Free Sutton 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 Sutton

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

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

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

Our Sutton archive contains 10,310 classified home project decision records. Explore Sutton 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 Sutton

Sutton's Article 4 page identifies restrictions affecting named properties in Sutton Garden Suburb and roof alterations at specified properties elsewhere. It also publishes change-of-use directions. Check the property schedule and type of work rather than treating the different directions as one uniform rule.

• Sutton Article 4 directions and property schedules
• Sutton current validation list and planning process
• Sutton application requirements by type
• Sutton policy evidence library and heritage studies

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.

• 5 Manor Road: a lesser fallback did not justify the larger scheme

  DM2023/00167 · APP/P5870/D/23/3326591 · Appeal dismissed, 19 December 2023

  The proposal combined front, side, rear and roof additions. The inspector questioned the relevance of the area’s inter-war heritage description to this later house, but still found the extension excessively bulky and poorly related to the original building. The prior-approval fallbacks would have a lesser impact.

  What to check: Assess all additions together. Challenging one refusal argument does not resolve the remaining design harm, and a smaller prior-approval fallback does not authorise a larger planning scheme.

  Read the appeal decision (PDF)

  Related guidance: Two-storey extensions · Prior approval

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.