Property Development Project - Day 140

Another letter from the Council, this time to confirm the registration of my new applications. At least they haven't wasted any time in registering them since they did so the day after I delivered them. Either this is a new spirit of efficiency or someone’s conscience is working and they reckon I deserve a break.

Anyway this means that the three-week consultation period will end on day 158 and the final date for the determination of the applications will be day 193.

This is starting to give you a real concept of how long it can take to get planning on even a reasonably simple scheme.



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Property Development Project - Days 134 - 136

Back from yesterdays meeting I now fill in a fresh set of application forms, plus a new set of forms to cover the second application for the two-storey extension to the old house.

I also tidy up my plans and go round to my friendly plan printer and get 6 copies of each of the plans.

I collect together five copies of the application forms, five copies of the plans and the article 7 notice for each application. I draft a letter to accompany all this along with a cheque for £110. The cheque is for the new two-storey application as I get a free second application on the main scheme following the earlier refusal.

This is all getting increasingly bulky and I decide to deliver it in person to the Council offices. As before I get a receipt for my application.



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Property Development Project - Day 133

I have calmed down a little but I am still seething over yesterday’s post and the refusal notice when I leave to go and meet the Conservation Officer.

In my briefcase I have copies of the plans I sent in a while ago, plus in a different section the other alternatives for the reduced size extension to the old house.

This turns out to be an excellent meeting in that after the initial pleasantries and her expressing her regret that the refusal notice had been issued, she said how my new plans were much better than the originals and she was quite prepared to recommend them for approval.

For the new house she prefers Revision B with the square bay window and the sloping roof and for the old house she is quite happy with both the revised single storey plan and the new two-storey idea.

Since we have had no discussion about further alterations this begs the question as to why we could not have dealt with it on the phone as she proposed and I could have had the alternative plans in before the end of the 8-week period for the original application.

However I am not going to argue this point, the meeting is a success, the Property Development Project is saved and I can move on with a fresh application.



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Property Development Project - Day 132

When I pick up my post on Monday morning I notice a fairly thick envelope from the Council. On opening it I find a blue printed decision notice from the Planning Department.


It is a refusal of planning permission.

I told you that you wouldn’t have to wait long for the result of my most recent mistake and here you are. I thought that by opening the discussion with the Conservation Officer and sending alternative plans that I was ‘negotiating’ and therefore they would not refuse the application.

I should have realised that the pressure to ensure as many applications as possible are dealt with inside 8 weeks would not be overridden unless I made a specific request to delay the decision to await the outcome of my negotiations with the Conservation Officer.

Still I was angry and I think with some reason, the planning officer could have told me when we spoke that he was going to issue the refusal notice before my meeting with the Conservation Officer when we spoke last Monday, but that would have meant being helpful and informative.

The refusal notice in fact repeated almost word for word the internal memorandum that the Conservation Officer issued earlier.

My meeting with the Conservation Officer is tomorrow so I may as well ignore this notice at the moment and see how I get on.


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Property Development Project - Day 125

Skipping forward again we are now going to come to the next mistake that I make in this Property Development Project; but this time you will not have to wait long to see the results.

It is Monday and I have worked out that my planning officer will have returned from his holiday. As a courtesy I phone him up and he is there to take the call.

In case there is no record in the file I tell him that I have obtained the Conservation Officer’s comments and that I have spoken to her. I also let him know that we have agreed on the nature of the changes that she wants to make the applications acceptable.

I let him know that I have drawn up alternative plans and that these are with the Conservation Officer. I also tell him that I have a meeting arranged for the following week to discuss the plans. I want him to know about the meeting in case he wishes to attend and I don’t want him thinking I am trying to agree anything behind his back.

Now the only response I get is ‘OK, thanks for letting me know’.

I leave it at that and wait for a call from the Conservation Officer, although I reckon it is going to have to go to the meeting and I am glad that I arranged this.



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Budget 2006 comment

And so another Gordon Brown budget is presented to us. He is pleased to be in a very select club of Chancellors who have managed 10 consecutive budgets but the whole affair becomes less successful and more predictable as each one passes.

The early leaks of many of the measures and then the smoke and mirrors presentation of the economic figures to dress them up in a favourable light.

Yet again we have massive budget deficits during a time of growth and now that the effect of the past stealth taxation is being felt by everyone, the economy is slowing and hardly even managing the lowered growth forecasts. But still never mind Gordon is sure that despite the growth of the public sector at the expense of the wealth producing private sector, growth will pick up again and even manage 3% in a couple of years.

Anyway it was a budget with virtually no news for the property sector:

• Land will be released from public ownership for housing – already announced.
• The Government will fund the construction of 100,000 new affordable houses – are these new numbers or those already funded through the grants to housing associations?
• The Stamp Duty threshold will be increased by £5,000 to £125,000 – big deal!

On the subject of Stamp Duty, this is one of the most unfair taxes we have. Unlike other taxes it is neither at a flat rate like VAT, nor is it progressive like Income Tax, nor is the threshold tax free once passed like Capital Gains Tax.

When you pass £125,000 you pay the full rate on the whole sum. Again the same situation exists when you pass the next threshold at £250,000 and the tax rate jumps from 1% to 3%.

Perhaps at some stage some Chancellor will get to grips with this and reform the tax, then we can enjoy a housing market that is not distorted by this iniquitous tax.


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New suburbia is an environmental cul-de-sac

Another short break from the Property Development Project to comment on an article that appeared in The Daily Telegraph last week by Jim White headed ‘New suburbia is an environmental cul-de-sac’.

The gist of the article was about the redevelopment of a large area of wasteland near where Jim lives into a development of 2,500 houses. Jim has no complaints about the use of the land for housing, it is just that the development is providing no facilities for its residents and certainly no benefit to the wider community other than providing much needed housing.

So no new schools, shops, doctors surgery, park, leisure centre or public transport connections.

Apparently the Local Authority has a policy that it will obtain planning gain (i.e. contributions to onsite and offsite facilities) on developments of 200 houses or above. Although to you and me 2,500 is measurably over 200 the Local Authority allowed the developers to escape this by accepting phased applications for 199 houses.

He also complains that the developers were not forced into using the latest technology for recycling of water and the provision of renewable energy technology.

I find it incredible these days that there is a Local Authority so supine (to use Jim’s description) that it fails to collect contributions from all housing sites never mind sites of 200 or more. Where I live you can escape if the development is only for a single plot but otherwise no contribution – no planning permission. Many authorities even charge single plots and have set scales depending on the size of the units being provided.

It is also incredible that phased applications can be used to escape contributions; for decades most authorities have been onto this trick and require an initial comprehensive planning application for the whole area when they will fix the level of contributions before allowing detailed applications for the various phases.

Jim should complain to his local Councillors and get them to alter the Local Development Framework for the area to require development-planning gain on all sites. Since this will take some years to come into force he could point out to the Councillors that by adopting Supplementary Planning Guidance for the region they could get decent levels of contributions in place a lot quicker.

On the other point – requirements for the actual construction of the houses are set out in the Building Regulations and although these get tougher every year (adding costs all the time) there is no obligation on developers to exceed the current regulations.

However it is a common occurrence for developers to be coerced into providing more energy and water efficiency in their units if they are convinced this will give their application an easier ride through the planning system. It is up to the planners to use their negotiating skills to achieve these concessions.

One argument that can be used to achieve the environmentally friendly development that Jim wants is to point out to the developer that not only will he get planning permission quicker it will also give him another marketing ploy to use when selling the resulting houses for the maximum price.


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Property Development Project - Day 120c

Here are the promised altered plans for Revision B for the proposed development of the new house.

So, what do you think - Revision A or B? Or perhaps you think even the better one can be improved, if so how? The final plan did change in a number of ways as you will see later in this series.

I have done a covering letter to the Conservation Officer, confirming our discussion, giving justification for my ideas, confirming our meeting and requesting her comments.

Now although I have not sent them I have done some further plans for the extension and refurbishment of the old house. These reduce the size of the extensions to a single garage as opposed to the current plans for a double garage and the removal of the new utility room. I have done variations for both single and two storey extensions.

The reason for doing the plans is if the Conservation Officer still has concerns about the scale of development and to short-circuit further discussions. I have not sent them in at this time since I would prefer to run with the larger schemes if possible. They will be saved for the meeting and used if I am forced to concede ground.




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Property Development Project - Day 120b

Now we come to the new ideas for the new house.

Again I am giving the Conservation Officer two to consider, but they are both variations on a theme. As you can see from the main floor plans and front elevation there has been a significant alteration in the look and feel of the development.

Gone is the standard look of modern detached house on any large development done by a national housebuilder and now there is decent evidence of an individual design developed to fit in with the neighbouring properties.

The main variation is with regard to the roof shapes. In the first (Rev A) I have used standard gable ends and for the second (Rev B) these have been replaced by hips. However there are also revisions to the ground floor layout and the front elevation with the use of a bay window in Revision B to echo the square bays in the houses on either side.

Today I am showing you the plans for Revision A and tomorrow you will get those for Revision B.

You might like to consider which, if you were the Conservation Officer, you would prefer. Or indeed perhaps you might still dislike both ideas.




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Property Development Project - Day 120

After some hard work on the drawing front I have come up with some plans to send to the Conservation Officer in order to get this property development project back on track.

In this post I am showing the second of two ideas I sent for the refurbishment and extension of the old house.

It is for a two-storey extension. This may sound crazy when she was complaining about the possibility of over development but it does completely eliminate any concerns regarding the shape and impact of the garage roof.

I also sent her revised plans for the single storey extension but these are the same as those I originally posted back in January.

In the next post I will start on the new ideas for the detached house.




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HIP - The Rationale

Yesterday I looked at Home Inspection Reports from the point of view of someone who might be considering a career changeto become a Home Inspector, but what about the rationale behind the whole scheme?

Well the stated aims of the Government for the Home Information Packs are set out below, with my comments between each point in Italics (even if you get bored reading this please look to the last point for the real reason why this is all being foisted on us):

1. Consumer Benefits:

• Provide Transaction Improvements by reducing the abortive costs to consumers and the industry as well as reducing the number of failed transactions caused by survey or valuation inspection finding.

Currently the Home Inspection does not include a valuation, nor is it a full structural survey. Many houses are now sold without a survey being undertaken because most houses built during the last 10 years come with 10 year guarantees from NHBC or the like.

• Housing Stock Condition Improvements by a reduction in the incidence of unexpected repair bills and encouraging better maintenance of homes.

You have to be joking, people will either keep their houses up together because they take a pride in their home or they won't care less and this legislation will not make any difference to the way people care for their property.

• Greater Consumer Choice by reducing the entry costs to first time buyers and creating a market of serious sellers.

Do you really create greater consumer choice by reducing the number of houses on the market? If you reduce the number of houses available that is likely to push up prices and squeeze first time buyers even further out of the market.

2. Cost of Home Information Packs:

• The Packs will cost around £600 plus VAT, and most of this is not new cost. Included in this is the Home Condition Report, which is expected to be cost around £300, for an average home, plus VAT.

It is true that most of the other costs are not new, but to date they have only been incurred at the point of sale not before marketing, this is a significant shift that will reduce the number of properties being offered for sale.

• The content of the pack includes searches and other information which is currently paid for by the buyer, If several buyers pursue the same home, then currently these costs are paid for several times rather than just once with the Home Information Pack.

It has generally been held that the person who gets the benefit of a service or information should pay for it. If the vendor pays and the purchaser gets the benefit can the purchaser be sure the information is all that they want and all they can trust? Another consideration is that most buyers are also sellers so they have to meet the costs at some stage anyway.

3. Market Impact:

• Home Information Packs will make the market more efficient and certain. They will make home buying more affordable and sustainable for first time buyers, who will receive full information in packs without having to pay for it.

They will make home buying more affordable by making home selling much more expensive. The total costs will increase since the reports will have to be time limited and in a slow market the seller may have to pay for the preparation of more than one pack and the Condition Report is a totally new cost.

• Major players are now investing heavily in Home Information Pack systems and intend to market these well in advance of packs becoming mandatory. This means sellers and buyers will not have to wait until June 2006 before they can benefit from packs, and there is less likelihood of a ‘spike' of properties coming to the market immediately before implementation of the mandatory scheme.

Absolute rubbish – in trials there was no rush to use the reports and now that the national introduction is approaching there is no evidence of any real enthusiasm to get involved. Therefore there is likely to be a rush before they become compulsory and then a dearth of properties thereafter.

• Industry accepts that sellers will not pay up front for HIPs. Thus there is no impediment to sellers marketing their homes with HIPs both before and after implementation.

Again rubbish – if some agencies offer to cover the costs of HIPs before marketing they will soon alter this when the costs become significant and they will not want to carry higher levels of abortive costs than they do at the moment. Someone has to pay every time and they will not enjoy the experience if they can see no real benefit.

4. Home Inspectors/Certification Scheme:

• Only inspectors qualifying under a certification scheme approved by the Secretary of State will be able to prepare home condition reports. The scheme will be responsible for monitoring and auditing inspectors' work. This will be robust to ensure that standards are maintained.

A nice little earner for the Government then. At the moment you as a buyer are already covered by your solicitor's and surveyor's professional qualifications and indemnity cover.

• If inspectors fail to maintain the correct standard or act in a way that is partial to one party contrary to the rules of the scheme, their certification will be removed, along with that their ability to produce HCRs.

So what – this is a report you don't want. At the moment you already need a mortgage inspection and valuation carried out by a qualified valuer. Any lender will still need this so what has been gained?

• Research on the number of Home Inspectors required provides a range of estimates of between 5000 and 7,400 based upon assumptions around numbers of HCRs required and Home Inspector productivity levels in liaison with the industry. Details of the assumptions are described in the full report, which will be published shortly. The report also highlights the need to continuously monitor and revisit the range estimates as more evidence on the assumptions and Home Inspectors working patterns becomes available.

Yes and so far they have about 1,700 of the 7,400, what happens in the event not enough people are attracted into the scheme? Answer – delay and recrimination.

5. Home Condition Report:

• The Home Condition Report will be an objective report on the condition of the property that buyers, sellers and lenders will have a legal right to rely on. Home Inspectors will have to have suitable insurance that will be backed up by insurance of last resort provided by the certification scheme.

Insurance already carried by your valuer or surveyor. Yes the report will be objective but you always need to think of who is paying, when the seller pays the writer of the report will lean as far as they can (without compromising their standards) towards the seller. When the buyer pays for a survey then the person carrying out that survey has no duty of care towards the seller and therefore no interest in their likely requirements.

6. Integrated Government Policy Benefits

• Home Information Packs link into the Government's wider agenda including compliance with the EU directive for energy reports, contributing to energy efficiency education among consumers as well as contributing to more sustainable home ownership and communities.

Here it is hidden right at the end - the real reason (although carried to greater extremes than even the EU required), the Government needs to comply with the EU directive and they have found a way to make property sellers pay, and pay far more than need be the case just to undertake an energy survey.

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£6,750 + VAT to be a Home Inspector - Good Value?

The Housing Act passed in 2004 paved the way for the introduction of compulsory Home Information Packs. These will be required for all houses coming onto the market from June 2007.

The current estimated cost of the pack is reported to be in the region of £1,000.

Part of each pack will be a Home Inspection Report carried out by a Certified Home Inspector. Now even if you are a fully qualified RICS Structural Surveyor you still need to undertake a new exam and qualification to become a Home Inspector.

However there will not be enough Inspectors coming through this route so anyone else who feels attracted to this work can train and qualify.

The cost of such training is running at £6,750 + VAT. Is this good value and are you going to be equipping yourself for an interesting and worthwhile career change?

Well the estimated fee that Inspectors will charge is £300 and you should be able to carry out 2 inspections per day. So if you are fully employed on a self-employed basis then £600 per day, 5 days a week and say 45 weeks per annum gives a gross income of £135,000.

That looks great, so where do you sign up? However a slight pause would be a good idea. There will be costs to be deducted from your gross income and you cannot fully estimate these at the moment.

The costs of course will include transport to and from each property, equipment needed for each inspection, laptop computer etc. On top of this you will have to pay a fee on each inspection for the use of the proprietary software used to compile and submit the report onto the central database where it will be stored.

Annual costs will include your registration fee to be a member of a suitable self-certification organisation and a not inconsiderable insurance premium for professional indemnity cover.

The next matter that you might like to consider before committing to the training is just how long will this job be in existence. If you are already a surveyor this will not be a matter of concern since if the role disappears then you just fall back on your current qualification and carry on as before. However a new entrant will be left with a useless qualification that is not recognised for any other job.

So, how long will it last? There have been mutterings about the cost and inconvenience about this from the start but most of the policy makers and a number of organisations involved in house selling have been in favour. No doubt there has been an expectation that there will be more money to be made.

However now, even before the whole thing has kicked off, there are significant forces lining up against the scheme. The most important of these is the Conservative Party.

Where does this leave you? Well in a worst case the next general election will take place in 2009 and if the Conservatives get in they may repeal or amend this part of the Act at any time.

This means that your training will have given you a good income for 2 to 3 years, you won’t have been stuck in an office every day and you will have met a lot of new people. If that is worthwhile then you should have a go, but if you are looking for a secure new role away from the office then plumbing looks a much better bet. No amount of legislation will do away with the need for a water supply to and drainage from each house.

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Property Development Project - Day 117

Now I am really mad, previously when looking at the memo from the Conservation Officer to my planning officer I just looked at the detailed comments and now I go back and read the whole thing.

It is an internal form sent over their network. It is headed POLICY DESIGN and INFORMATION: CONSULTATION SHEET. It has boxes for the general details of the application (i.e. application number, type, conservation area, TPO, address and parish etc.).

It also has a box for Date In – 20/01/2004, Date Req. – 03/02/2004 and Date Out – 02/03/2004.

So when sending out the request for a response the date was given for the end of the three week consultation process – AND THE CONSERVATION OFFICER RESPONDED IN TIME.

I have been ringing regularly as the weeks tick by and every response I got indicated that her comments had not been received. In fact it was simply that the planning officer dealing with the application could not be bothered to deal with it until the time came to do his report.

The only reason a copy got into the file when it did was because he went away on holiday and cleared his desk and computer message folder before he left.

Now I could create trouble for him by complaining about this, but is it going to help me get the permission I want?

I decide that this could be more trouble than it is worth and I need to get back to my plans and solve the problems raised by the Conservation Officer.


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Property Development Project - Day 116

The assistant officer has been as good as his word and the Conservation Officers comments arrive in the post the next day.

They read as follows:

The garage/utility space extension to No53 by virtue of its relationship to the existing dwelling and the design of its roofscape appears awkward and visually inappropriate at odds with the architectural language and composition of the house. There is also some concern relating to the loss of generous spaciousness that is necessary for this building to relate comfortably to its context i.e. cramping.

Which is further exacerbated by the insertion of the additional dwelling. The design of the additional dwelling with the exception of the garage/lobby roof is not in itself a cause for concern. The totality of additional building is and this needs to be resolved if there is not to be harm to the character and appearance of the Conservation Area.

Recommendation – Refusal or Negotiation

This is potentially disastrous after all she is questioning whether a new house can be built at all. I can’t seriously reduce the size as it is already fairly narrow and if I reduce it to the size of a 2-bedroom house it will look ridiculous between two fairly large detached houses.

Anyway I telephone her and she remembers the application. She also gets hold of her copies of the plans so that we can discuss the proposed property development properly.

It turns out that the cramping issue is not her major concern so I can breathe again. She wants the roofscape altered for both houses. Now where the old house is concerned I did not show you my original plans since they have now been deleted; but the roof pitch for the garage was very low (20 degrees) the reason for this was to keep the existing window in bedroom 3.

The main roof pitches for the house are 45 degrees but there is minor pitch of 30 degrees for the bay window near the front door.

I tell her that I will alter the roofscape for the garage.

Now where the new house is concerned I cannot overcome her concern without some major redesign ideas. I do however manage to establish the full nature of the issues that she has and I indicate that I will redraw both schemes. I request a meeting with her so that we can consider my fresh ideas and establish any other alterations that she might want.

She say she cannot meet me for at least two weeks and suggests that I write in with the plans and she will comment on them as quickly as she can.

Now of course I have been caught out here before and know that it can take a planner a month to reply to a letter so I say I would like to book the meeting anyway and if it becomes unnecessary then we can always cancel it.

That is what we do and now I need to get back to my plans and solve the problems.


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Property Development Project - Day 115

The weekend has gone by and we are now at the start of week 6 since the application was registered.

I call the planning office; after all what else have I been doing regularly now for what seems like and indeed is weeks.

And if you think is as frustrating as planning gets just wait.

My planing officer has gone away for two weeks holiday. Now I know planners deserve holidays as much as anyone and I know he has no obligation to let me know that this was going to happen.

I get to speak to one of the planning assistants and he is very helpful. He looks in the file and there it is – the comments from the Conservation Officer.

However it is not good news, she is recommending negotiation on the design or refusal of the application.

This is where my first mistake comes home to bite me, where I made the assumption that this officer had already seen my plans when I sent them in for comment prior to submitting the application.

The helpful assistant undertakes to copy the comments and put them in the post for me to consider.


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Property Development Project - Day 111

We have taken another jump forward since it has been a frustrating 10 days.

I keep calling the planning office and I don’t get to speak to the officer dealing with my application. The office staff are very polite and they keep looking in the file, but still no response from the Conservation Officer.

So far as the Town Council goes the committee papers only confirmed that my application was on the agenda.

However after the due date I get hold of the Town Clerk's office and they let me know that the Council has recommended granting the application. So that is one further small hurdle out of the way.

The only other news is that since the application does not fall outside of any of the Council’s adopted planning policies and no Councillor has objected, it can be dealt with under ‘delegated powers’ by the Chief Planning Officer rather than going to the Planning Committee.

The clock is still moving on and I am left in limbo not knowing how the Conservation Officer is going to react.

I am 5 weeks into the 8 period before the application is going to be decided.


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Property Development Project - Day 100

The planning officer dealing with my application was not there when I visited the office. The next day I call and cannot get hold of him.

I leave a message and am told that he will reply.

No reply – so I call again the following day. We are now at the 100th day since I started this property development project.

Success, in that he is in the office and takes my call. He confirms that he is still waiting for responses from the Town Council and the Conservation Officer.

I then get in touch with the Town Council and find out the date for their next committee meeting and how far in advance the committee papers are available to the public.

The committee date is in 10 days time and the papers will be available 5 days before this.


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Property Development Project - Day 98

The good thing about doing these posts at the end of this property development project is that I can leap forward and thus miss out the boring bits where there is nothing to do but wait while someone else is hopefully doing their thing.

So I am doing a leap to the end of the consultation period for the planning application.

Rather than simply rely on a conversation with the planning officer I visit the Local Authority offices and read through the file.

This does not take very long as there is very little in there. Copies of the application, plans and letters that I have written, copies of the memos sent out by the planning officer to the Statutory Consultees, and copies of a letter sent to neighbours of the site plus a list of them.

Then we have the replies – only one set of neighbours have been concerned enough to write in and this is from the people mentioned earlier that live right next to the proposed new house. They have objected but no grounds have been raised that will affect the application.

Of the Statutory Consultees only Highways have actually responded in the required timescale and they have no objection, just a condition they want imposed about establishing sight lines before occupation of the new house. I will have to cut down part of the existing hedge to a lower height to accomodate the condition.

This means that there has been no response from the Town Council (which doesn’t really bother me), or from the Conservation Officer (which does bother me).


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