Your planning application was refused. What next?

A refusal is not a verdict on the house. It is a list of reasons, written against policy, on a decision notice. Those reasons are the brief. Treat them as such and a resubmission is often cheaper and faster than an appeal.

Read the notice, not the rumour

The officer report and the decision notice name the policies. In London householder cases the usual cluster is:

• Character and appearance — bulk, roofscape, materials, the host house no longer leading.
• Neighbour amenity — overbearing, loss of daylight/sunlight, overlooking.
• Missing information — no daylight study, no heritage statement, drawings that do not match.
• Principle of use — less common on a straightforward extension, more common on HMOs and extra dwellings.

We sort those into three piles: fixable by design, fixable by information, and not worth fighting. You get that sorting before you appoint us.

Resubmit or appeal

A resubmission lets you change the drawings. If the problem is a 4.5m rear wing on a short garden, cutting the depth is the answer. The council looks at a new scheme. In many cases a similar application can be made without a second fee if it is submitted within 12 months of the decision — check the current fee regulations for your case, because the 12-month “free go” has been restricted in recent reforms.

An appeal asks the Planning Inspectorate to say the council was wrong on the drawings you already have. It is slower. It freezes the scheme. And the Inspectorate has been clear that appeals should be decided on the evidence that was (or should have been) in front of the local authority. A weak pack does not improve on the train to Bristol.

Use an appeal when the principle is right and the council is being inconsistent with its own decisions. Use a redesign when the geometry is the problem.

What we need from you

1. The application reference and the decision notice.
2. The drawings that were lodged — even if they are poor.
3. Anything the officer said in writing that did not make the notice.

We do not redraw facts that are already true. We replace the parts that caused the refusal.

Time

A focused resubmission on a householder scheme is typically a matter of weeks of design, then the council’s eight-week clock again. An appeal on written representations is often several months. If you are trying to get on site next summer, the calendar matters more than the principle of “being right”.

Email the notice to design@fadp.co.uk. A director will read it.

Planning applications · Free consultation

Common householder refusals, and the usual fix

• Too deep on a short garden. Cut the rear wing; keep the quality of the remaining space. A 3m building that sits is worth more than a 6m building that does not.
• A full-width dormer that breaks the ridge. Set it down, set it in, change the cheeks. Or drop the loft and look at the rear instead.
• Overlooking from a flank window. Move the opening, raise the cill, or use a screened light. Do not argue that no one will look.
• Missing heritage statement on a listed house or conservation street. Write it from the building. Do not relodge the same drawings with a paragraph of adjectives.

What a free-go actually is in 2026

The old “free go” within 12 months has been tightened. Do not assume a second householder application on the same site is free. We check the current fee regulations against your decision date before we tell you the resubmission will cost nothing at the portal. Our fee for the redesign is always written separately.

If the refusal is on an HMO or a new dwelling

Those are not householder cases. Parking, mix of uses, and space standards sit in a different policy stack. A redesign that only shaves a metre off a rear wall will not fix a principle-of-use refusal. We say that in the first note, so you do not buy a drawing that cannot pass.