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Appeals & enforcement

Retrospective applications

Built something without permission, or bought a property where previous owners did? A retrospective application is often the most straightforward way to put it right.

Benjamin Plunkett, Managing Director
✓Free home visit ✓No obligation ✓Honest advice ✓Fixed price Ben, our Managing Director and Planning & Heritage Consultant, will visit your property anywhere in our six council areas.
📞 Call 01206 656027 or book online →
Survey photos and 3D model of a historic coach house

When retrospective planning applies

  • Extensions, outbuildings or fences built without the permission they needed
  • Work that differs from the approved plans
  • Changes of use that have already happened
  • Works to listed buildings carried out without consent

How we help

We survey what has been built, prepare accurate drawings and write the case for why it should be approved, addressing any concerns the council or neighbours have raised. If the work needs changes to be acceptable, we'll suggest the smallest changes likely to work.

Benjamin PlunkettCharlie Plunkett

Who'll handle your project: Benjamin Plunkett, our Managing Director and Planning & Heritage Consultant, is your point of contact from the first site visit to the decision. Charlie Plunkett MCIAT produces the drawings.

About us
Recent projects

Appeals & Enforcement projects

See more
Proposed front elevation with cream render gable and brick ground floor
Extension Tendring

Raised roof and two-storey rear extension

A dated bungalow redesigned as a family home, reworked point by point after an earlier refusal.
The row of black weatherboarded cattery buildings with white-framed pens
New build Chelmsford

Retrospective permission for a five-building rural cattery

Planning permission for a cattery built as five separate buildings and a reception, rather than one long block, for better ventilation and cat welfare near Chelmsford.
The front of the cottage and its parking area, seen from the road
Extension Tendring

Off-street parking and EV charging for a village home

Planning permission to regularise a front driveway in Great Oakley after enforcement action, backed by a survey proving clear and safe visibility onto the road.
Rear elevation with the lowered extension roof and solar panels
Appeal Colchester

Lowering an extension roof in Colchester, won on appeal

After an extension roof was built taller than approved, we designed a lower roof that solved an enforcement case. The council refused it, and the Inspector allowed our appeal.
The detached interwar house before the extension, with its garage and steep lean-to roof
Appeal Ipswich

First-floor front extension in Ipswich, allowed on appeal

The council refused one part of a house extension scheme in Ipswich. We appealed, and the Inspector found our hipped-roof front extension was good design and allowed it.
The garden room with French doors and a glazed gable
Extension Tendring

Retrospective permission for a garden room

Retrospective planning permission for a garden room in Elmstead that was slightly too tall for permitted development, closing off an enforcement enquiry.
Questions

Frequently asked questions

Will a retrospective application be judged more harshly?

It should be judged on its planning merits in the same way as any other application, although councils do take unauthorised development seriously.

What if it's refused?

You can appeal, and the council may take enforcement action. We'll advise on the best course at each stage.

Benjamin Plunkett, Managing Director
Free home visit

Thinking about a project?

Ben, our Managing Director and Planning & Heritage Consultant, will come to you, look at the property and tell you honestly what's likely to get approved. Free, with no obligation, anywhere in Tendring, Babergh, Colchester, Braintree, Maldon and Ipswich districts.

Planning consultants and chartered designers in one team: drawings designed to get approved, with the same people from site visit to decision.

Book a free home visit → Call 01206 656027
📞 CallBook a free visit