Do you need planning permission for a garage?

In most cases, no. A garage does not need planning permission in England and Wales. A garage that sits behind the front of your house, stays within the height limits, and leaves more than half the land around the original house uncovered is normally allowed under permitted development rights, so you can order and build without applying for consent.

The rules are the same whatever the garage is made of. Concrete, timber, brick and metal buildings are all treated as outbuildings, so what decides the answer is the size, the height and where it sits, not the material.

There is no floor-area limit in the planning rules themselves, which surprises people. The 30 square metres figure you'll see quoted everywhere is a building regulations threshold, not a planning one. The two are separate regimes with separate tests, and it's worth knowing which is which before you measure anything.

Permitted development rights are a national set of permissions granted by Parliament rather than by your local council, letting householders carry out common projects without applying for planning permission. Garages and other outbuildings are the classic example, which is why most go up without an application.

The rights come with conditions, and it's the conditions rather than the rights that decide whether your particular project qualifies. Houses generally have them; flats, maisonettes and commercial properties do not, so a planning application is needed at those from the start.

There are exceptions where permitted development doesn't apply, and it's worth five minutes to rule them out before ordering:

• Your home is a listed building. • You live in a conservation area, national park, or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. • The garage would sit in front of the principal elevation (the front face) of your house. • Your home's permitted development rights have been removed by a planning condition, common on some newer estates. • The garage would cover more than half the land around the original house.

There is no floor-area cap, but there are four limits that decide most projects:

• Single storey only, with eaves no higher than 2.5 metres. • Maximum overall height of 4 metres with a dual-pitched (apex) roof, or 3 metres with any other roof. • Within 2 metres of a boundary, the maximum overall height drops to 2.5 metres, which is exactly why prefab concrete garages are designed the way they are. • Outbuildings must not cover more than half the land around the original house. "Original" means the house as first built, or as it stood on 1 July 1948 if it is older than that, not as you bought it.

Verandas, balconies and raised platforms are not permitted development, and neither is anything forward of the principal elevation.

That 50% test catches people out more than the height ones. On a large plot a big garage can qualify comfortably; on a small plot with an existing extension and a shed, a modest garage may not.

At Nucrete we've supplied over 1,100 buildings a year for decades, so whatever your situation, we've almost certainly seen it before. Ask us and we'll tell you straight whether your site needs permission.

You apply for planning permission, and falling outside permitted development doesn't mean the answer is no. Only that the council gets a say. Most household garage applications are straightforward.

Applications go through your local planning authority, and most councils take them online. For borderline cases a Lawful Development Certificate settles it in writing, and a pre-application enquiry is a cheap way to find out where you stand before paying for a full application.

In short: most garages in England and Wales need no planning permission, because they fall under permitted development, and the rules are the same whatever the building is made of. The tests are that the garage is single storey with eaves no higher than 2.5 metres, sits behind the front of the house, covers no more than half the land around the original house, and stays within the height limits, 4 metres overall with a dual-pitched roof, 3 metres with any other roof, dropping to 2.5 metres if any part sits within 2 metres of a boundary. "Original house" means as first built, or as it stood on 1 July 1948, so extensions added by previous owners already count against the 50%. There is no floor-area limit in the planning rules; the 30 square metres often quoted is the separate building regulations exemption, which also requires no sleeping accommodation. Verandas, balconies and raised platforms are excluded. Permission is needed for flats, maisonettes and commercial properties, which have no permitted development rights at all, and for listed buildings, conservation areas, national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, or where rights have been removed by a planning condition, common on newer estates. Falling outside permitted development doesn't mean refusal, only that the council decides, and a Lawful Development Certificate settles borderline cases in writing. Nucrete has supplied around 1,100 buildings a year for over 45 years and will give an honest view on any site before you order.