Downsizing house after receiving planning permission

[rebellad]

I have just received planning permission for a bungalow house circa 2500 sq ft. My problem is that one of the rooms is absolutely huge and I would like to reduce it in size a bit as it will be a complete waste of space, there was a bit of a miscalculation on the size of the room I wanted by the architect. Basically I was wondering can a house be downsized after getting planning permission or does it have to be reapplied for??

 

[nutty nut]

First of all I cant really see how you can reduce the size of an individual room without reducing the size of the overall house unless the room involved is an annex or projects out from the main structure.

Strictly speaking any alteration to a building would require another planning application but there are a couple of things that you could do. You could submit the revised plan showing the downsizing and ask for written confirmation that the planning authority have no objection to this. This is done as a request for a minor amendment. Its down to the individual planner to decide if the change is minor or not.

If it is a minimal downsizing (eg. reducing the overall length and depth of the house by about 500 - 600mm each way) you could forget about the planners and just ask your supervising engineer/architect if he is happy enough to issue a final cert. based on the revised size. I cant see him refusing.

The only slight problem you may have with that is in the event of you selling the house in the future and end up with an awkward prospective buyer who sees the house a different size from the original plans.

Best bet overall is phone the planner for your area and put your query to him/her and ask if they could deal with it by way of a minor amendment

 

[ludermor]

If yo are just reducing the lenght of the house but leaving all the features the same ( doors windows roof) then you wont have a problem. If you do get 'caught' you can apply for retention and it will be granted.
Can you not redesign the inside of your house? its a good complaint to have a room too big, there is nothing to stop you completely redesigning the inside, providing of course you allow for window layouts

 

[Winnie]

May I ask what size the room in question is & what its function is? Mayb find someone with a room of similar size & have a look at it to judge if it really is too big - my first instinct is that in a house of 2500 sq ft it is unlikely that the room is as big as you are thinking

Also I understand that you can change the inside of the house without further pp being required - it is only if you change the outside that you need to go back to them. So perhaps you could just change the internal structure a bit.