If you want to add a porch to your home you may be able to erect it under Permitted Development rights but there are caveats, as planning consultant Simon Rix explains
Most people in Britain regard a porch as a small room covering only the entrance area of a building, almost always outside the main walls of a house. But porches can also be larger, sometimes wrapping around the sides of a building, or even the whole way around it.
There is no legal definition of a porch. In planning terms, a porch can be regarded as a type of extension outside any external door of a building. There is a size limit, though, if you are hoping to avoid the need for a full planning application.
PERMITTED DEVELOPMENT MIGHT BE YOUR BEST ROUTE
Depending on the details of your home and the exact area you are in, you might be able to build a small porch without the need to go through a full planning application. This is because some building projects are regarded as having already been granted planning permission via Permitted Development or PD rights. If this is the case for your project, and if you aren’t caught by any of the exclusions listed below, then you can just go ahead and build your new porch without contacting your local planning authority, which is usually your local council.
But interpretation of the rules can be complicated, so even if you genuinely think your project is covered by PD rights, you or a future potential buyer of your home might want a cast-iron confirmation that you don’t need to submit a full planning application. A Certificate of Lawful Development from your local planning authority will provide such a legally binding confirmation. I would recommend applying for one of these, because if you don’t and if at some point in the future your local council doesn’t agree your porch was a PD project, whoever is the owner of the house at that point – be that you or even someone you later sell it to – could face enforcement action, penalties or even a court order to demolish the structure.
HOW LARGE CAN A PORCH BE WITHOUT PLANNING PERMISSION?
If any part of your porch would be higher than three metres from ground level, then a planning application will be required. In terms of horizontal size, you will need to submit a planning application if you want to build a porch larger than 3m2. This size is an external measurement, so if you are constructing a two metre by 1.5 metre porch with 20cm thick walls, you’ll be looking at an internal area of 2.08m 2, or just 1.68m 2if your walls were to be 30cm thick.
You’ll also need planning permission if any part of the porch would be within two metres of a
boundary between your home’s curtilage
