Phone the Town Hall
Fact! So many people make the mistake of going to an architect and asking him to draw up plans and put them through planning. ¬†What can happen is, you have an idea of the way you’d like things to look, the architect will point out what he thinks might not work ¬†and make a few changes for your approval.¬† Every planning application is different and he can not possible no what the planning officer is thinking. You pay the architect then you pay the planning department around ¬£350.00 to put you’re application through (that’s not a bribe by the way you have to pay an admin fee) and it gets rejected. You then go back to the architect pay him more money for the changes that have to be made, pay the planning department to put it through again, bearing in mind each application takes eight to twelve weeks to go through, it gets a little frustrating.
Before you hand over any money to anyone call your local town hall and arrange to see a planning officer for an informal chat with regard to the property you’re thinking of purchasing and what you have in mind.
“I would like you’re advice” – they like that.
Don’t be put off by making this request, it’s all part of their job and it happens all the time.
They will not tell you what to do, but they will give you a idea if it will get through planning or not.
They may throw up something you don’t know about the property or the surrounding area and save you a lot of money.
Whatever the outcome yes or no, it will be good experience and it won’t cost a penny.
How we went on, in the next few posts…
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