Householder Planning Application

The householder planning application is the one most people meet: it is the route for extending or altering your own house. It is a cheaper, quicker and simpler form of planning application than the full version, but only if your project actually fits the definition, which is narrower than it first appears. Get that wrong and the council will tell you to reapply, having lost you weeks. This page explains what a householder planning application covers, what it does not, and how the process runs from submission to appeal.

What is a householder planning application?

The definition sits in article 2 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015. A householder application means an application for planning permission for development of an existing dwellinghouse, or development within the curtilage of such a dwellinghouse for any purpose incidental to the enjoyment of the dwellinghouse.

It also covers an application for any consent, agreement or approval required by or under a planning permission, development order or local development order in relation to that sort of development, so a prior approval application for a larger single-storey rear extension is treated as a householder application too.

Everyday examples are exactly what you would expect: extensions, alterations, garages, swimming pools, walls and fences, a new vehicular access, porches and satellite dishes.

When you cannot use a householder planning application

The Order draws two express exclusions. A householder planning application does not include:

• an application for a change of use
• an application to change the number of dwellings in a building

So converting a house into two flats is not a householder application, and neither is turning a garage into a separate annexe with its own front door. If your scheme creates a new dwelling, or removes one, you are in full application territory.

There is a third limit that is less obvious, because it is buried in a single word. The definition turns on dwellinghouse. A flat is not a dwellinghouse, so works to a flat or maisonette are not householder applications, and go in as full applications instead. This catches out owners of ground-floor flats with their own back garden, who reasonably assume they are in the same position as a neighbouring house.

The word incidental does work too. Development within the curtilage has to be incidental to the enjoyment of the dwellinghouse, which covers a garden shed, a home office or a pool, but not something amounting to a separate use in its own right.

Do you need permission at all?

Before applying, check whether the work is permitted development. A great many domestic extensions and alterations do not need planning permission, because the General Permitted Development Order grants it already, subject to conditions and limits that are easy to trip over, and which are removed in some places by an Article 4 direction or by the property being a flat, a listed building, or in a designated area.

Our guide to permitted development is the place to start. If the answer is that no permission is needed, a householder application is wasted time and money.

A householder application does carry a fee, and it is payable whether you are refused or approved, which is one more reason to check permitted development first, and to get the application right at the first attempt. See our guide to planning fees in England.

How long it takes

A householder planning application is not major development, so the statutory determination period is eight weeks, beginning with the day immediately following the day the application is received. That can be extended by written agreement between you and the council, and in practice often is, though you are not obliged to agree.

For the wider picture, including what happens when the council misses the deadline, see our guide to planning timescales.

You will also need to serve notice on anyone else who owns the land, and there are publicity and neighbour consultation requirements, typically a site notice or a letter to adjoining neighbours, before the council can decide. For a householder application the council may choose between the two, so it has no duty to write to your neighbours at all.

Appeals: twelve weeks, and one shot at it

If your householder application is refused, the deadline to appeal is 12 weeks from the date of the decision notice. That is much shorter than the six months allowed for most other planning appeals, and it is unforgiving, so miss it and the only route is to apply again. Note the 12 weeks applies to a refusal: if you are appealing conditions attached to a permission, or the council’s failure to decide at all, you have six months. See our guide to planning appeals, and our page on appeal timescales, which sets out the deadline for each type of application. If you have just been refused and are weighing an appeal against simply applying again, start with what to do when a planning application is refused.

Householder appeals run through an expedited written representations procedure. There is no hearing and no inquiry. One consequence is worth understanding before you appeal: representations already made about the application are passed to the Secretary of State, and there is no opportunity to make further representations. Neither you nor your neighbours get a second bite, as the Inspector decides on what is already there, plus your appeal statement.

As with all planning appeals, only the applicant can appeal. A neighbour who dislikes a permission cannot appeal against it. See our guide to planning appeals and timescales for the fuller picture.

Listed buildings and other consents

A householder planning application deals with planning permission and nothing else. If your house is listed, works affecting its character need listed building consent as well, a separate application, under a separate Act, and carrying criminal liability if you skip it.

Building regulations approval is separate again, as are matters such as party wall agreements and protected species licences. Planning permission is permission to develop; it is not permission to build badly, and it does not override your neighbour’s rights.

One thing you can stop worrying about: householder applications are exempt from biodiversity net gain. The 10% requirement that applies to most development does not apply to you.

Practical points

• get the application type right first, as a householder application for something that is not householder development will be invalidated, and you start again
• check permitted development before you apply, and check for an Article 4 direction if you are relying on it
• drawings do the work: a householder application still needs proper existing and proposed plans and elevations at a stated scale
• the eight weeks runs from validation, not from the day you press send, as an invalid application does not start the clock
• diary the 12-week appeal deadline the moment a refusal lands, because it comes round faster than people expect

See also our guide to the types of planning application.

Relevant legislation

The householder planning application is a creature of the procedure Order rather than the Act, so the definition, the eight-week period and the twelve-week appeal deadline all sit there. When checking any provision, use the “Changes to Legislation” panel on legislation.gov.uk, as later amendments are not always shown in the main text.

• Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015, article 2, the definition of a householder application, and the exclusions for change of use and change to the number of dwellings
• Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015 (SI 2015/595), the whole procedure: determination periods, publicity, notices and appeal deadlines
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 78, the right of appeal against refusal
• Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (SI 2015/596), permitted development, and whether you need a householder application at all

Other Planning Application Sections

Householder Planning Application Page Updated: 12th August 2026