Oversized building construction

[Atomic12C]

Do any of you legal eagles have knowledge on planning law regarding how accurate a new property should be built regarding dimensions submitted to the planning application ?

For example, if a new house is stated on the planning application to be 5m high, ....when construction takes place, does this house HAVE TO BE no more than 5m high, or are there 'reasonable tolerances' under planning law?
eg. could the new house be built to 5.5m high with 'reasonable' excuses given for why it 'had to be like that' ?

[Atomic12C]

Equus said:

There are tolerances, but whether the 'as built' dimensions are acceptable or not would ultimately be a matter for the judgement of the courts.

In the first instance, you should report any concern to the Local Planning Authority, who have an obligation to act upon it and investigate.

If they believe there has been a breach of the planning permission, they will take enforcement action, but the first step would simply be to tell the owner that they have to submit an application to regularise the consent.

Depending on whether the deviation is considered to be 'material' or not (ie. whether it might have made a difference to whether the application had been approved, or not) this would take the form of a 'Section 96A non-material amendment', a 'Section 73 Minor Material Amendment' or, for major deviations from the approved plans, a full new Planning application might be required.

Thanks for the reply.

To describe the situation a little better.
There is a new property to be built not too far from mine that although is in a dip in the land, the roof line is likely to be visible.
The planning app made mention of the roof heights and we had no objection to that - as it would likely not impact us to any noticeable effect to our property or the existing rural landscape.

But when tolerances come in to play, and if the builder is willing to ignore the planning app roof height and builds a larger property, I am left thinking how high could they build it?

Do you have a figure for what is a reasonable tolerance in planning law?
(Is it a simple percentage figure or is it a defined length/height?)

[Atomic12C]

joshcowin said:

Why would the contractor build it higher than planned? What would be the advantage?

To expand a little, I live near York and properties are going up all over the place, but this one located not too far from me is in a dip in the land, and as such is more or less out of the way from everything.

It should have little impact if its built as per the planning application plans, which although we were invited to comment, we did not object. Instead we placed a concern over the roof heights due to the fact that IF they were to be built higher OR a later amendment to the plans was submitted that the building would then impact on the surroundings.


As the new build is being done by the guy who entered the planning app, he (and I assume a few of his mates) will be 'in control' of the levels and heights as they build it themselves.
It would not surprise me however if the house is built above its stated height in order that the bedroom windows in the roof are able to see over the rise in the land. But as mentioned if this were to happen then the building would impact the surroundings.