If you own a flat here in the UK or are tenant in a block of flats and you are thinking about replacing your external door(s) or windows, it is extremely unwise to do so without first having gone through the minefield of your leaseholder agreement, planning regulations, Fire regulations and the specific rules that will govern your particular block of flats (usually overseen by a Residents Association or Management Company).
For example if the entrance door to a particular flat is a door within a door (i.e. access to the flat is via an internal corridor that has an external communal door), then any replacement front door must be fire rated to protect you and the other occupants. The length of fire rating required is determined by your local Fire Officer. This means that unlike normal householders with detached or terraced properties etc you sadly cannot fit double glazed aluminium, timber or UPVC doors with plastic gaskets as none of these will achieve the fire rating required. Approved and tested fire doors are usually solid timber or steel doors with no plastic gaskets. Both types are very expensive and so do your research before splashing out on a replacement door so you can be sure it is an “approved” addition. If the new door installer cannot provide a certificate as proof that the door has a one hour fire rating (which is the usual requirement), best walk away.
Likewise don’t change any window in a block of flats without first making sure you’ve got all the necessary permissions, as you can end up having to pay out a fortune compared to what the replacement window cost you in the first place, so make sure you get all the approvals you need in writing before ordering.
Be aware it is ultimately the flat owners sole responsibility to find out what planning permission(s) are required from their local authority, whether the flat is in a Conservation Area or not. In addition, each flat owner needs to obtain written permission from the freeholder and/or the Management Company. If you are a tenant and want to change your door or windows, the minefield you walk into is larger as you’ll not only need planning permission, but also your landlords approval, as well as permission from the Management Company.
The reason why Local Authorities in England require planning permission is that no flat in any block of flats has any Permitted Development Rights, so as unfair as it sounds, flat owners do not have the legal right to change their windows or any external door without first obtaining planning permission. This is partly so each council’s planning department keeps control on the types and designs of the products being replaced. Each planning department usually want replacement windows and doors to be “in-keeping” and to be of “similar appearance”.
A potential impasse can occur between what some flat occupants think of as “similar”, may not be what their local planning department considers “similar”. Each council in England has the right to force flat owners to replace at the flat owners cost for any door or window they’ve not had planning permission to change. Financially this can mean a massive expense (especially if the flat in question is on the 2nd floor or above and has internally beaded windows fitted from the inside), if the council requires the replacement windows and doors to be removed and replaced with externally beaded windows to match the other externally beaded windows already pre-existing in other flats in the block. Why? Because as the flat is on the 2nd floor or above windows can only be legally and safely replaced by the erection of expensive compliant scaffolding.
English Councils are often fast to issue Planning Enforcement Notices to any flat owner they come across (or are told about by other flat owners) who has changed their windows without planning permission. Whilst retrospective planning permission can be sought, there is no guarantee the Local Authority in question will grant this, and more often than not, this adds even more costs before eventually the flat owner has to replace all the replacement doors and windows for the second time.
Flat owners can also get into hot water by not getting written permission from the Management Company, and this can lead to time consuming on-going disputes with both them and other flat owners, which can be a major problem when you want to sell your flat, as the Management Company has the right to refuse to process the flat sale until you’ve paid the compensation they require or changed any windows or doors to one’s they accept.
Those flat owners unfortunate enough to live in a block of flats in a Conservation Area, upon which the Local Authority has served an “Article 4” notice, cannot replace the external doors or windows without in getting a double planning permission in relation to both article 4 and for the replacement door and window styles/types.
The answer is before buying or renting a flat is to choose a block of flats where modern low maintenance thermally broken doors and windows already exist throughout, so you’ll benefit from their energy efficiency, improved sound insulation and avoid having to pay the Management Company for having to paint them year after year, with you continually forking out your flat’s proportion of the scaffolding and re-decoration costs.
