We receive many calls from customers who are confused as to what the rules are with regards to log cabins and the planning permission issues that govern them.

The following is a guide we hope will help but please check with your local planning department as to your own personal circumstances to be absolutely sure if you need to obtain any consents.

Basically, you are entitled to have a log cabin in your garden up to 4m (13.4ft) in height. If that cabin is over 2.5m (8.25ft) in height and less than 2m (6.6ft) away from any boundary, you will most likely need permission.

The permission however, is likely to be granted as the law says you are entitled to go up to 4m in height.

The grey area is there because planning officers need to check each person’s circumstances before saying yes. For example, let us say you want to put a 4m high log cabin right up against your neighbour’s fence. One of the main concerns a planning officer has is ‘will this building adversely affect the neighbour’s use of his/her garden, block their sun or even intimidates them in any way’. If they decide it would, permission will be declined. Lowering the height in this instance to a level where the neighbour is not affected would most likely lead to the permission being approved.

If the log cabin is 2.5m or less in height, it is exempt from planning conditions and is therefore permitted development, even if it is close to the boundary.

At Cabins UK, most of our standard log cabins are 2.7m (8.9ft) high.

Customers who have placed our cabins close to their boundaries have all been given permission to do so by their local council. The main reason for this is because at that height, they have not adversely affected their neighbour.

For people who place their log cabins 2m or more away from the boundary, so long as the building is 4m or less in height, permission is not required.

(Properties that are in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Listed areas or protected areas have additional rules. If you live in an area such as these, you should check with your local planning department).

Being one of the largest suppliers of log cabins in Europe, Cabins UK can help all our customers in a number of ways with regards to the planning process.

Firstly, we have designed a few different log cabins which are 2.5m in height for customers who do not want to even think about the planning process.

Secondly, we offer a FREE service where we will make any of our standard range log cabins with a different angled roof so as to ensure they are 2.5m in height, making them exempt from the planning process.

As we will make these exclusively for each customer, please note the production time for this would be approx 4 weeks. (The Nottingham and the Duke log cabins are not included as, due to their design, lowering the roof to 2.5m is impossible).