Garden Room Permitted Development in England
When building a garden room, the first question you need to ask yourself is, 'do I need to apply for Planning Permission?'. In many cases, the answer is no, but you must check your individual position and not rely on suppliers' websites which say 'Planning Permission Not Required.
Whether you will need to make a planning application very much depends on where you live, what you are planning to use the room for, its size and roof shape and how close to the boundaries of your garden you want to site it.
Luckily, in a lot of cases, you can build your garden room under the Permitted Development rules. These rules dictate the positioning of different shapes of garden rooms and how much space they can take up in your garden.
These rules are clearly laid out on the Planning Portal's Outbuilding Permitted Development page, and that page is the definitive guide on the subject. The thing is, it can be difficult to relate this list of rules to the garden room you have your eye on. We have therefore created this page as a visual guide to garden room Permitted Development.
We'll walk you through each rule as they are stated on the Planning Portal:
You can’t build a garden room beyond the front wall of your house under Permitted Development. This means if you want to put a garden room in the front garden of your house, you will need to apply for Planning Permission.
Outbuildings and garages to be single storey with maximum eaves height of 2.5 metres and maximum overall height of four metres with a dual pitched roof or three metres for any other roof
Source: Planning Portal
This rule tells us several things:
1) The garden room must be single-storey.
2) This rule also tells us that a dual-pitched roof garden room should be no higher than 2.5 metres at the eaves and no taller than 4 metres at the ridge. Garden rooms with this shape roof need to be sited more than 2 metres from each boundary.
3) Single-sloped roof garden rooms, also known as mono-pitch roofs, can be no taller than 2.5 metres at the eaves and 3 metres at the ridge to comply with Permitted Development rules. They should also be sited more than 2 metres from each of your garden’s boundaries.
Maximum height of 2.5 metres in the case of a building, enclosure or container within two metres of a boundary of the curtilage of the dwellinghouse
Source: Planning Portal
If you want to place your garden room within 2 metres of any boundary, i.e. your fence wall or hedge, it can be no taller than 2.5 metres high. In most cases, this dictates a flat roof garden room.
No verandas, balconies or raised platforms (a platform must not exceed 0.3 metres in height)
Source: Planning Portal
It is popular to add a deck or veranda outside a garden room. This rule tells us that this deck or veranda must not exceed 300mm in height.
No more than half the area of land around the "original house"* would be covered by additions or other buildings
Source: Planning Portal
*The term "original house" means the house as it was first built or as it stood on 1 July 1948 (if it was built before that date). Although you may not have built an extension to the house, a previous owner may have done so.
You may already have additions to your house, like conservatories and sheds, greenhouses and decking. This rule tells us that these buildings, combined with the new garden room, should not cover more than 50% of your garden.
If you live in a National Park, the Broads, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, World Heritage Sites or a Listed Building
Source: Planning Portal
If you live in a National Park, the Broads, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, World Heritage Sites or a Listed Building, you will need to apply for planning permission to build a garden room.
If you live in a flat or maisonette
If you live in a flat or maisonette and want to build a garden room, you will have to apply for planning approval to do so. This page on the Planning Portal explains the rules for common projects.
Apply for a Lawful Development Certificate
It is a good idea to apply for a Lawful Development Certificate when building a garden room under the Permitted Development rules. This certificate confirms that the work conforms with current regulations.
There is a cost involved in obtaining this certificate, but it can be beneficial when you come to sell your house when the solicitors are doing the conveyancing. Some garden room companies will obtain the certificate on your behalf, but it is straightforward to do it yourself.
