Appeal site visits and what to prepare

An appeal site visit is not a hearing. The inspector comes to look, not to listen, and on most householder appeals they will arrive alone, walk past the property from the pavement and leave without speaking to anyone. Your case was made in writing weeks earlier. The visit exists so the inspector can see the thing the writing described.

Understanding that changes what you prepare. The job is to make the point visible, make access easy, and avoid anything that looks like an attempt to argue the case on the doorstep.

Accompanied and unaccompanied visits

The Planning Inspectorate decides which type of visit a case needs, and it turns on one question: can everything relevant be seen from land the public can reach.

An unaccompanied visit happens where the answer is yes. The inspector views the site from the highway, a footpath or other public land, at a time of their choosing, and nobody is told exactly when. Most householder extension appeals are dealt with this way.

An accompanied visit happens where the inspector needs to go onto private land, usually the appeal site itself or a neighbour's garden. Everyone with an interest is invited: the appellant or their agent, the council's officer, and interested parties who made representations. The inspector will not enter the site with one party if another party who wanted to attend has been excluded, and will not proceed if the invitation has not been properly made.

You will be asked, when you lodge the appeal, whether access to the site is needed. Answer it carefully. Saying access is unnecessary when the objection concerns the view from a neighbour's kitchen means the inspector never sees what the case is about.

What the inspector is entitled to see

The inspector looks at the appeal site, the surrounding area and anything the parties have identified as relevant in their written cases. They are not restricted to the drawings.

In a householder case that usually means the rear elevation, the relationship to the boundary, the neighbouring windows said to be affected, the street scene, and the pattern of similar extensions nearby if you have relied on them. If your statement referred to three extensions further along the road, expect the inspector to walk past all three, and expect them to notice if the comparison does not hold.

They will also see the things you did not mention. An overgrown garden, a partly built structure, a caravan or an unauthorised outbuilding will all be recorded, and they can affect how the site reads even where they are not in issue.

Where the case rests on how the refusal was reasoned rather than on what the site looks like, reading the reasons for refusal before you decide to appeal matters more than anything you do on the day.

Arranging access, including neighbouring land

Access to your own site is your responsibility. Open gates, make sure someone can be there, and confirm the arrangement in writing when the Inspectorate asks.

Neighbouring land is harder. If the inspector needs to stand in a neighbour's garden to judge the effect on their window, that neighbour has to agree. You cannot arrange it for them, and you should not try. What you can do is make sure the Inspectorate knows access there may be needed, so the invitation goes out formally.

Neighbours who have objected usually want the inspector to come in, and their own representations are the route to that, as set out in interested party representations at appeal. If a neighbour refuses access, the inspector views from the nearest public vantage point and decides on what can be seen from there.

One practical caution. Failing to provide access that you said would be available, and causing a visit to be abandoned, is the kind of behaviour that can attract an award of costs against you.

Poles, markers and viewpoint photographs

Height poles, profile boards and taped outlines on the ground are allowed, and they can be useful for showing the footprint and ridge height of something that does not yet exist.

Three rules if you use them. They must be accurate and set out from the submitted drawings, not estimated. The Inspectorate must be told in advance that they are there and what they represent. And they must still be in place on the day, which matters for an unaccompanied visit where you do not know the date.

Photographs are the more reliable route, and they go in with the written case rather than being handed over at the visit. Number each one, show the camera positions on a location plan with the direction of view, and state the date and time. A photograph taken in July with the trees in leaf, used to argue that a proposal will be screened, will be discounted by an inspector visiting in January, so include winter views where screening is part of the argument.

Do not bring new photographs, drawings or documents to the visit. The inspector cannot accept them, because the other parties have not seen them.

What you may say and what you may not

On an accompanied visit you may point out physical features and answer factual questions. Which window is the kitchen. Where the boundary runs. How far it is to the neighbouring wall. Where the drain runs.

You may not discuss the merits. No argument about policy, no explanation of why the council was wrong, no comment on the neighbour's objection. Inspectors will stop the conversation politely and, if pressed, will record that an attempt was made to discuss the case.

This rule exists to protect you as much as anyone. Anything said in front of one party and not the other is procedurally unfair, and an inspector who allowed it would expose the decision to challenge.

The one thing worth saying, if it is true, is that something has changed since the drawings were prepared. A tree has been removed, a neighbour has built an extension, the fence has gone. The inspector will want to know, and will usually ask the council's officer to confirm it.

Getting the site ready

Simple preparation, done the week before, makes the difference.

• Cut back vegetation obscuring the elevation or the boundary the case turns on.
• Clear vehicles, skips and materials from the area the inspector needs to see or walk across.
• Make sure access routes are safe and unobstructed, and that any internal rooms relevant to the case can be entered.
• Secure dogs, and warn anyone living at the property that a stranger may be looking over the fence.
• If levels are in issue, leave any survey pegs in place.
• If the case involves noise or activity at a particular time, say so in the written case, because the inspector cannot know to visit in the evening unless told.

Leave the site as it normally is in every other respect. Tidying to the point of staging invites the thought that the normal condition is worse, and inspectors have seen a great many sites.

Resist the temptation to start work. Anything built between the refusal and the visit will be seen, and building the extension you are appealing for is a poor opening.

After the visit

Nothing further happens on the day. The inspector will not indicate a view, will not give a timescale, and will not answer questions about the outcome.

Any further information has to go through the Inspectorate, and will be copied to every other party, who will get a chance to comment. That adds time. Send something only where it is necessary, such as a change in the site's circumstances or a relevant policy adoption.

The decision arrives in writing, and it deals with the reasons for refusal in turn. If it goes against you, read which reason failed and why, because that shapes whether a revised scheme is worth preparing. A revised application supported by a Planning Statement that addresses the inspector's findings directly is a stronger position than the one you started from, and the patterns behind why householder applications are refused most often are usually visible in the decision.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports a revised householder scheme is likely to need.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with the Planning Inspectorate or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.