nelly

Thanks Alan, on what grounds? Case law favours the LA from any examples I can see.

Quick update, the local authority would not back down and rather then have this hanging over us we decided to submit the retrospective application and will have to cough up the CIL.

Sounds like a positive outcome. I assume you did not have the issue of CIL in your area. We are in a situation as posted elsewhere where we ended up having to demolish more of the property then the original application said we would and now enforcement have requested a new build application. However that would attract a huge CIL charge of over 52k which there is no exemption for if the works have started. However after tearing my hair out over this matter and speaking to some planning consultants it appears that councils will generally only enforce on matters that would not get planning. As our property already has planning they are unlikely to enforce. Instead they are more likely as per there letter as one of their option write a note in the land charges stating that the development is unauthorised which would be an issue for lending/selling. As no selling/remortgaging is taking place this would be far more manageable and then after 10 years we would apply for a certificate of lawfulness. Hopefully this will end up with the note deleted.

no worries. I am trying to understand if they will consider that its not expedient to enforce on a house built to plans where it was a safety consideration to remove the wall i.e there was no gain to doing what we did. As the original PP did not include demo I assume it becomes invalid but whether they enforce on it is what I am trying to understand. Hopefully they agree that its not expedient to enforce.

hi it was built in accordance with the granted householder planning permission i.e. different to the original house.

Do you have a link to this?

"Now you have left your neighbour with a potentially un supported party wall. That party wall may have a chimney breast. If you are end terrace then your house (and the roof) may have been butressing the rest of the houses in the middle.. I could make a bit of hay with that as an SE." The party wall surveyor ensured it was supported and protected. The builder put so much manpower behind the build that shell was completely built within 2 weeks of that wall coming down

All these points are so helpful. Merry xmas. Updates to follow asap. "Did you leave the existing founds and masonry below ground?" Yes I believe so but I will ask this to the builder to be sure but what he told me was "no new foundation was built" A local developer seems to be reasonably sure that this will not warrant enforcement but I will not be resting on my laurels till this has been resolved!

hi, no we do not have all new foundations, the front wall foundations remain and where the front door has been moved and pushed back the foundations put in place. I believe this 70s built house already had deep foundations. I am due to speak to a planning consultant today and I think our hope will be not to get the LA not to enforce on the basis that its not in the public interest to do so. I will update on this forum as to what actually happens.

hi, All great points. Will try the structural engineer to. Everything's a bit more difficult with xmas coming up as people are away etc. Given the shell of the building is up and does not actually deviate from the plans logically I am just wondering what they actually have to enforce on apart from the fact they were not happy that a wall was rebuilt (same foundations but different window/door positions), is the principal of enforcement to ensure that there has been no detriment to the public. I spoke to a planning consultant briefly who is not taking on any new cases but he has put me in touch with someone else that we can work with so I will contact them tomorrow but his initial advice was do not accept the councils position by submitting a new application but I would need to follow this up with who ever we end up working with. It does not seem like a good use of tax payers money to pursue this.

Building control who has been hired by the builder on behalf of my friend have verbally verified that the wall was unsafe and had to come down. They are part of a neighbouring councils building control but are allowed to sign off for projects within neighbouring consortium areas. I am not sure if this strengthens our case but it cannot hurt for an email from building control to be sent to the enforcement officer. If anyone has any knowledge on this please do comment.

hi, would have to understand all this with the builders. I wanted to understand if we are forced to submit a new build application but the property only is up to the standard of an extension then what would be the implications of that?

sorry - yes great news for you and your family and appreciate the advice

hi, thanks a lot that is exactly the sort of person we will need I think. If you are able to divulge a little more info about your case that would be great but if not no issues.

hi, it would cost more to undo the house then the cil charge as the structure has just completed today. the Site will be closed now for xmas but appreciate the efforts made to come with a solution!