Can I build it
without planning?
Enter a postcode to see whether your house still has permitted development rights — and how far you can extend, convert or build before you need planning permission.
✓ Free✓ No account✓ Results in seconds
14 Orchard Way, HP10 9QJ
Semi-detached house · Buckinghamshire Council
- Rear extension (single storey)
- 3 m · 6 m with prior approval
- Conservation area
- Not in one
- Article 4 direction
- Checked
- Listed building
- Checked
How it works
How to check what you can build.
- 01
Enter your address
We find the property from its postcode or address, and you tell us the house type — detached, semi, terrace or flat.
- 02
We check the restrictions
Conservation areas, Article 4 directions, listed buildings, National Landscapes and flats — the things that remove or shrink permitted development.
- 03
See your allowances
How far you can extend, convert the loft or build in the garden, with the exact limits that apply to your house.
Reading a result
A green result isn’t planning permission.
Permitted development lets you do certain work without applying — but councils can remove those rights with an Article 4 direction or a condition on an old planning permission, and conditions aren’t in any public dataset.
We show what the published data says for your address. If you’re about to spend real money, a Lawful Development Certificate from your council is the only guarantee.
Projects
What can you build without applying?
Headline limits for a house with full permitted development rights. Your check shows which ones apply to your address.
- Class A
Rear extension
3 m
- Class A
Side extension
½ width
- Class A
Two-storey rear
3 m
- Class B
Loft conversion
40 m³
- Class D
Porch
3 m²
- Class E
Garden room
2.5 m
- Part 14
Solar panels
0.2 m
- Part 14
Air source heat pump
37 dB
Limits shown are for houses. Flats and maisonettes don’t have householder permitted development rights.
What you get
Start free. Get the detail before you dig.
The address check is free for everyone. The report gives you your exact allowances and a dated record to hand to a builder, architect or the council.
Free check
£0 forever
- House type and whether it’s a flat
- Conservation area, Article 4, listed and National Landscape flags
- Your headline rear-extension allowance
- No account, no email
Permitted Development Report
Most useful£14.99 one-off · PDF + web
- Everything in the free check
- Every project class with the exact limits for your house
- What your council’s Article 4 direction removes
- Plot size and the 50% garden rule, from the title plan
- Protected trees near where you’d build
- Whether you need nothing, prior approval, an LDC or full planning
- Dated PDF to share with your builder or architect
Architect, builder or loft company? Send clients a branded report with your logo.
Business reports →Why it matters
Build it wrong and
you may have to take it down.
Councils can serve an enforcement notice on building work that needed permission — even years later, and even if a previous owner built it. A two-minute check costs less than one site visit.
- 10 years
- How long councils have to take enforcement action on building work in England
- Removal
- An enforcement notice can require the work to be taken down
- At sale
- Buyers’ solicitors ask for proof the work was lawful
Common questions
Before you call
the builder.
Most houses in England do. They’re removed or reduced for flats and maisonettes, listed buildings, homes in conservation areas or National Landscapes, where an Article 4 direction applies, and sometimes by a condition on the original planning permission. The free check shows every one we can see for your address.
Where this data comes from
Planning designations from planning.data.gov.uk — conservation areas, Article 4 directions, listed buildings (Historic England), National Parks and National Landscapes, World Heritage Sites, Tree Preservation Orders and flood zones — all under the Open Government Licence. Not an official council check. Coverage varies by council; every result lists what was and wasn’t available.
Check before you build.
Guidance based on public data. Confirm with your council — or get a Lawful Development Certificate — before you start work.