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Listed Building Consent

Maintaining and updating your Heritage Home – Listed Building Consent

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Listed Building ConsentAs a nation we love our history and heritage; there’s a reason National Trust properties are some of the most popular venues to visit across the country no matter what the season.  A recent survey by Historic England has now revealed that the owners of listed buildings are also proud with their own stake in a yester year.

For the report 1,000 privately owned listed building owners were surveyed, with 93% of those asked seeing their property as important to local character.

If you own your own slice of English heritage then you’ll need to be familiar with the obligations and responsibilities that come with owning a listed property, particularly when it comes to making modifications or changes to your building (as may be the case with the ever changing needs and demands of visitors).

Listed Building Consent (LBC)

As so many historic properties are privately owned (some two thirds of the listed properties across the UK are in private ownership), it is up to the homeowners to ensure that proper maintenance is carried out in order to preserve these wonderful buildings. As part of this, there is sometimes a need to apply for Listed Building Consent (LBC). This building consent must come from your local planning authority, and it is needed if you want to alter or extend a listed building in a way that affects its character or appearance.

Understanding which work requires LBC

88% of owners recognise the importance of Listed Building Consent, which is good because unauthorised work is a criminal offence which can result in prosecution. Whilst most owners have reported a positive experience when applying for LBC, one third of people have had a bad experience.

The survey shows that there is a lot of confusion around Listed Building Consent as not everyone knows what types of work require the consent. It can also seem like a long and complex process, which also puts owners off. For clear advice, take a look at Historic England’s LBC page here.

General Maintenance can be carried out without consent

It is however ok to carry out general maintenance without consent. The survey has shown that historic building owners take good care of their properties, with two thirds of them carrying out regular maintenance (which is incredibly important if you’re welcoming guests to your property).

45% of owners clear gutters and pipes annually (which we recommend as a minimum), whilst 36% clear roof coverings and chimneys annually (which again is a minimum figure you should be adhering to).

Only 10% of listed building owners paint and repairs windows and doors every year, with 58% opting to do this every 2 to 5 years.

Maintaining your listed building to a high standard isn’t just good for the property itself, it is also great for drawing in holiday let visitors, who as you know, come with increasing expectations and standards each and every year.

Boshers are specialist providers of Listed Holiday Home Insurance. For more information on how a specialist insurer can help and support your holiday home business, please give us a call on 01237 429444. 

Follow this link for posts similar to Insurance for Listed Holiday Lets with Heritage and other useful resources for holiday home owners.

You may also find the following post for Listed Holiday Let owners of interest:

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UK tourism figures

Holiday cottage signage: Do you require planning permission?

Holiday Cottage SignageMany holiday homeowners will proudly display their award wins and certifications on entry to, or outside their property. If your accommodation is of a high quality it’s only right that you’ll want people to know, and tasteful positioning of holiday cottage signage is an obvious way of communicating this to visiting guests and passing trade.

If you display any outdoor signs or advertisements there are two regulations you need to comply with:

  • The Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 2007
  • The Consumer Protection Regulations 2008 (CPRs) relating to unfair trading and misleading marketing.

Broadly speaking, the first of these deals with planning permission and the second ensures that your signage is accurate and not misleading to potential guests.

We take a closer look at how you can make sure you stay on the right side of the relevant regulations…

Signs on your holiday home or cottage complex – do you need planning permission?

The need for planning permission for signage on your holiday home can be broken down into three categories:

Fully illuminated signs:  If you want to add a sign that is illuminated it will always require express consent from your Local Planning Authority (LPA). The only exception to this would be if the sign were to be placed inside a window, rather than a doorway or exterior wall.

Partially illuminated signs: If only the letters of your sign are illuminated you may not require express planning permission and it is worth contacting your LPA to check on this.

Non-illuminated signs: These can usually be displayed with deemed planning consent, which is when the permission is deemed to have already been given by the planning authority through their rules and regulations, and there is no need to apply for it.

Listed Buildings

If your holiday home is a listed building you will need to seek planning permission before adding any signage, or making alterations to any existing signage that has already gained planning permission.

How about signage at the entrance to your holiday home or cottage complex?

Many of your guests will be visiting your holiday home for the first time so it’s a sensible idea to have to have signage to make sure they know they’ve arrived in the right place. You will normally be allowed to erect a non-illuminated sign by your gate, driveway or within the grounds of your holiday home with deemed consent (subject to limitations on overall size, height and size of characters or symbols).

Directional signs away from your holiday home

For those situated off the beaten track, you may consider placing directional signs at the end of the road, lane, or wherever guests trying to find your holiday home commonly come unstuck.

If you’re looking at placing signs of this sort away from your holiday home they will always require planning permission.

Please note that planning is a complex area and this holiday cottage signage article is only meant as a guide to some of the permissions required as a holiday homeowner. If you’re in any doubt as to whether you require planning permission or not please contact your Local Planning Authority.

If you have found this blog post on Holiday Cottage Signage and planning permission of interest do check out our other holiday home marketing posts by following the link – Holiday Home Marketing.

Boshers offer specialist holiday home insurance to holiday letting owners across the UK. For more information on how a specialist insurer can help and support your holiday home business, please give us a call on 01237 429444.

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