Free Hackney permitted development checker

What are you checking?

Whether your proposed work may qualify for permitted development, needs a prior approval process or requires a planning application. The property and the complete proposal matter, including earlier additions and conditions on previous permissions.

Read how prior approval works and how planning timescales differ by route.

A postcode locates an area; it cannot establish rights for a particular house. Use your full property address in the checker.

Find guidance for your project

• Rear extensions and larger home extensions
• Side and wraparound extensions
• Loft conversions and dormers
• Garden rooms and outbuildings
• Garage conversions
• Porches
• Two-storey extensions
• Basements

For development beyond a home improvement, read our new build and change of use guides. Those projects have different eligibility tests and need a project-specific assessment.

Local checks in Hackney

Check the wording, map and effective date of any Article 4 direction, the property's planning conditions and whether designated land affects the relevant right. A restriction on one type of work does not automatically prohibit every alteration.

Use these resources for Hackney. Confirm the authority for your address if you are close to a boundary or the area has changed council.

• Hackney official website and planning information
• Search Hackney planning applications and decision notices
• Hackney planning authority boundary and source
• Find the planning authority for your postcode

We have not verified every local restriction for every address in Hackney. Confirm property-specific details against the authority's current records before relying on permitted development.

Our Hackney archive contains 8,391 classified home project decision records. Explore Hackney decisions by project type. These records mix application routes: an approval rate is not a permitted development eligibility score. See the coverage and methodology.

Permitted development restrictions in Hackney

Hackney's St Mark's page explicitly says that not every property within the conservation area is covered by its Article 4 direction. Use the council's address-based planning map and direction boundary to check the property, rather than treating the conservation designation as the whole answer.

• Hackney adopted supplementary planning documents
• Hackney address search for Article 4 and conservation controls
• St Mark’s conservation area and Article 4 documents
• Hackney planning submission and validation requirements
• Hackney planning policies and Local Plan
• Hackney air quality and planning guidance

Sources reviewed 5 September 2026. Check the source maps, wording and effective dates against your property and proposed work.

What reviewed local decisions show

These examples use official planning records. Each identifies the decision date and links to the evidence reviewed. They are not Planning Approvals projects or a prediction for another property.

• 43 St Kilda’s Road: garden-building measurements and use were not proven

  APP/U5360/C/23/3328663 · Enforcement appeal dismissed and notice upheld, 25 February 2026

  The inspector rejected the claim that the outbuilding was permitted development. The submitted drawing was unreliable, the coverage calculation left out a raised ramp, and the building’s scale and use did not establish an incidental domestic purpose. Planning permission was also refused on design grounds.

  What to check: Provide a consistent measured site plan and explain how the proposed use relates to the home. Calling a large garden building a study is not enough to establish Class E rights. The decision concerned this building and its evidence, not all garden offices.

  Read the appeal decision (PDF)

  Related guidance: Outbuildings and PD · Lawful development certificates

Check the planning register for the issued notice, exact conditions and any later appeal or revised application. A committee resolution is not a substitute for those documents.

Certificate records to investigate

We do not have a suitable certificate excerpt to display here. Use the council register to look up your address and comparable projects.

A certificate concerns the lawfulness of the scheme described. Another property's certificate does not establish your permitted development rights. Read the archive's coverage and limitations.

Do you need a permitted development certificate?

A proposed lawful development certificate gives formal confirmation that the development described is lawful. It is optional and is different from prior approval or a planning application. Read our lawful development certificate guide.

The free check does not grant permission or replace a certificate. Check official certificate guidance and the government's explanation of planning routes.