GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Not a good week. Having checked the local council's list of new planning applications over the last 3 weeks and not found ours, we received a letter from our architect telling us that it "appeared" we needed to produce and complete a deed in respect of the 106 Agreement. This was a mechanism designed to ensure that big developers provided suitable facilities and amenities. However, this agreement has now been adopted by almost every council and in this area applies to every new build, even a single house. The effect of the agreement is to add a charge on to each new build - in theory to contribute to local area facilities. A 3 bedroomed house attracts a 106 charge of over £12,000!

On telephoning our architect he seemed a little vague as to whether this deed had to accompany the planning application before it could be registered, but assured me that our application had been submitted. He suggested that I telephone the council to find out the exact position.

Having pondered why I employed a dog and was expected to bark myself, I did what was needed and arranged to visit the council to see a duty planning officer. Despite the fact that the planning officer knew little about the niceties of the 106 Agreement, a quick visit to their legal department produced the answer - the 106 Agreement did not have to accompany the planning application, and I was advised that the 106 was not on the checklist of things required with a planning application - something our architect should have known.

The planning officer then asked me if I had a reference for the planning application as we should have received this as a form of receipt. As we hadn't received anything the planning officer checked on new applications, and, ours had not been received.

So, the net result of my visit was a rather vague requirement to copy the sample Deed of Covenant that made the 106 Agreement a binding legal charge, and the discovery that there were further charges associated with this - the costs for my solicitor to draw up the document, and amend it if it didn't measure up to the council's requirements, a charge of £310 levied by the council to cover their "reasonable" legal costs, and a charge of £175 as a monitoring fee for the council.

Anyway, a quick call to my solicitor and a trip to him with the pro-forma deed document saw that under way. Next, a call to our architect....

I got the impression when I spoke to him earlier in the day that he wasn't that convinced when he said the application had been submitted. When I told him (late Friday afternoon) that I was a very unhappy bunny, he became rather defensive and even less sure of his facts. Apparently, he couldn't tell me much because his secretary had dealt with it, but he was sure she had delivered the planning application in person. A check of "our file" produced no tangible evidence of anything useful and the response that we would have to wait until Monday when his secretary would be in the office next.

So, 4 weeks have been wasted since the last post when the plans and design statement were drawn up and should have been submitted.

Despite quite liking the architect as a person, I am becoming concerned about his lack of attention to detail. Prior to the confusion over the planning application, changes that we had requested to the plans he had drawn up had not been correctly reproduced in the subsequent iteration, despite giving detailed notes, or indeed revised drawings. Hmmm, time for a change perhaps?

Lets's see what Monday brings.

Very Unhappy of Clifton