Before the job
Which permissions does the work need?
Planning, listed building consent, building control, a party wall notice, a scaffold licence, bats. Answer for your roof and see which apply, rule by rule.
Six questions the law asks about a roof
Most roof work in north London needs a scaffold, dry weather and nothing else. Some needs the council first, some needs the neighbours, and the difference is in the details: whether the house has been divided into flats, whether the street is in a conservation area, how much of the roof is stripped, whether the stack stands on the party wall.
This checker asks those details and applies the rules printed under it, each with the Act, regulation or guidance it comes from. Where the law leaves a decision to the council, the answer says so instead of guessing. The survey confirms every answer on the roof itself.
- Neededa consent, notice or licence comes before the work
- Checkthe law leaves a judgement to the council, a neighbour or a measurement
- Permittedpermitted development, while every condition holds
- Not needednothing to apply for on this count
The answer
With scripts on, the answer builds here as you choose. Without them, the button at the end of the questions sends your choices to an answer page, which applies the same rules.
The rules it applies
Twenty-five rules in six strands, for England. Each one was read in the legislation itself on legislation.gov.uk, or in the government and council guidance named under it, on 13 November 2026. Wales has its own permitted development order, so these answers are for English roofs only. The letter and number in each answer point to the rule below.
Planning permission
Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and the General Permitted Development Order 2015 (England)
- P1
Repairs and like-for-like re-covering are not development: work to maintain a building that does not materially change how it looks from outside needs no planning permission.
- P2
Householder permitted development rights belong to houses. A building containing flats, or a flat in one, has none, so a change that materially affects how it looks needs planning permission.
General Permitted Development Order 2015, article 2(1), “dwellinghouse”
- P3
Other alterations to a house roof, such as a rooflight or a covering that looks different, are permitted if nothing projects more than 0.15 m beyond the plane of the original roof slope, nothing rises above the highest part of the original roof, the work is not a chimney, flue, soil and vent pipe or solar panel, and any window in a side-facing slope is obscure-glazed and does not open below 1.7 m above the floor of the room.
General Permitted Development Order 2015, Sch. 2, Pt 1, Class C
- P4
A roof addition to a house, such as a dormer or a hip-to-gable, is permitted if nothing rises above the highest part of the existing roof, nothing extends beyond the front roof slope where it faces a highway, the roof space added (with any earlier additions) is no more than 40 m³ on a terraced house or 50 m³ on any other, there is no balcony, verandah or raised platform and no chimney, flue or soil and vent pipe, the materials look like the house’s own, the eaves are kept and the addition stands about 0.2 m back from them so far as practicable, and side windows are obscure-glazed and fixed below 1.7 m.
General Permitted Development Order 2015, Sch. 2, Pt 1, Class B
- P5
Roof additions are not permitted development in a conservation area: there, a dormer or other addition needs planning permission.
General Permitted Development Order 2015, Sch. 2, Pt 1, Class B, paragraph B.1(f), and article 2(3)
- P6
An Article 4 direction takes permitted development rights away in its area, so roof work Class B or Class C would otherwise allow can need planning permission there. Haringey has directions in four conservation areas: Noel Park, Peabody Cottages, Rookfield Estate and Tower Gardens. What each one covers is for the council to say.
- P7
Taking down a chimney stack does not normally need a planning application on a house that is neither listed nor in a conservation area. In a conservation area the rules may differ and the council is the one to ask; a listed building needs listed building consent.
Planning Portal, removing a chimney stack in a conservation area
- P8
Where work relies on permitted development, the council can confirm it in writing with a certificate of lawfulness of proposed use or development.
Listed building consent
Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
- L1
Work to a listed building that would affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest needs listed building consent, and doing such work without consent is a criminal offence. Whether a repair affects that character is the council’s judgement.
Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, sections 7 and 9
- L2
Whether a building is listed is shown on the National Heritage List for England, kept by Historic England.
Building Regulations
Building Regulations 2010 (England)
- R1
Repairing or re-covering part of a roof needs no building-control application while less than half of the roof and less than a quarter of the whole building envelope is affected, and the new covering is not 15% or more heavier than the old.
Planning Portal, building regulations: work to an existing roof
- R2
Renovating more than 50% of a roof’s surface, by laying a new layer or replacing one (re-covering is replacing one), means the whole roof has to meet the energy-efficiency standard so far as that is technically, functionally and economically feasible. A new layer laid only to repair a flat roof does not count as renovation.
Building Regulations 2010, regulation 2(1), “renovation”, and regulation 23(1)
- R3
A major renovation, where more than 25% of the surface of the building envelope (walls, floor, roof, windows, doors, roof windows and rooflights) is renovated in one project, brings the same requirement to every element renovated in it.
Building Regulations 2010, regulation 35, “major renovation”, and regulation 23(1)(a)
- R4
Work that would leave a building worse against the structural or fire requirements is a material alteration, and so building work: a covering 15% or more heavier, rafters cut for a rooflight or a dormer, a covering that behaves differently in fire.
Building Regulations 2010, regulation 3(1)(c), 3(2) and 3(3)
- R5
Replacing a roof covering with a different material, such as slate with tiles, is likely to need building-regulations approval.
- R6
A listed building, or a building in a conservation area, is exempt from the energy-efficiency requirements where meeting them would unacceptably alter its character or appearance.
- R7
Firms in a competent person scheme for roof coverings can certify their own work. This company is not in one, so where an application is needed it is made to the council’s building control, or to a registered building control approver, before the work starts.
- R8
Building work in a block at least 18 metres high or with at least 7 storeys, and two or more homes, is overseen by the Building Safety Regulator rather than the council.
GOV.UK, whether an existing building is a higher-risk building during building work
Party wall notice
Party Wall etc. Act 1996
- W1
The Act covers walls and structures shared with a neighbour: a party wall, a stack or parapet built on it, and the floor between two flats.
- W2
Roof work that needs notice includes repairing or rebuilding a party wall or stack because it is defective, cutting into it (for example to dress in lead), cutting away a projecting chimney breast or flue, raising it, lowering it, and cutting into next door’s own wall to insert a flashing.
Party Wall etc. Act 1996, section 2(2)(a), (b), (f), (g), (j) and (m)
- W3
The owner having the work done serves a party structure notice at least two months before it starts; with the written consent of the neighbouring owners and occupiers it can start sooner.
- W4
A neighbour who does not consent in writing within 14 days is treated as being in dispute, and surveyors settle the work by an award. The council has no part in it.
The pavement and the road
Highways Act 1980
- H1
A scaffold on a public pavement, path or road needs a licence from the highway authority, which for most streets is the borough council. One standing wholly on private land does not.
- H2
A skip on the road needs the highway authority’s permission.
Bats
Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017
- B1
Bat roosts are protected: damaging or destroying a breeding site or resting place is an offence even when no bat is there at the time. Where bats may use a roof, a survey comes first, and the work may need a licence from Natural England.
Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, regulation 43
What a checker cannot see
- The deeds and the lease. Whether a stack or a parapet is a party structure, and who decides on a shared roof, is written there and on the roof, not in a form.
- The council’s view. Whether a change “materially affects” how a house looks, and what an Article 4 direction covers on your street, are the council’s to decide. A pre-application enquiry or a certificate of lawfulness settles them in writing.
- The roof itself. How much of it is really failing, what the covering weighs and whether bats use the loft are found on the survey.
A survey booking can carry your answers: press Book a survey with these answers under the result, and they arrive with the booking, so the permissions are part of the first look, not an afterthought.