My wife and one of her relatives have inherited a house between them. The relative lives in the house and for various reasons wants to carry on living downstairs.

So, we are looking at converting the house into upstairs and downstairs flats. We could then rent out the top flat as an income.

The question is how do we maximise our chances of getting planning permission?

The council have a written process where you can pay for advice on whether planning permission is likely/unlikely.
The brief form asks for plans of the modifications.
Do we get an architect at this stage to draw up plans?
Or do you think a brief description of the project will be OK?

Sorry, it’s a bit vague as we don’t really want to throw loads of money away if planning permission is a real no go.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

In the past I’ve just done a quick computer sketch/plan of what I was intending for pre planning applications. Enough for them to be able to see what it is you would like to do.

It can get quite complicated.

You need to have fire protection between the 2 flats, this can sometimes to be quite difficult to achieve in an older building.

Have a look at the Building Regs to give you an idea of the requirements.

Also, it is worth giving the planning officers a ring, they are normally very happy to give you an idea about what will be necessary.

The council have a written process where you can pay for advice on whether planning permission is likely/unlikely.

Irrespective, I’d be giving them a call for a chat.

Don’t know where you are in the country but when I was looking to extend in to the loft space Aberdeen I got an architect to put together some sketches of what I wanted and took them to the planning office and spoke to them.

In hindsight I jumped the gun a little on the architect and if doing it again would do it as follows.

1 – Go and have a chat with the planning department for your area, they will advise if the area you are in or the building is listed. If they are listed it will be much harder to get planning permission.
2 – Go and look round other properties in the same street and see if any one else has done what you want to do. If precedence has been set then it will make gaining planning permission much easier.
3 – You may be able to search the council web site for previous planning applications in your area and see what people have done before. This may help you identify properties that have been converted in the past.
4 – See if you can knock together some drawing of what you want to do your self if the above looks promising and take these to the council and see if you can discuss them with the planning department. The more detail the better.

At this point it should be pretty clear to you if you are likely to be granted permission for the conversion and if you should proceed and get an architect and further professional advice.

Chat to Planning and Building Control, they are both very helpful but don’t work as a team eg Planning may suggest something Building Control then tell you you can’t do (happened in the case of my workshop project).

Thanks for the replies. Think it is definitely worth a quick chat with them to see what they want. Cheers

2,3 and 1 above plus also have a look at planning policy guidelines for flat conversions. Do you meet the guidance?

Also consider if the property has any permitted development rights. Consider exercising these, if required, before applying for a conversion into flats.

Generally I wouldn’t bother with pre application advice unless the scheme is contentious in nature