New Season! #48 - Planning Permission Explained: What You Need to Know Before Renovating

Planning permission in Ireland is a minefield, and we have had a different experience with each renovation we have done. It's not a straightforward process with guaranteed outcomes, but in this episode we give your our best tips plus lessons learned from our own encounters (positive and less positive!) with local planning authorities.

Who this episode is for:

• Homeowners planning a renovation or extension
• Anyone unsure if they need planning permission
• Renovators who want fewer delays and surprises

As a rule of thumb, assume planning permission is required unless you know your project is exempt. Permission is usually needed in Ireland if your renovation:

• Is new or over 40m²
• Changes the use of a building
• Materially alters the exterior
• Is in a protected or sensitive area

We unpack what “material change” actually means - and where homeowners most often go wrong.

How the planning process works

We walk through the full planning journey, including:

• Pre-planning (when it’s worth doing)
• Preparing and submitting an application
• Public consultation and submissions
• Planner assessment and Further Information requests
• Decisions, appeals, and what happens after permission is granted

How long does it really take?

Typical timelines discussed:

• Straightforward application: ~3–4 months
• With Further Information: ~5–8 months
• With appeal: ~9–15+ months

Follow the podcast on Instagram @ripitup_podcast_official, or follow us - Jenny is @workerscottage and Kate is @victorianrathmines

Transcript

Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome back to a brand new season of Rip It Up. Every renovation teaches you something, but it's only after you've lived through the dust, the delays, and the decisions, and then done it again like me, that the real lessons appear. This season, we're revisiting our biggest renovation topics, not with theory, not with optimism, but with hindsight.

Process planning, lighting, kitchens, bathroom windows, what worked, what didn't, and what we'd never do the same way again. This is what we wish we knew then.

Jenny: Welcome back to the podcast. Hi Kate. 

Kate: Hi 

Jen.

Jenny: episode two, 

our new series where we dive back in 

and 

go through all our top tip. 

for renovation

and 

the process, 

uh, as we do it from start to finish. So we're going, we're talking about planning, planning permission. 

It's 

a 

Kate: I have a few things to say on

this.

It took me a 

long time. This time, 

Jenny: I mean, this episode is gonna be useful to listen to because we're gonna give you tips and we're gonna give 

[00:01:00] you, you know, the 

best guidelines that exist out there. Uh, but I have to say 

like there just does not 

seem to be 

much 

rhyme or reason to planning permission. It seems to be who you 

get 

in the office,

what

kind of day they're 

having, where you,

are in 

the country, and, 

Kate: and 

whether your 

local counselor sends a 

letter 

for you, you, 

Jenny: fuck.

So, I dunno. 

Look, there's 

obviously some great people out

there in local planning offices who are doing their absolute best to, you know, preserve, 

um, 

buildings and structures

and, uh,

Neighborhoods and environments and and all that kind of stuff. And I don't 

like, 

they're, they're, 

they're fantastic. We love

them.

There's a 

few others out 

there that I 

have 

thoughts 

Kate: I have a

bit of a beef with, I have a bone to pick or two.

Yeah, and like we should say from the 

outset, this is about renovation, planning, permissions, you know, renovations, extensions, and in my case a couple of protected structure ones as well, which, yeah, is a

whole different ball game as well.

But maybe we might give some [00:02:00] advice as to maybe some stories about our. Planning permissions that we've been through and

what we've observed through that, and maybe what we

do different each time, although then it could have a different outcome every time. So you wouldn't know that either, But let's talk about how we

did it anyway.

Jenny: Yeah, exactly. Hopefully you'll pick up a few nuggets, right? So when do you need 

planning permission? How 

do you know that you have 

to

go 

for planning permission? I 

mean, first of all, if you're doing a big

extension or renovation, you're architect. Will tell you, but the rules 

are 

if you're doing

a big, 

uh, large addition to the house, so over 

40 

square meters is 

what's classified as,

as large.

Um, if you're changing the use of 

the house, 

if it is material materially altering the exterior 

of 

the 

house,

um, 

and

Kate: front, right? right. 

Jenny: to 

the front, 

they don't seem to be 

as fussy 

about what happens in the 

back

of the house, but the 

front of 

the house is is really important. Um, and if it's in any kind of protected or sensitive area or if it's a, a [00:03:00] protected structure itself,

Kate: Protected 

structures essentially need planning

for everything, like even the internals, which is a bit bonkers, but like you can't just go knocking down original walls inside a protected

structure either. That actually requires a different planning permission application, even though. You might not be doing an extension, so it's just a watch out.

If you're ever looking for houses and you see their

protected structures, check them on

their record of protected structures list on the council websites before you buy a house and just know what

yourself you're getting yourself in for. 

for. 

Jen: Yeah. 

Jenny: Um, you're in for a lot of work. I'll just tell you that from the outset. It's still worth 

doing, but it's just, I do find it

frustrating and I get why buildings that are special and 

important 

to 

our heritage and all that should be protected. It's frustrating

that It's

So hard 

to 

change certain things about buildings that I don't feel necessarily need 

to be protected, or at least the elements that they don't allow 

changing need to be

protected.

But anyway, 

that's 

um. [00:04:00] 

Kate: So stepping through like the basic stages we'll say of planning, we might just like do a bit of a helicopter tour of the, the different stages and then we might go back and

talk

about each stage and what our

experiences were. 

So like there's a pre-planning

stage. You know, when you've done your plans and you can actually have a. a

pre-planning meeting with the council if you want. In my experience, a lot of

people don't tend to do that because they can still ask you for information,

even if

you've done

their pre-planning

info

or meeting. A lot of people tend to do that maybe for complete new bills, but

for renovations And extensions, less common, I would say.

Jenny: Yeah. 

Kate: obviously you gotta prepare.

The documents for submission with your archite or your architectural technician, or her designer,

whoever's, you know, doing that. And before you even put the application in, the submission

top clock starts ticking. We'll say you have to put a notice up on your house, on your gate, usually if you have a, side gate and a front gate or front and back or something.

And

published in the

newspaper. [00:05:00] 

Jenny: Yeah. 

Kate: lodged two weeks after that. And then that's day zero. 

Jenny: I think it has to be a national 

newspaper. So

like the Independent or the Times or the

Sun or the 

Irish Daily Star or

one of those. Yeah. 

Kate: Then they kind of validate all the docs. You uploaded. That usually happens pretty quick.

In

my experience with a couple of days. It's kind of usually less than a week, but um, it'll say, yeah, everything is there. tick. tick. tick, tick,

tick, Let's go into the observation period and here is the five

weeks where.

Your 

Jenny: this is the White Knuckle Ride. This five 

Kate: Jim, Bob down the country who has no valid

reason for being able to, you know, consult on your documents, 

Jenny: this allowed? Why is that allowed?

It 

Kate: And I actually saw

two elderly

gentlemen in my local coffee shop one time perusing planning permissions that had been submitted that week

in

the area. Like, It might fine if it's your next door neighbor or you know, but this kind of thing

that we have an opinion on anyone's house or anyone's extension

[00:06:00] is bonkers unless you have a material interest

or whatever. But anyway, that five weeks is kind of where people can put in a, I wouldn't call it an objection at

this point, but an observation or submission or something. 

Um, I've had observations on mine. How did you kind of approach yours?

yours? 

Jenny: I had none, so I, the back of my house is

not 

overlooking 

anyone, So the 

type of work that I was doing wasn't going to really 

impact 

on anyone.

Now that doesn't mean 

I. that somebody 

might not submit an observation on yours. People can submit an observation for anything,

tends to just hold

up the 

process. 

Um, but I didn't. And then I also, 

my 

house is Terra terrorist cottage

and I called into the neighbors on either

side. One

was, um, a lovely elderly woman 

who has since passed away and she didn't

give a dong.

She just said, do whatever you want. I don't

care. 

Best of luck to you. 

And then the others 

actually, that house 

had just 

been sold

and 

the new owner hadn't 

moved in yet. 

Um, 

so the 

ones that were moving

out

obviously didn't care. Um, and they said, go for it. So 

I 

[00:07:00] got really 

lucky. It 

absolutely sailed 

through.

Um, it helped, I think, you know, there's no harm calling into your, your neighbors 

and just giving 

them 

a heads 

up, but it certainly doesn't prevent anything. I mean, we have a

story of a good friend of ours 

who.

Was really nice 

to her. Next door 

neighbor 

was putting in 

an

application for an

extension that 

that neighbor had already done himself. Like he had extended out that fire

and uh, you know, had plenty of meetings 

with them 

where their feedback was listened to, their thoughts 

were listened 

to, their concerns were 

listened to, their architect met, and all that kind of stuff.

And he still put in an observation on the very last day, 

of planning permission, Which is one of the rudest things I've 

ever heard.

It's like a young

family, three young kids. I try to just. Get a house to livable

standards. 

Kate: so I'm, 

I'm in two 

minds here about the whole reaching out to your

neighbors thing.

It really depends. It's a case by case

basis

here if

you think it's gonna be a value or you think it's gonna be. Something that starts an argument before the

process begins, which means they'll definitely [00:08:00] submit

something then. So like our

first one in Dublin, that was a protected structure. We went to a neighbor on one side who we shared a boundary wall with, which we

knew we were going to be interrupting. We didn't go on the other side even though there was a window to the rear wasn't

overlooking their garden 'cause it.

Point, you know, they were to the left

of us, but

we kind of didn't think that it was gonna

materially affect them.

And honestly, I didn't really know them that well. I

kind of said, hi, whatever, And we've gone in and outta the house, but I didn't know them well. or by name or whatever.

So anyway, uh, they objected on the last day of the five weeks as well, or one of the last days. Anyway, we were like, no objections. No, no, you know, observations the whole time clock ticking, like last day or

something. And I think her letter 

Jenny: you're listening and you're planning to 

object or observe, like don't do it

on the last, day, you're really messing up someone's life.

You're causing 'em a lot of expense. 

Just 

Don't 

do that 

Kate: Yeah. So then you have an opportunity, I suppose, to come back

on that.

and

like, whether you change the

plans or you just say, no, I wanna keep the plans as is, let the, let the planner decide. We [00:09:00] decided at that time not to, we just took away

the window. That was an issue for her.

Um, so we just took that away and resubmit. But like, you know, there's still a resubmission and there's a bit of time in that, and then it goes back to the planner for for, I guess their decision. We did it differently this

time in that again, We had a kind of a, a

shared party wall.

We kind of knew the neighbors.

They were sound, we were

like, you know, talking to each other a bit. And I said, look, you know, we're gonna be doing this wall. The original wall was pretty disgusting and old, so we kind of came to a, a win-win situation where we said we'd make the wall nicer and we'll, you

know, finish it on your side however you like.

and

so sometimes you can come to those kind of mutually beneficial agreements as well if you have a good relationship. But if you don't have that

relationship. going into planning, you might be, you know. Teasing the bull here, like, I dunno, I judge it on your own cases,

but like, it's not always the best solution to talk to your neighbors. 

Jenny: some people are just unreasonable and there's

nothing you can do about it and it's really frustrating. Um, do you [00:10:00] know when you resubmit, so when you changed 

the plans 

and took the window

out, does

that, doesn't reset 

the timeline, 

does it? 

You don't have to do a 

whole other

Six weeks? 

Kate: No, it's, it's only 'cause like the, the time, I

suppose the five weeks still has to lapse, right? So everyone kind of.

kind of. We were essentially putting it back

to what it was anyway, so they couldn't really object on

that case, I guess. Um, but the planner could come back and ask for more information. Down the line as well when their decision

comes a few weeks after that. Um, and they didn't in our last one, once we kind of adjusted and put it through, the

planner said, yeah, fine.

And then this time, holy moly, ma Joli, they came back with a request for a serious amount of information. It's usually like a 

Jenny: They 

just did not 

want your house 

to be touched at 

all. They just wanted

to be 

left as 

kind of 

a, 

Kate: yeah, there was a lettered

list and we got

to letter o, I think. Yeah, and that was all like, I mean, that's not just like one little liner answers, these are like [00:11:00] drawings, you know,

like

specifications, everything. So we had like, you know,

what's the letter Owen? The L 10 12? Is it? Um, like we had

that many individual documents to update and upload and whatever, you know, so it was a lot.

And it took our architect months to pull all that

additional

information 

Jenny: I presume you had 

to pay for that. 

Kate: resubmit. so that was all delays, right? It was all delays in earned, but It was also cost of

time for the architect or whatever as well. So that request for information, would it have been better if we did a pre-planning meeting?

I don't know. I don't I don't know I think they could have come back with similar questions and I don't know if they would've gotten into that nitty gritty detail they did

in the request for information in a pre-planning meeting.

Anyway, so that was, yeah, that was a hard

lesson. I 

just 

I, I don't know how

Jenny: wrong person on the wrong day, 

and

you and your two little kids had to stay in a freezing cold house for

weeks longer, months longer, and pay a lot of money, and It's just 

It's just the way 

the cookie crumbles

is [00:12:00] really 

frustrating.

Kate: Yeah, It is really 

frustrating. It is really frustrating. Um, but that further information stage can really throw you, you know, like, so the planner can kind of come

back with a request for information by week six, eight, and then like the further information stage can take months.

like it took us three more months.

You know, and then after you submitted that further information, they have another month to respond.

You know, so like that stack is a lot, you know, and there's very little you could be doing in parallel, especially with a a protected structure, which she essentially don't want

you to touch anything So like, thankfully, like, You know, we're like a little bit

handy in that some of the restoration stuff. that we weren't altering the building, we could kind of get a head start on.

But still, it's a lot of stack of

time, like to be thinking and planning and then that appeal stage. I've never gone through this, but that could take you another year if you wanna 

Jenny: Yeah. That could take a year. Yeah,

a 

year. And a lot of

cost, 

you 

Kate: Yeah. yeah. So, um, 

that [00:13:00] was 

Jenny: thing as well that 

Kate: over the few houses.

houses.

Jenny: Yeah. Yeah. Um, the thing as well that's really frustrating about that stage is 

that, 

you know, that's the point

when you do need 

to be lining up your 

builder, 

your contractors.

Um, that's the point where 

you probably 

need to be looking for a rental to move into, which we 

all know is. 

Next Impossible. That's a whole other full-time job in and of

itself.

Um, so it's a difficult, 

frustrating time 

and 

we can't give 

you 

much advice

to get through it 

other 

than to be prepared to maybe 

live 

in 

the

house that you're in 

for longer than 

you think you need to. 

And just know 

that these delays 

are, are, 

are,

you know, possible,

Kate: Yeah. 

Yeah. 

And uh, we should also say you can't just start work, then there has to be a commencement notice.

So like when you get your

planning permission in hand, you can't just go and knock a wall that day. You have to, you have

to lodge a commencement notice to say you're starting

works at least 14 days before the work starts as well. So like, there, there, I know, there know they're all little weeks or whatever, but like God, [00:14:00] they stack, you know, they really 

Jenny: It's the difference between getting in, you

know,

before winter 

time or.

Into a new year. You know, it can really, it does really, really all add up. And then obviously

again, delays can push 

out 

when your 

contractor, when your team can 

start, all that.

Um, so it's a lot.

Kate: Mm-hmm. So they were my kind of like learnings, I suppose from a, a conservation point of view, but one of the biggest learnings I've had in this house, especially, I think they were a little more lenient in the last house, and when you talk about like.

Some of the, uh, things in conservation that make little

sense.

like, Look, my background is kind of in sustainability, so it kind of breaks my

heart

some of the 

Jenny: Yeah. and you're so 

focused 

on restoration, like you're so 

um, sensitive, like to.

Kate: Yeah.

Yeah, 

Jenny: Just maintaining the originality of homes. 

Like it's

just,

I don't know anyone else who's 

as into it as you 

are. 

Do you know?

Kate: While I love these old homes and I believe they should be

conserved and preserved and whatever, [00:15:00] I don't think they're

museums. And I think.

More recently, they're being treated as

such, and I think if the councils want museums, they should buy a house in each of those areas

rather than putting these

kind of requirements on the owners and then not really giving a lot of grants to do it.

There's some grants, but the majority of

them are given to fucking churches or something, you know, like, so there's very little of those grants getting through to homeowners and they

expect you not to insulate the houses, not to change single glaze windows, you know, like all these kind of things. So your bills are

through the roof, like so our last house, they 

Jenny: And 

it's inefficient. It's 

unsustainable. 

Kate: It's totally 

Jenny: more energy to heat the house. 'cause the, the

heat is just going out the

sink, glazing windows.

you know, it 

doesn't make

sense. 

Kate: We Like our front uh, window. The bay window in the front of our house in the living room is four panel bay window and it's all sashes and

it's all single glazed. Right. So we were told not to touch that yet. We didn't apply to do anything anyway. We just got it restored. We got a brush strip like they all recommend you do in conservation.

[00:16:00] That window is freezing. So I have heavy kind of

curtains, thermal lined curtains that you have to draw, and then it's kind of okay, but still that room is, you know, degrees colder than the rest of the house. You know, it's really hard to sit in that bay window. 

Jenny: Yeah,

And 

I 

understand the

requirement maybe not to rip out 

that 

window and replace it with some, 

you 

know, PVC.

Monstrosity that just completely changes the aesthetic of the house, but that's not the case these days.

It is possible

to

just change out the window and to replace it with something that looks the exact same and does 

maintain 

the 

character and the aesthetic

and the 

originality of the home. 

So I don't get it. 

Um, the other thing as well.

Kate: old glass, the old wobbly glass, is kind of what they love. Um,

that's beautiful. But is it worth, you know, hundreds, if not thousands, more in your heating bills every year? I dunno,

I'd argue. 

Jenny: Yeah. 

I'm with you there, And the internal 

stuff you mentioned earlier as well that you weren't allowed to

do 

internal 

joinery, even 

around 

[00:17:00] a chimney breast, 

which actually wasn't 

even the

original chimney

breast. Like some of that is just crazy. Anyway, we're going down a bit of a 

rabbit hole in this one.

Some of the stuff, 

some 

stuff 

that helps,

uh, just with guidelines, right? I think rules of thumb, because again, the planners

can 

come back with anything or people can object to anything is uh, a few things. One is I think it's always helpful to look at what your neighbors have done, what, what 

other people have done, because

if there's 

precedent for, for the work,

Then it's more likely to pass and it's harder 

to object to, 

and it's, 

you know, more likely

to be successful if you appeal it. 

Um, there's a few rules 

and guidelines that 

we mentioned

earlier around 

how much

you 

can extend. 

One is that if you're adding an upstairs 

window, it needs to be 11 meters from

your boundary wall. 

That's not in 

every single 

scenario 

because I, for example, 

don't 

have 11 meters to 

my external boundary wall. Um, but you know, as a general guideline, 

as a rule of thumb,

um. 

Jen: That 

Jenny: is kind of symptomatic of the fact that 

privacy 

is taken very seriously in urban 

environments. So if you have something in your plans that are likely to infringe [00:18:00] on the privacy of your

neighbors, 

that's 

where you're likely to

run into the most trouble. 

Kate: but if you had someone behind you

11 meters, within 11 meters, they would've maybe rejected

your back window. 

Jenny: Potentially. Yeah, 

Kate: yeah. So like this is the bit, it's like where it gets a bit gray areas, if

you're overlooking

people, can you obscure the glass? Can you fix the window? Can you put the window high so you're not overlooking?

So like all these things have to be, I guess, considered in terms of like how far you are from your boundary or your

neighbor's boundary or whatever. 

But um.

Yeah, windows. Windows and overlooking are tricky, as is light, but I don't think anyone 

Jenny: Yeah,

Light is 

less. No, we don't. 

Kate: They don't want you to put a monstrosity in your garden where you're left with kind of nothing to the boundaries and no green area.

You have to leave at a certain

percentage of, of green area or permeable ground or something. Which can be gravel or something

as well, but some sort of 

Jenny: is fine. 

I'm okay 

with

that. if that, 

makes 

Kate: Which is fine. Yeah. Yeah. I think we should have that. for sure. But um, It gets a little bit gray there and that's where [00:19:00] maybe you think about talking to neighbors or not, but like, or

you just see if it sails through and say nothing.

But 

the the point about like the windows and. Uh, Insulation and.

the kind of old chimney breasts. It's not to kind of just go, go down the rabbit hole of conservation, but it's a learning that I found for these kind of houses and planning is they want the original integrity and structure of the building to remain, and where we put on an extension to the original

structure, you had to mark that.

Point where the old building meets the new building. So they don't want you to erase history.

So like if you can prove in your plans that's my kind of learning from all this. If you can prove in your plans, that you can almost put the house back to what it was.

and You 

haven't disturbed that original structure, then I think they're fine.

You doing it? 

it?

Um, besides insulation, they

don't seem to like insulating these old houses, 

Jenny: Yeah, 

it's strange.

Yeah. 

Kate: They'll tell you it's for damp, but like there's loads of breathable ins, installations and all that. But like, anyway, that's a, that's a whole [00:20:00] other kind of technical, technical

episode I think.

Jenny: Yeah.

Um, 

the other thing that's interesting to note as well is 

that, um, 

we

mentioned if you 

don't add stuff 

to the front of the house, 

you're, you know, it's, it's easier to get through. Um, 

that 

applies to 

solar panels as well. I think solar panels are now

exempt 

from, from planning permission. 

Um. 

They definitely are 

in the back of the 

house.

I think there was at least a

movement. And 

if that's 

passed, I'm not sure to exempt them from the front as well. And I think things like vlo windows, if they're in the 

back of the house, 

you know, they're, you typically don't 

need planning permission for things like that. Like they're kind of small, they don't infringe on

privacy.

Um, they don't materially change the

structure so. 

Kate: Yeah. Except 

in 

conservation they do, 

Jenny: except in conservation. 

Kate: we, Well, yeah, once you touch any of the roof structure, 'cause we had to put in, we put in a vlu in our bathroom, which we had to apply for planning. And you have to put in a special conservation vlu even though it's not

visible from the road, 

Jenny: like 

looking for 

a house that 

has, 

that 

is listed.

I mean, 

you're adding, 

I dunno how many[00:21:00] 

tens of Thousands to your regular renovation 

Kate: lot. Yeah. it's 

Jenny: but it's worth it because 

now you do have a beautiful old house that 

is,

Kate: That costs 

an 

Jenny: full of character 

Kate: sometimes. 

Jenny: Yeah. 

Kate: Well, certain

rooms, no, certain rooms are fine and certain rooms cost a fortune to heat. I just close those doors

sometimes.

Jenny: Okay, so timeline wise, right? If they, if you, if you, if you get that request for further information, obviously that can take a lot of 

time. 

Um,

and you're back and forth then between.

Whether like they accept the information that you have to, that you've given back, you've got about six months for 

that. Um, then they have to assess that within four weeks, and you could be over and

back on that.

As we said, it could be a year. Um, if they don't request further information, then they

need to give you a planning decision within eight weeks of your application. 

So that's if you sail 

through planning.

no issues, No

observations, no further 

information, nothing. Then you could have your decision

within eight weeks 

of your 

application.

So that's the best case scenario. Um, that's worth noting if they, um, requested further [00:22:00] information. They've got four

weeks, Um, after your response to, to get back to you. Um, same for an appeal.

Um, and then, yeah,

Kate: so 

you're quickly stacking up the months there. I'd say like absolute sale through, you could be as low as three months.

If they ask for further information, depending on the amount,

of further information, you could be adding one month, two months, maybe even three months, like in the case that I, add 15

line items to, to address. And then if you're going for appeals,

you're over The year. that's the way I'd see it anyway. 

That, 

Jenny: The other thing that's useful to know is that you typically, once 

your

planning

permission has been granted, um, it can expire. So it typically lasts for

about five years. And that can be helpful if you're looking

for houses and you see one 

that has planning permission, just double 

check. When was that 

granted 

and when

does it expire?

Um, because that's, that's really important to sell. So overall, 

Kate: that's a, sorry. That's a good point actually on the

planning permission lapsing in the five years, it's the reason sometimes people put stuff

in their planning permission

application, but don't maybe do it in the first [00:23:00] tra of work and they say, oh, I'm putting in for an attic conversion as well, but I'm not gonna do it right now.

You still have the couple of years to go back and do it, so you don't have to do everything in the planning straight away, which is a good point to note. so get in where you have to.

Jenny: Yeah, yeah. Do 

do as much as 

you can in that first. 

Once it's through, it's through, it's

easier. Um. 

Yeah. 

so 

that's, that's really it. Those 

are the kind of the, you know, 

the, the common 

reasons that

things get rejected, even

though it 

could really be anything.

Um, the 

timeline. So really, 

like 

best case scenario, eight 

weeks, but 

like, 

it 

could be months, it could be up to a year. It could be a lot of back and forth

and some extra cost. It's worth noting. Um, 

Old houses are beautiful, but if they're listed and there's a conservation on them, just know that you're looking at a lot of

extra time and cost. Um, it just is what it 

Kate: Specialist planning, you know, process with architects and all that, you know, you need someone like a conservation specialist or a conservation architect to submit your application for you, which is all extra cost and all extra time,

you know.

Jenny: [00:24:00] Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. 

Kate: Yeah. 

Jenny: Um, so make sure that the 

outcome was worth it for you.

Kate: yeah. And talk to your neighbors, or don't talk to your neighbors. I'm not gonna tell you one way or the other. You know your neighbors better than anyone. If

you've lovely neighbors like Jen, maybe do. And if you had kind of some cranky ones like I used to have in the past, not now, they're sound now, um, yeah, maybe.

maybe don't, 

Jenny: maybe don't, maybe 

don't draw, you know, maybe 

leave it to the professionals, maybe let the 

architect engage with that or 

whoever. Um, if you don't want to, to get 

into 

a 

spat from the outset,

just leave it. Um, 

the one thing we haven't mentioned

is retention. So obviously there are 

people out there who 

just go ahead and build and 

then hope for the 

best 

and reply 

for retention. And sometimes, you know you might be up against it, you might know that what you're doing is really 

small and 

unlikely to 

have any material impact and anyone else, in which case 

that's 

what it's there 

for.

Um,

You know, It's sometimes to think about, 

but.

It's 

happened [00:25:00] in our 

neighborhood where somebody just went ahead,

ignored all the rules.

So for 

example, I'm in a terrorist

house

and I put on a dormer extension, but I had to keep that

dormer raised, 

roof and meter in from the sides from my neighbors. 

Um. and That's just a, a, a a rule in a regulation. And there's people in this neighborhood who didn't do that. They just threw up a

roof and added those, that meter on either side.

Um, and they've, they've been asked, like the requirement is for them to, to totally dismantle it and take it down and start again and they haven't done it. So I don't 

really know what happens in that case. I presume it's just fine after fine, after fine. Um, and legal acting. but, um. Yeah, be careful there.

Just if you're gonna, if you're going down that route where 

you 

are planning

to just go for it. Forget planning 

permission and go for attention. I would say be very sure that you 

know what the regulations

are, 

because you could end up in a, in a real bind there. 

Kate: We did have to apply for retention for something minor in ours, in

that we didn't know until we started ripping up kind of floorboards and to do work and to do pipe work like.

[00:26:00] The majority of the joists in the original

part of this house were rotten, so we had to replace them. And to do that, we had to apply for retention as

well for what we

replaced it with. So that was something we had to do after the fact. But it was also something that didn't crop up, or we wouldn't

have known was an issue until we started the build.

Like we knew parts of. Our floor downstairs were kind of spongy. When you walked in them, the floorboards would sink a little bit. You know, like if you were jumping in one place, it might shake the room a little bit.

So we knew the floor joists weren't

great, but it wasn't until we lifted the floorboards that we could see just how rotted they

were. So that was something that we had to put retention in

for, but that's just one example. I dunno if I'd go building a two story, two story structure or something with our planning or changing all the windows to pink, PVC. you know? 

Jenny: Mm-hmm.

Kate: Um, but yeah, something minor like that is something that

should kind of go through. 

through. 

Jenny: Okay, so 

that's planning. It's a minefield. 

We wish 

you 

all the best with it. And

next up we're gonna be talking about your m and e plans, your mechanical, 

electrical. 

This is your, draining, your, your 

your drainage, your 

plumbing, 

um, and, [00:27:00] 

uh, our 

favorite topic, your lighting,

because that needs to be planned out earlier Do you think.

So we will see you next 

week. 

Kate: see you next week. Bye bye.