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Add a porch to your house

Last updated
14 Aug 2023

If you want to add a porch to a front door, back door or side door on your house, you should first check if you need to apply for planning permission. 

This guidance only applies if your home is a dwellinghouse. This means it's a house you live in and is not used as a business premise to any significant degree.

Permitted development

Most porches don't need a planning permission application, because most meet a set of rules called 'permitted development'.

If your porch meets these rules, you automatically have planning permission and don't have to apply for it.

You won't need to apply for planning permission to add a porch to your house as long as:

  • its footprint (the total floor area it takes up) is no greater than 3 square metres
  • there's at least 2 metres between the edge of the porch and any boundary facing a road
  • it isn't taller than 3 metres
  • it isn't within a conservation area

For a more detailed explanation of what's considered a permitted development when adding a porch to your house, read section the Scottish Government's Guidance on Householder Permitted Development rights publication and go to section 4.37. This includes instances where additional restrictions on permitted development apply.

Planning permission

If the porch you want to build doesn't meet the conditions for permitted development, you have to apply for planning permission.

Find out how to apply for planning permission, or contact your local authority for further information.

Aberdeen City Council Aberdeenshire Council Angus Council Argyll and Bute Council Cairngorms National Park Authority Clackmannanshire Council Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council) Dumfries & Galloway Council Dundee City Council East Ayrshire Council East Dunbartonshire Council East Lothian Council East Renfrewshire Council Edinburgh Council Falkirk Council Fife Council Glasgow City Council Highland Council Inverclyde Council Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority Midlothian Council Moray Council North Ayrshire Council North Lanarkshire Council Orkney Islands Council Perth & Kinross Council Renfrewshire Council Scottish Borders Council Shetland Islands Council South Ayrshire Council South Lanarkshire Council Stirling Council West Dunbartonshire Council West Lothian Council

You should always check with your council's planning department to see whether you need to apply for planning permission. Even if you meet the permitted development rules, there may be other approvals you'll need to get.

Other approvals

You could need other approvals before you can carry out work. For example, you could need approval under the building regulations from the local council.

If you don't own the land on which the development is being carried out (for example, if you're a tenant or the land's in joint ownership), you may need to get the landowner's permission.

If you live in a listed building you will probably also need to obtain listed building consent.

It's your responsibility to make sure you get any necessary approval.

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