Planning permission to replace a conservatory built against the wall of a first floor flat, which is more than 20 years old.

[Pilar Perez]

Hello, we are considering making an offer for a flat in the second floor of an Edwardian house that has been split into two flats, one in the first floor and one in the second. The back garden has been divided longitudinally and one half belongs to each of the flats. The second floor flat has access to its part of the back garden via a stair that starts in a structure that I can best describe as a raised conservatory supported by legs. Looking at this "conservatory" I believe it may have initially been a balcony that was added to the house using support legs to allow access to the garden from the second floor. The door of the second floor kitchen opens to this balcony, and the balcony has stairs going down to the garden. The structure built on top of the balcony seems a bit like a second thought, like someone decided to make use of the balcony space turning it into a conservatory and built one there. The whole structure is made out of wood and is more than 20 years old. 

If we buy the flat, we would like to replace this whole structure with one that is properly built. I understand that to do this we would need planning permission, because the property the conservatory belongs to is a flat. My problem is that being such a strange structure, I am afraid we may not get the planning permission. Could the council see that the existing structure is unlawful (I honestly doubt it has a building regulations aproval) and therefore treat it like it does not exist, judge the planning permission that we present as a completely new project and deny it? Worse even, could they realize that the "conservatory" does not follow building regulations and ask us to tear it down? This would mean that we would lose a room in the flat and have no access to the garden. I suppose we would be allowed to install a stair of some sort but I would much prefer to keep the conservatory. 

My question is: what would be the best way to proceed to try to make sure that the planning permission to replace the conservatory (And "balcony" it sits in and stairs to the garden)  is approved? I have thought that maybe if we first apply for a Certificate of Lawfulness based on the fact that the whole thing is more than 20 years old, then the planning permission applicatio would be to replace a preexisting structure (No matter how strange) and therefore it would have a bigger chance of being approved. But maybe we don't need to do so many steps because what we are trying to do is precisely tear down the unlawful construction and rebuildit correctly and they would not give us problems. I would appreciate any insights you can provide.

Many thanks,

Pilar 

[Ian Walmsley]

Hi,

Two routes.

Either you could repair it bit by bit - once removed it has gone.

The alternative is to get a certificate of lawfulness, then to seek planning to replace it.

I would like to think you have a good chance.

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