House Extensions in Leeds

Leeds City Council. They determine householder and full applications across the city and the outlying towns inside the boundary, including Wetherby. Building regulations are separate and can go to the council's building control team or to an approved inspector.

It is a direction that removes specified permitted development rights across a defined area, meaning you need a full planning application for work that would not otherwise require one. It is not visible from the street. We check the position for your specific address before any design work starts.

It is filling in the narrow strip of ground alongside the rear outrigger of a terraced or semi-detached house. On its own it widens the plan. Carried round into a rear extension, which is what a wrap-around means, it converts the whole ground floor into a single usable space.

Rarely at the rear, because there is no rear elevation and no garden behind. Improvements to that stock usually come from internal reconfiguration, a loft conversion, or a modest addition at the front or side where the plot allows. We would tell you that at the first meeting rather than after a fee.

Not always. Many single storey rear extensions fall within householder permitted development, subject to limits on depth, height and garden coverage. Rights are reduced in conservation areas, do not apply to flats, and can be removed entirely by an Article 4 direction or by a condition on the original permission.

Almost certainly, and often with the neighbours on both sides. Cutting into a shared wall, building at the line of junction and excavating close to a neighbouring structure are all notifiable under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996. Most neighbours consent in writing when the notice arrives in good time.

That alley is usually where the soil pipe and the gully live, so the drainage has to be rerouted as part of the work. If the drain is a public sewer or a shared lateral drain, a build over or build near agreement with the water authority is normally needed as well.

It might, and that is a legitimate planning consideration. It is answered by window position, by obscure glazing where appropriate, and by drawings that show the actual distances rather than asserting the impact is acceptable. Loss of a view, by contrast, is not a planning consideration.

Yes, but the method changes and so does the price. Excavated material may have to come through the house with proper protection, and the structure may have to be chosen so components can be carried in by hand. That is assessed at survey stage so it is in the quote rather than in a variation.

Yes. Our registered address is at White Rose Park in Leeds and we work across the city and its suburbs, as well as Wetherby, which falls to the same authority. Just outside the boundary the council changes, so we confirm which applies before advising.

Yes. The architect who designs the scheme oversees the build, so the detail that made the plan work is the one that gets constructed. The build cost quoted at the outset is the one we hold to, which matters most on a tight site where sequence drives the programme.