could have an adverse impact on neighbours, the council may have removed permitted development rights when the estate was granted planning permission.
If you think your home might fall into either of these categories, please call us. We may be able to tell you straight away if this is the case.
Other consent you might need
Even if you do not need planning permission or building regulation approval you might need some other form of consent from the council. This might include:
- Listed building consent - you will need this if you want to extend or alter a listed building in a manner that would affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest, or to demolish a listed building. Special rules also apply to buildings and structures within the grounds of a listed building and to gates, fences, walls and other enclosures surrounding a listed building.
- Conservation area consent - special rules apply to the demolition of certain buildings and walls in conservation areas.
- Trees - many trees are protected by Tree Preservation Orders. Trees in conservation areas are also protected.
We aim to provide information if any of these consents would be needed when dealing with your enquiry.
Below are examples of other types of private interests that you may need to deal with before you start work:
- A release of a covenant, which may be included in your properties deeds.
- Permission from any relevant land owner, this may even include something as simple as eaves and guttering overhanging a boundary.
- Complying with the needs of the Party Wall Act.
Free enquiry service limitations
Please note that we are unable to provide advice about the potential acceptability of a proposal if it needs planning permission, or how to amend a proposal to make it permitted development when you use this service.
If you are interested in what may be relevant to the assessment of a planning application we recommend you look at SPD9: Householder Developments (December 2010)[pdf - 4Mb].
All requests are potentially subject to disclosure in response to Freedom of Information or Environmental Information Regulations requests. Confidentiality cannot therefore be guaranteed when using the service.
This service does not provide planning advice about working from home, but you can find more about this at Planning Portal: Working from home.
