Will a roofer deal with the conservation officer for you?

Three parties matter on a protected roof. The owner holds responsibility for the building and makes any application. The council's conservation officer advises the planning team on whether the proposal respects the character of the building. The roofer supplies evidence and carries out the work to the standard agreed. Jobs stall when those roles get muddled, usually because the owner thinks the roofer is handling the paperwork while the roofer assumes the owner has already asked. Settling at the survey who will write to whom takes a minute and avoids weeks of silence.

It helps to be frank about limits. A roofer cannot grant consent and cannot promise that a council will. What a roofer can do is explain which rules are likely to apply, give a candid view on whether a repair looks like routine upkeep or a change, and make sure the written quote describes exactly the work that has been approved. Our answer on like-for-like stone roof repairs and consent sets out the test councils apply to a repair, so read it first.

A conservation officer studies how proposed work would touch the special character of a building. For a stone roof that covers the stone itself, how it is laid, how it is fixed, the lead and the mortar. Their advice feeds into the council's decision under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, which requires authorisation for works that alter a listed building's character.

Officers are specialists, and they are usually far easier to work with when clear evidence reaches them early. A scaffold tower appearing before they have heard of the job is the quickest way to start a difficult conversation. A tidy set of pictures and a plain schedule of work, sent before anything is ordered, lets them reply promptly and lets the owner, the roofer and the stone supplier plan around the same facts. Too little detail is the commonest reason a request comes back with questions attached.

The evidence starts at the survey. We photograph each slope, the timbers in the loft, both chimney stacks and every junction where a ridge, hip or valley meets the stone, and we mark every slab or fixing that has failed. Those images show the officer why a repair is wanted, so the proposal is judged against the fault and not against a guess.

With the images goes a written account of the work: which slopes are involved, which slabs are lifted and refixed, what becomes of any stone that cannot return, the mortar proposed along the ridge and hips, and the way lead will be dressed at each abutment. If new stone is needed, the account says whether it is reclaimed or newly quarried. Our guide to reclaimed or newly quarried Horsham stone covers the choice officers raise most often, because the colour and size of replacement slabs often matter most to them.

West Sussex County Council describes the districts and boroughs as the bodies handling heritage controls, meaning listed buildings and conservation areas. Arun's conservation officer can be contacted at conservation.officer@arun.gov.uk. Inside the South Downs National Park the split differs. Where the Park overlaps Arun, Adur and Worthing, or Horsham, the Authority takes planning decisions itself. Where it overlaps Chichester or East Hampshire, applications go to the district council, which acts for the Authority.

Arun adds that the Authority is responsible for any conservation areas inside the Park, so a village that sits partly within the boundary can have two answers to the same question. For a Chichester, Havant, Portsmouth or Horsham address, ring the planning team's main number, ask who handles heritage advice and say it concerns a roof. Our page on stone roofs in the South Downs National Park goes through who decides in each area, and it is a good companion to a call.

The right sequence protects the roof and the budget. Survey first. Then find out what consent the work needs, and apply if it does. Order stone and book scaffold only when the answer is in, because a consent decision can move the start date in either direction, and stone ordered early may turn out to be the wrong stone. Ask the officer, if you can, which details they will be looking at hardest, so the written account answers those questions first.

If rain is coming in now, deal with that first. A temporary cover can be lifted off again later, and it keeps the house dry while the lasting repair is agreed. Which? advises telling your insurer before anything else, photographing the damage and keeping receipts for emergency work. After that, the Horsham stone roofing page explains how we plan the permanent repair once the right permission is in hand, and you keep the survey photographs for every conversation that follows.