Free Kensington and Chelsea 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 Kensington and Chelsea

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 Kensington and Chelsea. Confirm the authority for your address if you are close to a boundary or the area has changed council.

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

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

Our Kensington and Chelsea archive contains 12,958 classified home project decision records. Explore Kensington and Chelsea 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 Kensington and Chelsea

Kensington and Chelsea has a borough-wide Article 4 direction removing specified basement extension rights for single dwelling houses. Its Class E to residential direction covers mapped parts of the borough, and other site-specific directions also exist. Check which direction applies to the proposed work.

• Kensington and Chelsea Article 4 directions
• Kensington and Chelsea conservation areas, maps and appraisals
• Kensington and Chelsea submission requirements and validation list
• Kensington and Chelsea Local Plan 2024

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

Basement controls and change-of-use controls have different boundaries

The basement Article 4 direction applies borough-wide to the specified extension rights for single dwelling houses and took effect on 28 April 2016. The Class E-to-residential direction covers mapped areas and was modified before taking effect in July 2022. Use the current direction for your work rather than an older proposed boundary. Read the council guidance.

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.

• Apartment 5, Sloane Building: a garden room with a defined use

  PP/25/02943 · Committee resolved to grant with conditions, 12 August 2025

  The outbuilding was assessed as a personal gym serving the flat. The report considered its position against high walls, glazing direction, tree protection, sedum roof and permeable surfacing. The committee voted to grant permission subject to conditions.

  What to check: Explain the intended use and its effects on neighbours, trees and drainage. Permission for this gym does not establish permission for a separate dwelling, commercial gym or an outbuilding under householder permitted development rights.

  Read the committee decision · Read the officer report (PDF)

  Related guidance: Outbuildings and PD

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

Selected archive records, not a representative sample or a prediction for your address. The descriptions below are archive excerpts and may be shortened; read the original decision and plans before relying on them.

• CL/24/07264 · Recorded approved (2025)

  Construction of single storey outbuilding to part of rear patio garden to provide staff rest room facility and store. (Certificate of Lawful Proposed Use/ De...

  Search the council register for CL/24/07264
• CL/25/02393 · Recorded approved (2025)

  Construction of single storey rear extension (Certificate of Lawful Proposed Development/Use)

  Search the council register for CL/25/02393

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.