Appeal site visits: accompanied, unaccompanied and preparation

The Planning Inspectorate decides whether your appeal site visit is accompanied or unaccompanied, and it decides on one question. Can the inspector see everything they need to see from public land? If yes, the visit is unaccompanied and nobody meets them. If they need to enter your garden, your loft or your neighbour's rear elevation, the visit is accompanied and everyone with an interest is invited.

For a householder appeal about a rear extension, that usually means an accompanied visit, because the effect on the neighbour's windows cannot be judged from the street.

How the visit type is decided

The Inspectorate looks at the appeal documents, the site location plan and any request either party has made. Where the appellant or the council has asked for an accompanied visit and given a reason, that carries weight.

You will be told the type and the date in writing. For an unaccompanied visit you may be given a date range rather than a fixed time, because the inspector is fitting several sites into a day.

Do not assume the inspector has already visited informally. They may have driven past to check access, but the formal visit is the one that counts, and it happens after the written representations have closed.

What happens on an unaccompanied visit

The inspector arrives alone, walks the streets and public paths around the site, takes photographs and notes, and leaves. Nobody is notified of the exact time.

Two practical points follow. If your appeal depends on something visible only from your own land, say so in your statement and ask for an accompanied visit, because the inspector cannot enter without permission. And if the site is behind a locked gate or a high fence, an unaccompanied visit will not show what you wanted it to show.

Where the appeal turns on views into the site, identify the vantage points in your statement, with a plan and photographs taken from each. The inspector will check them.

The rules on speaking during an accompanied visit

This is where householder appellants most often go wrong. An accompanied site visit is not a hearing. The merits of the appeal cannot be discussed, and the inspector will stop any attempt to do so.

What you can do is point out physical features. Where the boundary runs, which window belongs to which room, where the ground level changes, how far the existing outrigger projects. Factual, observable things.

What you cannot do is explain why the extension is acceptable, hand over new documents, or comment on the council's case. The inspector has read the papers and is not permitted to receive new material or argument at the visit, because the other party has no chance to respond.

Both parties are invited. So are interested people who made representations, and a neighbour who objected has the same right to attend and to point out physical features as you do. Expect them to be there, and behave accordingly.

The inspector will usually start by explaining these rules. Listen, and then follow them, because an appellant who argues the case on site is remembered for that rather than for their evidence. If your case needs more argument, it belongs in the Planning Statement that went in with the appeal.

Access, keys and safety

Practical failures waste the visit and cannot always be rescheduled.

• Be there, or arrange for someone with keys and authority to be there. An inspector who cannot get in records that and moves on.
• Secure dogs. Inspectors are entitled to decline entry to any part of a site they consider unsafe or where an animal is loose.
• Clear the route. Loft ladders, cellar hatches and side returns blocked by materials all stop the visit at the point you most wanted them to look.
• Do not expect an inspector to climb scaffolding, go onto a roof or enter a structurally unsafe building. They will not.
• Tell the Inspectorate in advance if access requires anything unusual, such as a permit, an escort or protective equipment.

Where the visit needs to include a neighbour's property to judge overlooking or loss of light, that neighbour has to agree. Ask them well in advance, politely, and tell the Inspectorate whether agreement has been given. A refused request is not fatal, and the inspector will assess the effect from where they can stand.

Preparing the neighbours

Accompanied visits go badly when the objector arrives expecting a debate and finds they cannot have one. A short note to the neighbour a week before, saying when the inspector is coming, that both sides are entitled to attend and that neither of you can argue the case, prevents most of the friction.

If access to their property has been requested, ask early and accept a refusal gracefully. Pressing the point at the gate on the morning of the visit helps nobody, and the inspector will assess overlooking from wherever they can legitimately stand.

Where relations have broken down, tell the Inspectorate in advance. Inspectors deal with this regularly and would rather know.

What to have ready on site

Keep it minimal. A copy of the appeal drawings, the site plan and a printed schedule of the photographs in your statement is enough.

Story poles or profiles showing the height and position of a proposed extension can help an inspector understand a scheme, and inspectors generally welcome them where both parties know they are there. Tell the council and the Inspectorate in advance, keep them accurate, and remove them afterwards. Erecting profiles as a surprise on the day is a poor idea.

Mark the site boundary if it is unclear on the ground. A line of pegs or tape along the red line takes ten minutes and prevents a misunderstanding that could otherwise carry into the decision.

If the appeal involves trees, have the tree numbers from the survey marked on the trunks, so that T4 in the Tree Survey is identifiable without a debate about which tree is which.

After the visit

Nothing happens on the day. The inspector will not give a view, will not indicate which way the appeal is going, and will not answer questions about timing. Asking puts them in an awkward position.

The decision arrives in writing. Householder appeals are usually decided faster than other types, and the Inspectorate publishes indicative timescales that vary with caseload, so check the current position rather than relying on what someone told you last year.

Read the decision letter carefully whichever way it goes. Where an appeal is dismissed, the inspector's reasoning is the most useful document you will ever get about your own site, because it tells you exactly which part of the scheme failed and why. A revised application answering that reasoning, with the supporting documents aimed at the specific point, has a far better prospect than a general redesign.

Where the appeal is allowed, check the conditions on the grant. Inspectors impose their own, and they are not always the ones the council proposed.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Appeal procedures and timescales change, so check the current 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.