Lawful development certificate · London Borough of Brent
Lawful development certificate in Brent, from £695 fixed
Brent covers all of its residential conservation areas with Article 4 directions, so the right to build without permission is often gone before you start. We check which rights your street has lost, then draw a certificate of lawfulness only where one can be granted.
Householder application fee, paid to your council at submission.
Plus the Planning Portal's own charge if the application goes through the Portal: up to £149 including VAT, depending on the application type, and some types have none (source).
Get this fee in writingor email hello@fixedfeeplans.co.uk
No obligation. Nothing is sent until you ask; your enquiry comes to us and nowhere else.
Fixed fee, in writing
Tell us about your project
Send the postcode and what you want to build, and add photos or old plans if you have them. We reply with the fee in writing and the payment stages set out in full.
What Brent Council asks of a lawful development certificate
From the council's Article 4 directions, for conservation areas (adopted page last updated 17 May 2024, read 25 October 2026).
- Brent's Article 4 page states that all of Brent's residential conservation areas are covered by article 4 directions, and tells owners to check the specific planning controls in each conservation area. (source, checked 25 October 2026)
- The council's Article 4 page explains that where a direction is in place, planning permission is required for the development it covers. (source, checked 25 October 2026)
- A Brent council report sets out a proposed 2020 replacement for the Barn Hill direction of 9 November 1995. It would remove rights for most house enlargements, roof alterations, porches, outbuildings, front hard surfaces, chimneys and flues, gates and walls, exterior painting and solar equipment except on rear roof slopes. (source, checked 25 October 2026)
- In that Barn Hill draft the one exception is a single-storey rear extension, provided the enlarged part does not extend beyond a wall forming a side elevation of the original house. (source, checked 25 October 2026)
- Manor Close stopped being a conservation area in 2004 but still has an Article 4 direction removing the right to lay hard standing for vehicle parking in front gardens. (source, checked 25 October 2026)
What Brent lawful development certificate drawings have to show
A Brent certificate starts with the conservation area map, because the answer changes street by street. The proposed Barn Hill wording keeps one right: a single-storey rear extension that does not go beyond a side wall of the original house. A side return extension, a rear dormer or an outbuilding in that area would be a planning application, not a certificate.
Where the house is outside a conservation area, or the work is on a rear elevation the direction leaves alone, we draw the site plan, existing and proposed plans and elevations and the permitted development dimensions for the certificate. Where it is not, we tell you before the application goes in, and draw it as a planning application instead.
Brent: 879 householder decisions
What it costs in Brent
- Certificate of lawfulness: from £545 drawings + £150 survey (£695 total), plus £274 to Brent Council.
- Half the equivalent planning fee for a proposed use certificate.
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Answers
Brent lawful development certificate questions
Do all of Brent's conservation areas have Article 4 directions?
Can I build a rear extension in Barn Hill, Brent, without planning permission?
What is the Manor Close Article 4 direction in Brent?
Start with £150
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Tell us the postcode and what you want to build. We confirm the fee in writing and book the survey.