Caroline Reese was expecting her second child and needed a second bedroom for their small, one bedroom, first floor flat in Haringey, north London. She applied for planning permission for a very common form of development – a loft conversion with a rear dormer extension.
The council refused permission, saying that the dormer was too large and would look out of place in this area. However, the dormer could not be any smaller – there just wouldn’t be enough head height and nowhere for the stairs to rise from the floor below.
We appealed on Caroline’s behalf and were delighted when the appeal was allowed. The inspector agreed with us that the dormer was conventional in design and appearance and matched countless other dormers on roofs along the terrace row (most of them built using permitted development rights). In any case, the inspector said, the dormer wasn’t visible from the street and couldn’t harm the streetscene. Finally, the inspector agreed with us that if Caroline’s property were a house, and not a converted flat, she could have built her dormer using permitted development rights.
