Almost every residential renovation and refurbishment project in West London’s Kensington & Chelsea or Westminster requires one or more official planning permissions, permits or licenses. Obtaining planning permission involves considerable local knowledge, strong working relationships and lots of experience. Sorting out each aspect of the necessary paperwork for any residential property renovation is often surprisingly complicated and time consuming. If completed incorrectly, it is usually extremely expensive and results in substantial delays or could even put an entire refurbishment project at risk .
strong relationship and planning expertise
From the outset, Buro Architects draw on many years experience and extensive knowledge of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster planning requirements and listed building consents. Our architects combine this with technical building expertise to offer clients the very best of advice. After establishing what is physically and legally possible for you to achieve with your renovation, Buro Architects take great pride in guiding you toward practical and imaginative solutions. This ensures that none of your time, effort or resources are wasted considering design options that may later prove to be either impractical, not permissible or simply too costly to implement.
breadth and depth of experience
The Buro Architects architectural and interior design team, backed up by specialist consultants as required, is extremely capable and experienced:
• Obtaining planning approvals for extensions, re-modelling, and change of use projects
• Securing consents required to modify Listed Buildings
• Sourcing licenses from freeholders when refurbishing leasehold properties
• Liaising with Managing Agents
• Securing planning permission when renovating apartments in mansion blocks
• Arranging Party Wall Agreements and Schedules of Condition
• Dealing with Building Control, ensuring compliance and certification from local authorities (a legal requirement for construction in the UK)
• Dealing with unforeseen requirements specific to your property refurbishment
Sourcing planning permission and approvals takes a considerable amount of time. Buro Architects start the process with all of the planning elements your renovation will need within days of you appointing us. This speeds up applications to the planners at Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster boroughs and allows them to run concurrently, saving a considerable amount of stress, time and effort. When submitting planning applications in neighbourhoods such as Mayfair, Holland Park, Pimlico, Belgravia, Chelsea and Kensington, it is critical that planning applications are submitted without haste and all elements are carefully considered and documented.
Most residential architects only deal with a few of these issues – usually taking one step at a time. This is a logical and safe way to proceed as key design decisions are usually made later in the process when all the approvals are secured. However, the unforeseen issue for many property owners occurs when detailed designing is deferred, prolonging the entire process, which can become extremely protracted. You could wait many months, in extreme cases years, before building work can even begin.
local planning application expertise
Buro Architects advise anyone considering a London property investment, the purchase of a London property, or those planning to renovate a property in West London to investigate the rules applicable to the property you intend to purchase (something we can help research) or intending to renovate. You may be entirely surprised or discouraged by limitations that in time prove impossible to overcome, however hard you try.
It might be foolish to proceed in the mistaken belief that everything will somehow resolve itself. Often, elements do not proceed as you would like them to, despite suggestions you might receive to that effect from less experienced (or indeed less principled) architects or those involved in the sale of a property to secure their deal.
As a matter of course, we handle all planning applications for our projects in the West London boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster. These include applications for Licenses to Refurbish, Listed Buildings Refurbishment Applications as well as managing all negotiations with Managing Agents and Residents Associations concerning Schedules of Conditions, Party-wall Agreements and Traffic Management plans. Buro Architects also execute other relevant protocols on your behalf to help you achieve your property renovation goals, including ensuring we have exhausted all “unused” development opportunities that exist for your property with local planners.
planning application experience
Buro Architects enjoy excellent relationships with Planning Authorities in the West London boroughs of Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster where we renovate and refurbish residential properties exclusively. Over the last 20 years, we have proudly maintained an excellent track record negotiating Planning Applications and obtaining Permissions for some bold projects over the 150 or so renovations we have completed in these two London boroughs.
