Freeholder Consent and Alterations in Bath
The figures Bath and North East Somerset Council publishes, rather than a national average.
- Local authority
- Bath and North East Somerset Council
- Service
- Freeholder consent
- County
- Somerset
- From our Plymouth office
- Approx. 122 miles
Consent for External Works in Bath
Two Bath consents have no equivalent anywhere else. Under the County of Avon Act 1982 the hot springs are protected by three zones in which council consent is needed to excavate below 5, 15 or 50 metres depending on the zone, with a method statement and a risk assessment showing how any unintended release of artesian groundwater will be sealed. That catches underpinning, piling and basement work at a central Bath block. Separately, the council's guidance on historic vaults warns against cementitious damp proofing renders and cavity membranes, says expectations should be realistic and that trying to reduce damp to a level fit for residential occupation is likely to cause considerable harm, and records that damp proofing has increased damp in neighbouring vaults. It also pre-rejects the reversibility argument. Even gull and pigeon control needs consent: anti-perching wire needs listed building consent, and exclusion netting needs both that and planning permission.
Planning in Bath
Bath runs a pre-application product aimed squarely at the work a listed block actually faces: Level 0, at 76 pounds, is advice on energy efficiency retrofit for a listed building, answered in 20 working days. The council's own factsheet tells owners to use it before choosing measures. Its published rules on those measures are specific: draught proofing usually needs no consent and windows must remain openable, secondary glazing should avoid a sub-frame where possible and align with the glazing bars, and slim profile or vacuum glazing needs consent and is permitted only where the existing windows are modern or of no historic value, are beyond feasible repair, or where replacement would enhance the building.
Licensing and Permitted Development in Bath
Bath is the opposite of Bristol on licensing and the same as it on planning. The additional licensing scheme finished on 31 December 2023 and has not been replaced, so mandatory licensing is all that applies. For a block that is doubly academic, because the council states you do not need a mandatory licence for a flat occupied by five or more people if it sits in a purpose-built block of three or more self-contained flats. Control is exercised through planning instead: an Article 4 direction covers the entire city, and the council applies a sandwich test refusing a residential flat sandwiched between two houses in multiple occupation, and a 10 per cent test refusing a new one where such properties already reach a tenth of households within 100 metres.
What We Do About Freeholder Consent in Bath
Freeholder consent in Bath is part of a full management service. What we actually do:
- Check the appraisal for this area before materials are chosen, since that is where the restriction usually sits.
- Check the adopted policy an application will actually be decided against, which is not always the one a contractor assumes.
- Check the direction and the use class against the actual address rather than the area.
That work sits inside a fixed annual management fee. We take no commission on contractor work, so there is no incentive on our side for the job to get bigger.
How This Works, in General
The law here is the same in Bath as it is anywhere in England, and it is set out in full on our Consent & Licence Services page rather than repeated on this one. What changes locally is above: the authority, the figures, and what the tribunal has actually done with cases nearby.
Other Services in Bath
Freeholder Consent and Alterations Elsewhere
Everything else we do in the area is on the Bath page, and the full matrix is at services by area.