Minor amendments.

sydthebeat

smashey wrote: »

Speak to your planner and see if they will consider this as a minor amendment. You will have to submit revised drawings to this effect and the appropriate fee. You will not have to put up a site notice or put a notice in the newspaper.

what facility is there in the planning regs to allow such an application???

are you referring to a 'declaration of exemption'??? if so, this wouldnt comply.

smashey

sydthebeat wrote: »

what facility is there in the planning regs to allow such an application???

are you referring to a 'declaration of exemption'??? if so, this wouldnt comply.

It's called a minor amendment. In Donegal, the fee is €63. This may change from council to council. Minor amendments have been mentioned numerous times here.

sydthebeat

thanks for that.....

ive never heard of such a thing down here (Laois Offaly Kilkenny)
Planning take a very black and white view on alterations down here, ie if you do not build exactly what you got permission for, they require you to retain the full development as constructed... a complete pain (and probably just a money making facility for them)...

i have a case where a client incorporated an extra door and altered a window (enlarged from 900 to 1800) on a single story house, and the council are making him retain the whole house as constructed..... €540 planning fee......

also have another case where the dwelling didnt change but was built 1.7 m forward from where it got planning...... the planning fee in that case was €980.. €900 to retain and €80 to complete......

do you have any idea where this facility is mentioned in the planning regs.. or do you think it something Donegal Co co themselves do???

Jollyman

I am in the Waterford area and have made some minor changes via e-mail and phone calls with the area planner. Its no harm just to ring and ask them whats involved.

sinnerboy

sydthebeat wrote: »

i have a case where a client incorporated an extra door and altered a window (enlarged from 900 to 1800) on a single story house, and the council are making him retain the whole house as constructed..... €540 planning fee......also have another case where the dwelling didnt change but was built 1.7 m forward from where it got planning...... the planning fee in that case was €980.. €900 to retain and €80 to complete......QUOTE]

Sorry to go off topic OP . All the Dublin + Adjacent LA's behave this way too . Small changes , for retention means " you did not comply with condition 1 , (build to drawings ) " . So they make you "retain" the whole thing on a m2 x €2.70 ( i think ) basis . F****ing scalpers . :mad:

Very few designs do not develop during construction , especially 1 off's . I think the DOE know this full well and have spotted the opportunity for another stealth tax.....

sydthebeat

sinnerboy wrote: »

Very few designs do not develop during construction , especially 1 off's . I think the DOE know this full well and have spotted the opportunity for another stealth tax.....

I completely agree.
If our office was to enforce the same hard ass viewpoint as the LAs around here do, we would never sign off any construction. As SB states, all builds develop during construction, thus the requirement for an 'opinion on substantial compliance' to be furnished.

I really would love if someone could find evidence of this 'minor amendment' application that donegal seem to be able to implement. Can they actually implement their own facilities??? I dont think so.....

smashey

sydthebeat wrote: »

I completely agree.
If our office was to enforce the same hard ass viewpoint as the LAs around here do, we would never sign off any construction. As SB states, all builds develop during construction, thus the requirement for an 'opinion on substantial compliance' to be furnished.

I really would love if someone could find evidence of this 'minor amendment' application that donegal seem to be able to implement. Can they actually implement their own facilities??? I dont think so.....

Syd, I've done minor amendments. I'm not going to link to them so you'll have to take my word for it.

muffler

sydthebeat wrote: »

ie if you do not build exactly what you got permission for, they require you to retain the full development as constructed

i have a case where a client incorporated an extra door and altered a window (enlarged from 900 to 1800) on a single story house, and the council are making him retain the whole house as constructed..... €540 planning fee

You should make the application for "retention of alterations to the house facade". €102 fee should cover it. The description of what is to be retained can be included in the application together with public notices.

muffler

sydthebeat wrote: »

Can they actually implement their own facilities??? I dont think so.....

Can you elaborate please - I dont really understand the question

sydthebeat

This facility that they implement...
'minor amendments' applications for a fee of €63.00...
I know of no section in the planning regulations that allows this (perhaps im completely blind but i cannot find it,.... i have been requesting that someone point it out and no one has yet).... It would be a godsend if someone can point it out to me, because, as ive stated above, the councils are screwing clients on retentions....

so my question is... can them implement their own 'facility' in this manner, which is (apparently) outside the instruments of the planning regs.

sydthebeat

muffler wrote: »

You should make the application for "retention of alterations to the house facade". €102 fee should cover it. The description of what is to be retained can be included in the application together with public notices.

I wish it was that easy, the council are insisting on retention of works as constructed.....

muffler

sydthebeat wrote: »

I wish it was that easy, the council are insisting on retention of works as constructed.....

By their own mythology it could end up a case of that if they refuse an application for retention of the structure as constructed then the entire house may have to be knocked. That wouldnt make much sense to me. However if an application was made for the retention of part of the structure facade, in this instance being a door and window, and it was refused then its not too difficult to revert to the original construction.

I would certainly write to them and ask them for written confirmation that they are refusing to accept an application as I described. CC your local councillors with the letter.

Edit: This needs a new thread

smashey

This issue is taking over the other thread so I'll start this.

In Donegal, after planning permission is granted, (assuming it's a building) it is possible to make some changes to it and apply for a minor amendment to the approved application. A fee of €63 accompanies this and after a few weeks, the council let you know if it is considerd minor or "de minimis" as they put it. These could be moving a building slightly or changing the facade of the building (window/velux locations) etc, etc.

sydthebeat

Ive just put down the phone to an official in Donegal Co Co, and she explained to me that this 'minor amendment' application is something Donegal Co Co do off their own back. There is no specific instrument in the planning regs to allow this, but, according to her, they are allowed to facilitate it themselves.

You are very lucky up there, you seem to have a planning section that has 'common sense'......

sunnysoutheast

We did the same for our build in Waterford CoCo to clarify that we could change the external window finish, we received a confirmation letter back and there was no charge

SSE

sas

Relation of mine recently did the same thing with Laois Co Co to move the position of the house. Just wrote to the planner and got a letter of confirmation that they could proceed. Region of 8 metres distance change from the road which is more than minor in my opinion.

It may vary more planner to planner than coco to coco.

muffler

sydthebeat wrote: »

Ive just put down the phone to an official in Donegal Co Co, and she explained to me that this 'minor amendment' application is something Donegal Co Co do off their own back.

Did you not believe us?

sydthebeat

Yes, i believed you, but i had to find out if there was a facility in the planning act for this, as it would be very useful to me in my day to day work..

however it turns out that there isnt any facility...... Donegal co co themselves have chosen to offer this service, my point is that this is not available from the majority of other LAs..... so perhaps it shouldnt be offered as advice to posters without investigation whether its open to them or not....

smashey

sydthebeat wrote: »

Yes, i believed you, but i had to find out if there was a facility in the planning act for this, as it would be very useful to me in my day to day work..

however it turns out that there isnt any facility...... Donegal co co themselves have chosen to offer this service, my point is that this is not available from the majority of other LAs..... so perhaps it shouldnt be offered as advice to posters without investigation whether its open to them or not....

We weren't aware that it wasn't available elsewhere. Although it appears there is something similar in Waterford.

smashey

getfit wrote: »

Just to keep ye up to speed lads. I have applied for a pre-planning meeting with the intention of asking what is the prodedure on minor amendments, be it by officail application or requesting written consent from a planner.

Getfit, it would appear that the minor amendment is unique to Donegal.

See this post.

muffler

Sorry lads (and lassies?) the posts are a bit mixed up as I moved them from the other thread but feel free to carry on the discussion.

muffler

sydthebeat wrote: »

Yes, i believed you, but i had to find out if there was a facility in the planning act for this, as it would be very useful to me in my day to day work..

however it turns out that there isnt any facility...... Donegal co co themselves have chosen to offer this service, my point is that this is not available from the majority of other LAs..... so perhaps it shouldnt be offered as advice to posters without investigation whether its open to them or not....

First of all smashey made it clear in post #2 that it was Donegal he was referring to so if its not available in other L.A.'s then we cant be responsible for that.

I do take your point that it should be investigated. Maybe we can get people to post here and state if they have that service available in their county.

Or you dont fancy the task of ringing round the various L.A.'s to see who does what

sydthebeat

you are correct, i wouldnt fancy it....

sorry about the last line of my previous post, perhaps i was a bit exasperated at the way agents and clients are treated by LA's in my neck of the woods. Especially with evidence of such common sense being applied in other LA's.