At present we have a 20ft garage at the rear of our garden that’s accessed via a service road (shared with three houses), plan in my head is to remove the garage and replace with slightly wider and slightly longer garden office thing(!) been looking at a ready made thing(!)

Ideally I want to shift if further down the garden(14ft) to allow a car port behind it, this wont infringe with the house as that’s still a good 40ft away.

It will be under 2.5m in height – do we need to tell anyone i.e. the council ?

Id need to make a new base and flatten out the rear.

Tell me what I need to know….

and can we fit a toilet in it…(easy to do as the main sewage is easy to get at)

There are 2 aspects to consider: planning permission and building regs. Under 2.5m and you rarely need planning but there are number of things that mean you do. Less than 30m2 floor area and you shouldn’t need building regs other than for electrics (and your spark can often self certify) There’s an outline guide here: http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/commonprojects/outbuildings/

As for the loo, if it is connecting to your private sewer then it’s easy, public and it’s a bit trickier

Planning permission is not usually required, providing the work is internal and does not involve enlarging the building.

As you’re moving it, making it bigger and change of use you probably need to speak to the council – if you don’t your neighbours may well do so!

Planning permission is not usually required, providing the work is internal and does not involve enlarging the building.

That’s the rules for converting an attached garage into a habitable room

and can we fit a toilet in it…(easy to do as the main sewage is easy to get at)

This will mean it’s considered a dwelling rather than a workshop / garage, so will make planning harder.

This will mean it’s considered a dwelling rather than a workshop / garage, so will make planning harder.

Not sure about that. It needs to be incidental to the house. Official definition is: “A purpose incidental to a dwelling house would not cover normal residential uses, such as separate self-contained accommodation nor the use of an outbuilding for primary living accommodation such as a bedroom, bathroom, or kitchen.” Don’t know if a toilet would push you over the definition, maybe have a read of this http://www.planningportal.gov.uk//uploads/100806_PDforhouseholders_TechnicalGuidance.pdf.

I have a under 2.5M high 4.5m x 8.5M garden office. As long as it didn’t have a toilet or look like a bedroom and was at least 1M from the boundry it didn’t require planning permission.

We can go to over 3m high and that size here with no paperwork but need PP for something as simple moving the drainpipe 😯

and to be exempt from regs it has to be less than 30 square M not 30M sq :lol:, materially incombustible if within 1m of boundary and contain no controlled fittings (electrics, drainage, fixed heating)

I’d just get PP, it’s simple, pretty cheap and just gives peace of mind….

FF, trouble with that is that Council may refuse to accept the application. Their reasoning is that they wouldn’t want to give consent for something they want to see built due to the impact it will have. Lots of ground floor flats(that don’t have PD rights) might start building large outbuildings and could use the consent as a precedent.
If I was the OP I’d have a chat with Council

FF, trouble with that is that Council may refuse to accept the application

Hardly a problem then as you’d get your money back.

Our council do a “certificate of PD rights” – basically a box ticking exercise to say they agree it’s PD.

IIRC, you can fill up to 50% of your garden with outbuildings, but you can’t make them habitable (bog / bedroom)