Planning and Warrant Service

A lot of our customers include our planning and warrant service, which means we act as your agent for building approvals.  You need an agent because each new house requires planning permission on your selected site and regulatory approvals to allow it to be built.  In Scotland this is securing full planning permission and a building warrant, in England and Wales it is securing full planning permission and complying with building regulations.

Our full package includes use of a range of consultants including the architect, land surveyor, sewerage and drainage specialist, civil and structural engineer and heating system engineer.  It is a comprehensive package designed to maximise your chances of obtaining consents in the most hassle-free way.  The engineer of your kit will also design your foundations, which reduces risk. 

This service is only available in Scotland. For England, Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland we would recommend working with a local agent to prepare all of the site specific information, and deal with the local authorities for the required approvals. We have various independent agents that we have partnered with that can provide this service for you, you can find their locations and contact details below: 

England (South): Dunlop Studios - Contact Nick at info@dunlopstudios.com 

Wales & England (North/Midlands/South): Keystone Architecture & Design - Contact the team at info@keystonead.co.uk

Republic of Ireland: Daly and Carroll Architecture - Contact Ronan at ronan@daca.ie

The fee for our full service including consultants is £16,800 + VAT. We can also act as the principal designer under CDM 2015 regulations for your project upon your instruction for an additional fee, as detailed in optional costs below. Some fees may vary if the site location is remote to cover additional time out of office. If some consultant work has already been carried out, we will reduce our fee accordingly, as per the fee schedule below.

It may be that your site does not have planning approval and you are unsure if an application would be successful.  We would recommend a good planning consultant before incurring architects' fees. In England Dan McEwan is skilled at taking the correct approach to give the best chance of success.  His email is dan@workbyhere.con and his mobile is 07827 012317.  In Scotland Maria Franke Planning has over 28 years experience, both at large commercial scale and small projects.  Her email is info@mfplanning.co.uk and her number is 07539 389078.  Please read our Planning Guide in our Members Area. 

Stage 1 - Planning Application

Full planning consent will approve the design of the house, as well as its site, how the access is configured, and how sewerage and surface water is dealt with. The council will consult with other statutory bodies, such as the water authority during this process. If your proposal is in a sensitive area, government agencies such as English or Scottish Natural Heritage, Historic Scotland or the National Trust may be involved. There is never a guarantee that you will get full planning permission, as it is dependent on the policies and opinions of local authorities and their officials.  Although local authorities are responsible for administering the planning system, comprehensive information on national guidelines can be found online here. All prices below ex VAT.

£4,500  HebHomes project management (planning) scope of work:

• Site visit
• Planning drawings of house including section through site showing house in context and block and location plan of house on site
• Design and access statement
• All planning application administration
• Management of consultants

Likely consultant work required for planning:

£1,200 Topographical survey of site (presuming half-acre site)

£1,200 Ground Investigation Report

£1,400 Drainage report and Percolation tests

£400     Drainage schematic drawing for planning

£900     Road access design

£800     Cut and fill analysis (Required for sloping sites)

Stage 1 total cost for full service including consultants: £10,400 + VAT*

50% due before site visits conducted
50% due once all works complete, prior to submission to planning

*If any services above already carried out or not required, please advise and we will remove this from our scope of work.  Challenging or remote sites may result in additional costs, we will advise ahead of any work going ahead. 

Stage 2 - Building Control

Once you have secured full planning permission, the next step is a building control consent – that is, approval from your local authority’s building standards department.

This system varies in different parts of the UK. In Scotland you cannot build until you have full council-approved drawings. These drawings show details of the structure, the internal layout, electrics, plumbing and heating system. An engineer’s certificate, as well as data illustrating the energy efficiency for the house is also required. In England your technical drawings will be submitted for approval to a local authority or private approved inspector. You can expect a decision between 5-8 weeks from your application. In Republic of Ireland you can commence and complete construction on approved planning drawings. There is a legal obligation for compliance with Building Regulations which is satisfied through lodgement to the Local Authority of “certificates of compliance“.

The structural drawings package will include certificate prepared by a Structural Engineers Register-approved engineer (known as an SER certificate) to confirm that the proposed build meets all the required structural standards . This certificate covers all elements of the build, including the foundations and other non-kit elements (this only applies in Scotland). All prices below ex. Vat.

£3,600  HebHomes project management (building control) scope of work:

• Site specific building control drawings
• All Building Control application administration – up to award of building warrant

Likely consultant work required for Building Control:

£1,150  Foundation design

£1,050  Detailed drainage design

£600     Options appraisal for heating system

Stage 2 total cost for full service including consultants: £6,400 + VAT*

50% due before commencing building control stage
50% due once all works complete, prior to submission to building control

*Challenging or remote sites may result in additional costs, we will advise ahead of any work going ahead.

Additional Charges

You will also need to factor in additional expenses which are not included in our packages as follows:

Mandatory

• Planning Application fee (£600 in Scotland)
• Building Control Application fee (approx. £1,500, depending on floor area)
• SER Certification & Registration at Building Control stage (£700 in Scotland only)
• Travelling & Subsistence for all consultants
• Additional information requested by the local authority
• Liaising with Statutory Authorities after approval
• Site visits (separate to kit contract)
• Mains water and electricity connections administration

Optional

• Principal Designer: a statutory Health and Safety role. Hebhomes can provide this service for an additional fee of £2000 + VAT.
• Contract Administrator: to administer the contract while the work is on site.
• Quantity Surveyor: to provide you with a more robust costing of the development of the overall site.
• Heating Engineer: to provide detailed design of heating system.
• We would recommend a warranty scheme for all domestic projects.

Site Specific (these may or may not apply to your project depending on your site)

• Surveys of existing buildings
• Environmental, archaeological, bat, animal surveys
• Machine and manpower to dig percolation and ground condition holes to support site specific surveys
• Tree Survey & Landscape design
• SUDS and Non-standard drainage design
• Flood Risk assessment
• Community engagement report
• Contamination land report
• Designing water supply and issuing reports (where no mains)
• Decrofting admin
• Radon report
• Planning advertisement fee (varies per council)
• Retaining wall design
• Garage design (please request our Garage Pack to look at our options)

You will receive the following documents once you decide to proceed:

• HebHomes Planning & Building Warrant Contract
• HebHomes Release letter (kit contract)

These are two separate contracts, one covering our planning and warrant service, and the other covering the design of your HebHome. These are contracts between yourselves and HebHomes which outline standard duties and responsibilities as well as a breakdown of fees and estimates on additional expenses. Once these documents are signed and returned, we will make a start with your project.

If you decide not to take our Planning and Warrant Service but would like us to organise some surveys for you, please let us know and we can look at getting these organised for you. Additional fees may be applicable due to being outwith our standard Planning and Warrant package.

Example Programme

Download our example programme from the Members Area for an indication of how long the different stages may take.