Flat
refurbishment
in Chalfont St Giles, HP8

The Neighbourhood Plan names some of them. In Jordans, Puers Field Flats are one and two bedroom flats built in the 1950s, and Jordans Village Limited has built four flats for elderly residents in recent decades.

In the village centre, the Local Plan records residential uses mixed in among the shops and services, many of them in listed buildings, and its Policy S10 resists the loss of ground-floor residential accommodation in the Chalfont St Giles shopping centre.

The plan also identifies a need for smaller housing units that let people move from larger dwellings to smaller ones, and finds people between 55 and 65 making up a bigger share of the parish than of the district, the region or the country.

Each kind raises different questions. In a purpose-built block there is usually a managing agent and a structure shared with every other flat; a conversion has old walls and floors between neighbours; a flat in the centre may sit inside a listed building. We establish which applies at the first visit.

Sources: Chalfont St Giles Parish Council: Neighbourhood Plan for Chalfont St Giles Parish 2014-2036; Chiltern District Council: Chiltern District Local Plan, adopted 1 September 1997 (alterations 29 May 2001; consolidated September 2007 and November 2011)

Leasehold is the usual tenure for a flat, and government guidance says the lease itself states whether alterations need consent and who looks after repairs and noise from neighbours. We read it before anything is designed.

The householder permitted development rules are written for a dwellinghouse, which the Order defines so as to leave out any building holding one or more flats and any flat inside one. Outside changes to a flat are therefore weighed without those rules.

At the historic centre, a visible change that needs permission is tested under Policy CA1, which asks for materials that are natural and close in type, colour and texture to what is there, and accepts nothing synthetic. Listing adds a further layer, because work to a flat in a listed building can call for listed building consent.

If the flat was created by converting a larger building, the Local Plan's approach to such conversions is to keep alterations to a minimum and not detract from the character and appearance of the locality. In Jordans, alterations on the village estate also need the approval of Jordans Village Limited under its Management Scheme.

Sources: GOV.UK: Leasehold property (printable guide); legislation.gov.uk: Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (SI 2015/596), article 2 (latest available revised); Chiltern District Council: Chiltern District Local Plan, adopted 1 September 1997 (alterations 29 May 2001; consolidated September 2007 and November 2011); GOV.UK (Planning Practice Guidance): When is permission required?; Chalfont St Giles Parish Council: Neighbourhood Plan for Chalfont St Giles Parish 2014-2036

Several ordinary flat jobs can need building regulations approval: new windows or doors, a fresh consumer unit and the wiring connected to it, or a heating system installed or renewed. Like-for-like swaps of baths, WCs, basins and sinks generally do not.

Part E's first requirement is that a flat resists sound reasonably well, both from elsewhere in its own building and from the buildings next to it, and flats created by converting other buildings have faced sound testing before completion since 1 July 2003.

When a floor finish changes above a neighbour, we specify a resilient layer beneath it, keep the ceiling below intact wherever we can, and confirm what the lease says about floor coverings before boards or tiles are ordered.

For a ground-floor flat in the centre, the flood assessment predicts properties at risk along the High Street and shows Flood Zone 3b there, so we set sockets high and choose finishes that recover after water.

For flats in Chalfont St Giles, the work is taken on by our London team, with architects, designers and structural engineers on our own payroll and Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building Consultancy as our surveying partner, all working out of Finchley Road, Hampstead NW3. Planning and listed building decisions rest with Buckinghamshire Council. Building control can be Buckinghamshire Council's building control service or a registered approver you engage privately, and work carried out by a competent person scheme member needs no application from you.

Deliveries, skip positions and noisy work are agreed with the managing agent or freeholder before anything starts, and shared stairs and hallways are protected throughout.

Outside Chalfont St Giles, and in London rather than Buckinghamshire: Project example: Hampstead, NW3. That project of ours was a full renovation of a three-bedroom, two-bathroom flat in Hampstead, as its case study records.

Sources: GOV.UK: Building regulations approval - when you need approval; GOV.UK: Building regulations approval (printable guide); GOV.UK: Approved Document E: Resistance to the passage of sound; Chiltern and South Bucks District Councils: Strategic Flood Risk Assessment Level 1 (November 2018); Chiltern District Council: Chiltern District Local Plan, adopted 1 September 1997 (alterations 29 May 2001; consolidated September 2007 and November 2011); Hampstead Renovations: The Mount, NW3 case study