Housing Associations

[JanieB]

Are they exempt from the usual rules relating to listed buildings. There are 3 houses in the main street of the town I live in that are 4 story listed Georgian buildings. Once they were houses for the well to do of this borough. They are now owned by a housing association and have been turned into flats for single people. This was done many years ago. About 4 years ago one of the yorkstone doorsteps disintegrated and was replaced with an ugly preformed concrete step.

They are currently replacing the wooden sash windows with UPVC double glazing. Apart from the fact that everyone else in the conservation area has to get PP to replace their windows even like for like, I thought listed buildings were supposed to as well. I know they haven't applied for permission as I sit on the town Planning Committee and I've checked the Planning Portal.

 

[xanthe]

No, they are absolutely not exempt! A lot of councils are no longer using UPVC for replacement windows even on properties where it doesn't matter - I think they are not cost effective. I'm pretty sure my old one now uses aluminium or something.

Contact the enforcement officer in your Planning Office asap.

Although you may have little joy. I was vice-chair of my borough's Planning Committee and was forever shopping people for doing terrible things eg a nice row of Georgian houses in a conservation area and someone knocks the front window out, makes the hole a 3 feet wider and installs a modern bay with stained glass and fake leading... I was literally shaking over that one. They were still in the process of installing it when I called.

I actually cried on the phone and they just said there was nothing they could really do. I was so cross - people who do things properly and want something perfectly nice and sympathetic jump through all the hoops and are turned down and yet people do horrendous things without asking and get away with it. The laws are there, so why the heck aren't they being used? :evil:

I used to dream of getting to be the enforcement officer for a week - along with running a police checkpoint in Peckham and doing hundreds of uninsured, unlicensed drivers - and making a lot of people undamage their properties!

 

[Flyfisher]

If the council won't enforce the law what about the police? It's supposed to be a criminal offence, after all, and I imagine it would be fairly easy to prove guilt, so hardly a complicated or costly prosecution.

 

[88v8]

And surely if the Planning people won't enforce the law that constitutes misconduct in public office which is itself an offence. Police again. Although you may initially have trouble convincing the Police that this is a criminal matter.

Ivor

 

[xanthe]

There is some article (?4) or other they trot out as the reasoning. Memory is rubbish so will have to have a look and see if I can remember.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

If it's a listed building then they need listed building consent (not planning permission) to change the windows. I'd be surprised if a local authority would approve a change to plastic in those circumstances.
If it's a house (not a block of flats or commercial premises) that is merely in a conservation area, not listed, then the range of things that can be done to ruin the building, without requiring any permission at ll, is surprisingly wide, and does include window alterations.
The mechanism to prevent this would be an Article 4 Direction, which restricts specific "permitted development rights" and brings them under a requirement to obtain planning permission. Some local authorities love making Article 4 directions, others don't.
I'd be interested if Janie B could send me a private message about where exactly we're talking about so I can look into it.