Planning conditions for your house

Read every planning condition as soon as the decision arrives, before booking a builder or arranging a mortgage drawdown. Mark the ones you must meet before work starts and ask your architect or planning consultant how to satisfy them.

Conditions can change the design, cost and start date of your house. Work from your own decision and final grant: a neighbour’s permission may have different requirements.

Find the conditions in your decision

The council can grant permission with or without conditions under section 34(1) of the Planning and Development Act 2000. Look for the numbered list in the decision, usually after the reasons for granting permission.

You must comply with the conditions when carrying out the development. If you break a condition, the council can take enforcement action. Your permission usually stays valid.

Conditions you are likely to see on a one-off house

• Drawings and plans. Build in accordance with the plans lodged, as amended by further information. Ask your designer whether a proposed change needs fresh permission; informal agreement cannot authorise every change.
• Materials and finishes. Roof colour, render or stone, and window type, often with a requirement to submit samples.
• Wastewater. A requirement to install a treatment system and percolation area to the standards in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) code of practice, or to connect to the public sewer.
• Water supply. Proof of a connection, or a well that meets set standards.
• Access and sightlines. How far boundaries must sit back from the road, gate positions and visibility splays: the clear areas needed to see traffic at the entrance.
• Landscaping. Native hedgerow and tree planting, and keeping existing boundaries where possible.
• Occupancy. In rural areas, a requirement that the house is occupied by the applicant for a period. Check the council’s rural housing policy for the exact wording.
• Development contribution. A payment calculated under the applicable scheme, with timing set by the condition.
• Bond or security. Occasionally required for services or on larger sites.

Submit details that need council agreement

Some conditions require you to agree particular details with the council, such as a material or drawing, before proceeding. Section 34(5) sets out the process for these points of detail. Once you submit them:

1. The council must respond within 8 weeks, or a longer period you agree in writing.
2. It can agree the details. If it cannot agree, it can tell you in writing or refer the matter to An Coimisiún Pleanála, the planning appeals body.
3. If it advises you in writing, you can refer the dispute to the Commission within four weeks.
4. If none of the specified events occurs within the applicable period, section 34(5)(b) says your submitted details can be treated as agreed. Keep proof of delivery and ask your planner to confirm this applies before you start.

Submit these early. An 8-week wait after you have booked a builder is expensive.

Use the council’s formal submission route

Send your compliance documents through the route your council specifies. Your council’s planning page (search for “compliance submissions”) or planning office will give you its address and dates. The examples below come from South Dublin County Council, so confirm the procedure with your own council:

• Send it in writing to the address the council names. In South Dublin, submissions only count if they reach the designated postal or email address. A phone call or an email to the case officer may not start the clock. Check your own council’s instructions.
• Quote the planning reference and the condition number for each item, and attach the drawing, sample or report the condition asks for. One covering letter listing every condition makes it easy to see what is outstanding.
• Seek written confirmation. If the deadline passes without a response, ask your adviser to check the deemed-agreement rule above. Silence is not a general permission to disregard conditions.
• The 8-week period applies to submissions made after 17 December 2021. South Dublin identifies this date in its procedure. Keep any revised submission and agreed extension of time with the original correspondence.
• Other consents are separate. A commencement notice, and a fire safety certificate where one applies, are their own requirements. Satisfying planning conditions does not replace them. The permission period keeps running meanwhile: see permission duration.

The exact conditions are what count. Two grants for similar houses can have different lists, so do not assume that what a neighbour had to do applies to you.

Development contribution conditions

Check any development contribution condition before setting your construction budget. Where a council has a contribution scheme, a condition will normally require payment under it. The scheme sets the rates and may allow reduced or nil contributions in some cases. Section 48 of the Act allows these schemes and conditions.

For your own condition, check the following:

• Timing varies. Some decisions require payment before commencement, and others within a set period of the final grant, sometimes in phases the council agrees. Read the condition to see which applies.
• Check payment before starting. If payment is a pre-commencement condition, arrange it before work begins.
• Check the calculation. Ask for the applicable scheme, rate, chargeable area, indexation and any exemption. Do not assume a neighbour’s charge applies.
• Appeal grounds are limited. You can appeal a scheme-contribution condition only on the ground that the scheme’s terms were not properly applied (section 48(10)). A special contribution has a separate limited appeal route under section 48(13), where no other person appeals. If the amount concerns you, first ask the council to re-check the calculation, then get advice on the relevant appeal ground.

Because the figure can run to thousands of euro, work it into your budget early. See self-build budget and contingency.

Meet the conditions in the right order

1. Read every condition as soon as the decision arrives, and list which ones are before commencement.
2. Wait for the council’s final grant document, which it issues once the four-week appeal window has ended with no appeal. The window ending is not itself the grant. See objections and appeals.
3. Satisfy each before-commencement condition before the builder starts; follow the timing written into the grant.
4. Keep proof of compliance. A lender or solicitor may ask for it at drawdown or sale.

If a condition is a problem

• Appeal within four weeks of the decision if you cannot meet a condition. The Commission may review the whole application afresh. It can choose to decide on conditions alone under section 139 if it considers a fresh determination unwarranted. You cannot assume it will take that narrower route; contribution appeals also have the separate limits above.
• Ask the council about an amendment. Ask your designer which lawful route applies. A points-of-detail submission cannot be assumed to authorise a material redesign.
• Do not ignore it. Breaching a condition can mean enforcement, and it can block a sale or a mortgage later.

Common mistakes

• Reading the conditions after the builder is booked. The 8-week response period, plus any revisions, can push the start date back.
• Treating a verbal “that’s fine” as agreement. The council’s written response is your proof, and a lender or solicitor may ask for it later.
• Missing a condition buried in a long list. Go through the list once and mark each as before commencement, during construction or before occupation. Wastewater and landscaping conditions often fall in the last two groups.
• Changing the design after the grant. Conditions usually tie you to the plans lodged. A new window layout or house position may need a new application or a clear route to agreement from the council. Ask before you build, not after.
• Forgetting the occupancy condition. If the grant has one, it can affect sale, letting and mortgage plans for years, so discuss it with your solicitor.

Check duration and any unauthorised work

Check how long your grant lasts: permission duration and extension. If work was done without meeting conditions, see retention permission.