Frequently asked questions

It can, and it can go either way. A smaller garden, a new neighbour behind you and a shared drive may reduce what some buyers will pay for your house, while others won’t mind. Against that, you receive money for the plot. The effect depends on your street, how much garden you keep and how well the new home is designed. Before you commit, ask a local estate agent or a RICS surveyor to give you an independent view of your house with and without the plot.

Not for the planning application itself. The council tells neighbours about it and they can comment, but the decision is the council’s. Their agreement does matter in some cases: if the access or services would cross their land, if a restrictive covenant on your title benefits them, or if the work falls under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996. We check for all of these early, and we always suggest talking to neighbours before an application goes in.

No. Every route we offer is built around you keeping your house. You can sell us part of your garden, agree a sale that only goes ahead if planning is granted, give us an option, partner with us, or keep the land and have us build a new home on it for you. The only thing that changes is the land behind or beside your home, and how it changes is agreed in writing before anything happens.

Selling now means a straightforward sale of the plot as it stands, with or without planning, subject to survey, title and contract. Selling subject to planning means we exchange a conditional contract with an agreed price or price formula, then apply for planning. We normally fund the application, and any cost recovery is agreed in heads of terms before you sign. If permission is granted, the sale completes. If it’s refused, the contract ends and you keep your land.

Both give us time to seek planning before buying, but they work differently. A conditional contract commits both sides to complete once the condition, usually planning, is met. An option gives us the exclusive right, but not the obligation, to buy within an agreed period. Options often suit plots that need more time or more work. On option and promotion agreements we cover your reasonable legal fees, with the cap agreed in heads of terms, and your own solicitor should check every clause.

Yes. There’s no cost and no obligation. We start with a desktop check of your plot, looking at size, access, title and the planning picture, then talk it through with you. If it looks viable, we arrange a site visit. You get a straight answer on whether we think the plot could work and which routes might suit. It isn’t a formal RICS valuation, and you’re free to take advice elsewhere or simply do nothing.

Yes, and it often helps. Several adjoining back gardens can allow a better layout and one shared access instead of several cramped ones. Each owner keeps their house. The owners usually sign a collaboration agreement covering decisions, costs and what happens if someone pulls out, with an equalisation clause so value is shared fairly even though only one garden provides the access. Each household should have its own solicitor.

If your house is mortgaged, your lender has a charge over the whole title, garden included. To sell part, the lender must agree to release the plot from that charge, which is often called a partial release. Lenders usually want to see the plan and the price, and they may ask for some or all of the sale money to reduce your loan. Your solicitor handles the request, and it’s worth raising it with your lender early.

Usually, yes. Most owners can stay put, but it’s fair to expect some disruption: deliveries, trades’ vans, noise during working hours and dust at certain stages. Where building traffic shares your drive, the council often requires a construction management plan setting out working hours, deliveries and parking. We agree access, hours and site boundaries with you before work starts so you know what each phase will involve.

From first conversation to moving in, it usually takes well over a year, and often longer. Survey and design typically take a few months. Councils normally aim to decide a planning application within eight weeks of validating it, but surveys, amendments and pre-commencement conditions can add time. The build itself depends on the design, ground conditions, utility connections and the weather. We give you a programme with each stage once the design is settled.

It depends on the size and design of the home, the ground, how far services have to run, the access drive, the finish you want and any specialist surveys the council asks for. Because every plot is different, we don’t quote a price without knowing the site. Any guide price range we give early on is a guide only. You get a written quote once the design is developed and the site has been surveyed.

Often, yes. A separate home with its own front door, kitchen and address needs full planning permission like any new dwelling. An annexe used as part of your main house is treated differently, and councils often attach conditions stopping it being sold or let separately. If you build for family yourself, you may qualify for the self-build exemption from the Community Infrastructure Levy, but it must be claimed before work starts.

If you ever want to sell the home or let someone buy it with a mortgage, you almost certainly need one. Most lenders want a ten-year, insurance-backed structural warranty on a new home, though some accept an architect’s or surveyor’s certificate on smaller schemes. A warranty normally has to be arranged before building starts so the provider can inspect the work at stages. Even if you plan to keep the home, a warranty protects you against major structural defects. We explain the options at the design stage.

Usually, if it was approved as a separate dwelling. To sell it, the home needs its own registered title, a completion certificate from building control, a structural warranty for buyers’ lenders and proper rights of access and services. Letting has its own rules on safety and standards. If planning was granted as an annexe tied to your house, a condition may stop it being sold or let separately, so the planning route chosen at the start matters.

They have to be planned for. In England, the Building Regulations normally expect a fire engine to get within 45 metres of all points inside a house. Where that isn’t possible, other measures, often sprinklers, may be accepted if building control and the fire service agree. In Wales, every new home must have sprinklers. For bins, residents shouldn’t have to carry waste more than 30 metres to the store, and the collection vehicle should be able to get within about 25 metres of it.

Yes. A new, separate home always needs planning permission. It isn’t permitted development, however big your garden is. You can apply for full permission with detailed drawings, or for outline permission first and the details, known as reserved matters, later. In England, permission in principle is another route for small schemes. An annexe used as part of your existing house is a different thing, but it can’t be sold, let or lived in as a separate home without the right permission.

If you’ve agreed a sale subject to planning and permission is refused, the contract doesn’t complete and you keep your land. After any refusal there are usually three choices: change the design to deal with the council’s reasons and apply again, appeal, or stop. Appeals go to the Planning Inspectorate in England and to Planning and Environment Decisions Wales in Wales, with strict deadlines. We’ll tell you honestly which option we think is worth pursuing.

Some schemes are approved and others are refused; it depends on the plot and the council’s policies. In England, national policy now supports well-designed extra homes in gardens within limits, though councils still refuse schemes that would harm the character of the area or neighbours, and gardens in built-up areas aren’t treated as brownfield land. In Wales, Planning Policy Wales and Technical Advice Note 12 put weight on design quality, character and amenity. A well-planned scheme on the right plot can succeed, but the decision is always the council’s.

Councils typically weigh the access (its width, visibility at the road and the effect of passing cars on neighbours), whether the scheme fits the character and pattern of the area, overlooking and privacy, overshadowing and daylight, and the garden space left for both homes. They also consider trees and wildlife, parking, bins, drainage and flood risk. Your council’s own plan and design guidance set out exactly how it judges each one.

Neighbours can object, and the council must consider what they say, but objections alone don’t decide the outcome. The council weighs material considerations such as overlooking, loss of light, highway safety and design. Loss of a private view and a possible fall in property value are not normally treated as planning matters. In England, from 31 October 2026, applications for one to nine homes on sites under half a hectare must be decided by planning officers rather than a committee. In Wales, a scheme that draws objections may go to the planning committee, depending on the council’s rules.

There’s no single national figure; each council sets its own guidance. Many councils use around 21 metres between facing back windows and around 12 to 15 metres between a back window and a blank side wall, and some add rules for gardens and daylight. Your council’s own guide decides. On garden plots, careful window placement, single-storey or roof-lit designs and planting can help a scheme meet those expectations.

Trees often shape what’s possible. If a tree has a Tree Preservation Order, you need council consent before cutting or pruning it, and in a conservation area work to many trees needs advance notice to the council. Even unprotected trees can matter, because councils may ask for an arboricultural survey showing how roots will be protected during building. We check for protected trees as part of the free appraisal.

Outline permission establishes the principle of a new home and leaves details, such as layout, scale, appearance, access and landscaping, for a later reserved matters application. It can be a cheaper way to test a plot. Full permission covers everything at once and is the most common route for a single home. On backland plots, councils often want to see detailed layout and access anyway, so full is frequently the more practical choice.

Yes, in several ways. Applications in Wales are judged against Planning Policy Wales, Technical Advice Note 12 on design and the council’s Local Development Plan, rather than the National Planning Policy Framework and a Local Plan. Every new home in Wales needs sprinklers, most new developments need approval from the council’s SuDS Approval Body before building starts, and the biodiversity rules differ. Buyers pay Land Transaction Tax instead of Stamp Duty Land Tax.

Possibly, and it depends on your circumstances. In general, Private Residence Relief can cover part of a garden sold while you still own and live in the house, within a permitted area that is generally up to half a hectare including the house. Selling the garden after the house, or developing and selling the new home yourself, can change the position, and HMRC says land fenced or divided off from the garden for development may not qualify. Please take advice from a tax adviser before you agree anything; we can’t give you tax advice.

You should always have your own solicitor. On option and promotion agreements we cover your reasonable legal fees, and the cap is agreed in heads of terms before any work starts. On other routes, such as an outright sale, each side usually pays its own legal costs unless something different is agreed. Whatever the route, the heads of terms set out in writing who pays what, so there are no surprises later.

Not for the appraisal, which is free. On planning promotion there’s nothing to pay upfront: planning costs are recovered from the sale proceeds, and only if a sale with planning happens, with the amount or cap set out in heads of terms. On a subject-to-planning sale we normally fund the application, and any cost recovery is agreed in heads of terms before you sign. If you choose design and build, the costs and payment stages are set out in your written quote before you commit.

Usually by working back from the end result. We estimate what the new home could sell for, then take away build costs, fees, finance, abnormal costs such as a long access drive or difficult ground, and a reasonable profit. What’s left is what the land is worth to a developer. That’s why two similar-looking gardens can be worth very different amounts, and why we don’t give figures before we’ve looked at the plot.

It can. Some titles include covenants limiting building, such as only one house on the land or nothing without a named party’s consent. Some old covenants are unenforceable in practice; others still matter. The usual options are indemnity insurance, agreement with whoever benefits from the covenant, or an application to the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) to discharge or modify it. We check the title for covenants early, before anyone spends serious money.

A ransom strip is a piece of land, sometimes very narrow, that controls access to a plot. Whoever owns it can refuse access or demand payment for it. They turn up along verges, shared drives and old boundary lines, and they can make or break a garden scheme. Checking the title plans for the route between your plot and the public road is one of the first things we do.

The buyer normally pays it, not the seller. In England the tax is Stamp Duty Land Tax; in Wales it’s Land Transaction Tax, collected by the Welsh Revenue Authority. The amount depends on the price and the type of transaction. If you’re building a new home on your own land rather than selling, there’s usually no purchase to tax, but take advice from a tax adviser on your own position.

We’re a new brand within the S&K Group, a Birmingham-based construction and property group whose businesses include glazing, building supplies and property investment. Backland Development is a trading name of S&K Property Investments and Improvement Ltd, company number 16932889, based at Units 1–4 Hembs Crescent, Great Barr, Birmingham B43 5DG. We help homeowners with long or wide gardens, garage courts and land behind houses either sell or partner on that land, or build a new home on it.

No. We’re not an agency and we don’t list your home for sale. We buy suitable plots directly, subject to survey, title and contract, partner with owners through options, promotion and joint ventures, and design and build new homes for owners who want to keep their land. If a route involves the plot being sold on the open market, as some promotion agreements do, how that sale works is set out in the heads of terms.

Yes. We cover England and Wales, including all eight Welsh preserved counties. Planning and building rules in Wales differ in important ways, including Planning Policy Wales, Local Development Plans, sprinklers in every new home, SuDS Approval Body consent and Land Transaction Tax, and we work to the Welsh rules on Welsh plots. We don’t cover areas outside England and Wales.

No. We don’t use deadlines, limited-time offers or follow-up calls designed to hurry you. Garden land is a big decision, often involving family, neighbours and your mortgage lender, and it deserves time. We’ll give you straight answers, put the main terms in writing as heads of terms, and expect you to take advice from your own solicitor before signing anything. If the answer is no, or not yet, that’s fine.

Use the form or call us to ask for a free garden plot appraisal. Tell us your address and, if you can, roughly how long and wide your garden is and how a vehicle might reach it. We do a desktop check, talk it through with you and, if the plot looks viable, arrange a site visit. There’s no cost and no obligation at any point before you choose to sign something.