ArchFor Homeowners & Developers
Know where your project stands before you spend
A refused application costs months and money. Whether permitted development covers your extension, loft or outbuilding comes down to precise limits — and your council's own policies. ArchLens checks your actual property against the actual rules, and explains the answer in plain English.
Three Steps
From "Can We?" to a Clear Answer
Describe Your Project
Answer guided questions about your property and what you want to build — no jargon, with plain-English help at every step. Your postcode is used to verify conservation areas, Article 4 directions and flood zones against official data.
Get Your Assessment
In minutes: the likely planning route, how your proposal measures against the permitted development limits, your council's policy position where a library exists, and exactly which documents a submission would need.
Decide With Confidence
Go into conversations with builders, designers or your council knowing your position — and bring in a professional at the right moment, with a structured report to hand them instead of a blank page.
Projects We Cover
Extensions to HMOs — Anywhere in England
Home Improvements
Rear and side extensions, loft conversions and dormers, garden offices and outbuildings, porches, hard surfaces — the full range of householder permitted development, checked limit by limit.
Developers & Landlords
Small HMOs, change of use and conversions. Article 4 directions — which quietly remove permitted development rights street by street — are checked against live government data at your property's actual location.
Building Regulations Too
Planning permission is only half the story. A separate assessment covers structure, fire safety, insulation, ventilation and drainage under the England Building Regulations — which apply even when planning permission isn't needed.
ArchLens gives preliminary guidance to inform your decisions — it does not guarantee any council's decision, and for drawings, structural design or submissions you should involve a professional. You can request review from SY Design Studio directly from your dashboard.
Questions
Common Questions
It depends on precise numbers — how far the extension projects, how high it is, how close to the boundary, and whether your property has constraints like a conservation area or an Article 4 direction. ArchLens checks your actual dimensions against the actual permitted development limits and tells you the likely route, with the reasoning shown.
The likely planning route for your project (permitted development or planning application), your site's verified constraints, how the proposal measures up against your council's own planning policies where a library exists, the documents your council would require, and recommended next steps — all in plain English.
Yes. New accounts receive welcome credits, and you are only ever charged credits when a report generates successfully. A failed generation never costs anything.
Yes. ArchLens assesses change-of-use proposals including small HMOs, and checks live government data for Article 4 directions — which in many areas remove the permitted development right to convert a house to an HMO without planning permission.
Check your project today
Free to sign up, welcome credits included — know your position before you commit a penny to drawings or fees.