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Certificates of lawfulness

If you want to be certain that the existing use of a building is lawful for planning purposes or that your proposal does not require planning permission, you can apply for a Certificate of Lawfulness.


All too often we hear the phrases:

“I think it had planning permission”

“I am sure I have a copy of a planning permission somewhere”; or

“I am sure they said at the time that planning permission was not required”

Added to this the fact that some Council’s have rather alarmingly destroyed old planning records, and you have the potential for gaps in the planning history of land or property.

Obtaining evidence can often prove to be elusive and very often the paper trail disappears. The fact that you do not have a planning permission (even though you may have needed one) is not the end of the world and nor is the fact that you cannot find the planning permission. Time limits for enforcement action and changes to planning legislation enable certificates to be obtained on a variety of matters. Certificates can effectively provide proof that development is immune from any enforcement action, what you may have done did not actually require planning permission, and finally what you may wish to do does not require planning permission.

A selection but by no means all could include:

  • Acquiring certificates to demonstrate a breach of an agricultural occupancy for more than 10 years, thus giving immunity from any enforcement action.
  • Acquiring certificates to demonstrate a planning permission was lawfully implemented and remains live despite no further work having been undertaken.
  • Acquiring certificates to demonstrate that your proposed development does not require planning permission.

The Town and Country Planning Act sets out the relevant timeframes for which the use must have been carried out and/or the operations as follows:

  • Four years in respect of a change of use of any building, or any part of a building, to use as a single dwelling house or building, engineering, mining or other operations in, on, over or under land; and
  • Ten years in respect of a material change of use (other than a change of use to a single dwelling house which is subject to the four-year rule above) or a breach of condition (except a condition preventing the change in the use of any building to use as a single dwelling house, which is subject to the four-year rule above).

Generally speaking, if a local planning authority does not take enforcement action against any unauthorised use or operation within these timeframes the unauthorised use or operations can become immune from any enforcement action and this can be where the certificate to that effect becomes useful.

In the absence of a certificate being granted, you cannot legitimately prove any of the aforementioned points.

Certificates of lawful use are not the same as planning applications. They rely on factual information relating to the history of the site and any uses or operations that were carried out. It is important to note that the planning merits are not relevant to the determination of the application.

We can provide a bespoke service advising on the purchase of land and property to ensure that potential pitfalls are avoided. This can avoid problems at a later date and also enable issues that arise during the acquisition process to be minimised and dealt with comprehensively.

Our team of experienced planning experts would be pleased to discuss how we might be able to help

Elizabeth Welch

Elizabeth Welch

Associate Director and Chartered Town Planner
SteveDavies-BW-220x220

Steve Davies

Associate Director and Chartered Town Planner
Isabelle Adaway

Isabelle Adaway

Senior Planning Consultant
Charlotte Bromley

Charlotte Bromley

Rural Surveyor