How do I know if my permitted development rights have been removed?

Permitted development is a national grant — separately defined in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland — but it can be withdrawn locally and it frequently has been. The withdrawal is rarely obvious from the house itself — a modern estate looks exactly like an estate with full rights, and a street with an Article 4 direction looks like the street next door without one. Both are matters of public record, and both are free to check.

Step by step

1. Search the planning register for your own address.Every council publishes a searchable planning register. Search by address or postcode and read every application, not just recent ones. This is also how you find previous extensions that used up an allowance.
2. Open the original decision notice and read the conditions.Conditions are numbered and sit at the end of the notice. Look for wording removing rights under the General Permitted Development Order — commonly for extensions, outbuildings, roof alterations, hard surfacing, fences and the conversion of a garage.
3. Check the council's Article 4 directions.A direction removes specified rights across a defined area. Councils publish them as a list with maps. Common targets are windows and doors, roof coverings, front boundary treatments, hard standing, and conversion of family homes into shared houses.
4. Check the designations that restrict rights automatically.Conservation area, National Park, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Broads, World Heritage Site, listed status and a tree preservation order all change what is permitted without any direction being needed.
5. Check whether the building is a flat, or was created by conversion.Householder permitted development applies to houses. A flat, a maisonette, or a dwelling created by a change of use may have far narrower rights or none, and the planning history will show how the dwelling came about.
6. Check the deeds and any estate covenants as well.A restrictive covenant is not planning law and the council will not enforce it, but it can still prevent the work and it can be enforced by whoever holds the benefit. It shows up in the title, not on the planning register.
7. Write down what you found, with the reference numbers.Application numbers, condition numbers, the direction's name and date. A designer, a planning consultant or a solicitor will ask for exactly these, and having them saves a fee.
8. Ask the council to confirm anything ambiguous.Duty planners deal with this question constantly. Ask by email with the address, and keep the reply — but treat it as guidance, not as a determination.

Tips

• A condition that removes permitted development rights does not usually say "Article 4". It names the Order and the classes it withdraws. Read the wording rather than looking for a phrase.
• Article 4 directions can be very narrow — one class, one street, one elevation. Read the direction itself rather than assuming it removes everything.
• If the council later grants permission for the work anyway, the removed right stops mattering. A removed right means an application is required, not that the work is forbidden.

Common mistakes

• Checking only recent planning applications — The condition that matters is usually on the original permission for the estate or the house, which may be decades old and filed under a different address format.
• Confusing a covenant with a planning restriction — They are enforced by different people through different routes, and clearing one does nothing about the other. A project can be lawful in planning terms and still breach the title.

Questions people ask