I am looking to have a 4m rear single storey extension built which would extend across the back of my semi-detached house. Unfortunately the previous owners had built a small kitchen side extension at the back of the garage that adjoins the side of the house. Because of this I cannot use Permitted Development (PD) to build across the entire rear as it would be seen as a side extension extending greater than 50% of the original Dwelling.
Looking at the local Councils planning portal, all 4m rear extensions that have had planning permission applied for appear to be denied with the reason based on the their Development Document that they follow, which states; Rear extensions to be “no more than 3m from the rear of the original dwelling”. I then came across a house nearby that was in a similar situation to myself and had the original 4m extension refused but had then put in a planning application for a 4m extension to just the side extension which was approved, they then used PD rights to build the 4m extension for the back of the original house. The two ‘approved’ extensions where built at the same time and obviously merged into the one open plan extension without joining walls. When I spoke with them, they stated that they had been advised by the planning Officer to go down this route after they had been refused the PA for 4m across the entire rear of the property.
My questions are;
Has anyone come across this merging of PD & PA before, and what was the outcome?
Is this ‘allowed’ or was the nearby house ill informed?
Would an additional PA be required to join the two extensions together, and what would the likelihood of permission being granted?