Renovating a landed house: URA permission, BCA plans and your neighbours

A landed house gives you more freedom than a flat, but the approvals are heavier when you go beyond the interior. Two authorities matter: URA, for planning permission, and BCA, for building plans and structural safety. Many internal works need neither.

Works URA says need no planning permission

From URA’s pages on renovating landed homes:

• enlarging or relocating rooms, as long as the use stays residential, and internal partitions that keep the house as one home;
• replacing windows and doors with no increase in floor area, no reduction in setback and no change in the windows’ position;
• replacing floor and wall finishes, lightweight false ceilings, all air-conditioning works and painting the outside;
• rebuilding a roof in its existing form, with no increase in height;
• boundary walls, gates and fences up to 1.8m high;
• enclosing a balcony that was approved as a “covered balcony”, or turning a car-porch roof into an open balcony or garden, within URA’s height limits.

URA also exempts one small addition: up to 20 square metres of extra floor area in total, done on one occasion only, within the house’s original height and not beyond its front or the approved building line. The exemptions don’t apply to national monuments, conservation buildings or sites in certain controlled areas, such as conservation areas.

Works that need URA’s say

• enclosing an open balcony;
• any earthcut or earthfill;
• a new pavilion;
• redeveloping one plot into more than one house;
• additions beyond the 20 square metre exemption.

For larger additions and alterations, a Qualified Person can lodge the plans with URA instead of applying for planning permission, if the scheme meets URA’s criteria: broadly, the house is outside conservation, Good Class Bungalow and special control areas, the added floor area is no more than 50% of the existing approved floor area, and no more than half the external walls or floor area are structurally changed. An attic can be added within that limit. Lodged works declared properly are treated as authorised. A proposal that goes further has to be lodged as a new erection or reconstruction.

BCA: plans, permits and Qualified Persons

Under the Building Control Act, building works need plans approved by BCA unless they’re insignificant building works. The list includes demolishing non-load-bearing walls, replacing floor and wall finishes, windows and doors, lightweight false ceilings and partitions, all air-conditioning works and, for landed homes, a single-storey lean-to extension with a tile or lighter roof.

Anything beyond the list needs a Qualified Person (QP): a registered architect or professional engineer with a valid practising certificate. Structural plans must come from a civil or structural engineer, and a permit is needed before structural work starts. Houses built for the owner’s own use are exempt from some design rules, such as headroom for small attics and natural lighting, but never from structural design, roofs or window safety.

BCA says owners with unauthorised additions or alterations have committed an offence under the Building Control Act, and to keep such works they must engage a QP to submit plans.

Your neighbours

BCA and URA’s Be Good Neighbours guide is advice, not law, but it’s the official word on landed-estate etiquette:

• generally, don’t hack into an existing party wall to recess new walls, columns or beams, and don’t use it as formwork or support;
• before piling or excavation, the builder should survey neighbouring houses and give the neighbours a copy, and the engineer should assess the impact on them;
• get your neighbour’s written consent before going onto their land or working on shared roofs or walls, and fit flashings so rain doesn’t leak into their house.

Government agencies don’t step in on encroachment or access disputes between neighbours; the guide suggests mediation instead.

Noise

NEA regulates noise from additions and alterations works in landed properties. Unless NEA issues a permit, construction sites within 150m of homes can’t work from 10pm on Saturday to 7am on Monday, or from 10pm on the eve of a public holiday to 7am the day after. More in renovation working hours.

Windows must be installed by an approved window contractor in any building, and an outside air-conditioner unit by a BCA-trained installer: see licensed trades.

SpaceToReno is run by the team behind Junk to Clear, which also handles renovations. Where a guide links to Junk to Clear or a sister site, it’s because that step calls for the service, and the sentence says so. Enquiries sent through the form go to the same team. How SpaceToReno works