If your local planning authority determines that you have built or changed something without planning permission, or that you have built a development in a way that does not comply with the terms of your planning permission, they may send you an enforcement notice.
The notice will specify the remedial steps the planning authority thinks you need to take to regularise the situation, and give you deadlines for doing so. They may ask you to demolish all or part of what has been built, or to stop using your land in a certain way.
When you receive an enforcement notice, it will include instructions as to how to make an appeal. Making an appeal will put a temporary pause on your deadline for taking remedial action. An appeal to the enforcement notice suspends the notice while the appeal is being processed.
Ground for appeal against an enforcement notice
There are several “grounds” or reasons you can appeal against an enforcement notice, under s174(2) of the 1990 Act. These are:
- Ground A: “that, in respect of any breach of planning control which may be constituted by the matters stated in the notice, planning permission ought to be granted or, as the case may be, the condition or limitation concerned ought to be discharged”
- Ground B: “that those matters have not occurred.” This is relevant in the event the enforcement notice is mistaken, and you have not undertaken the development it claims you have.
- Ground C: “that those matters (if they occurred) do not constitute a breach of planning control.” This means that although you accept the development has occurred, in the sense that you have built what the notice says you have or are doing what it claims you are, the notice is mistaken in thinking that is a breach of planning control.
- Ground D: “that, at the date when the notice was issued, no enforcement action could be taken in respect of any breach of planning control which may be constituted by those matters.”This refers to time limits for enforcement. Even if a development was unlawful, if it goes unchallenged for long enough, it will be immune to enforcement action.
- Ground E: “that copies of the enforcement notice were not served as required by section 172.”For an enforcement notice to be validly issued, the council has to comply with the requirements in that section.
- Ground F: “that the steps required by the notice to be taken, or the activities required by the notice to cease, exceed what is necessary to remedy any breach of planning control which may be constituted by those matters or, as the case may be, to remedy any injury to amenity which has been caused by any such breach.” This appeal is made on the basis that the remedial steps the planning authority says you need to take are excessive, and you should be allowed to do something less demanding instead to rectify things. For example, if you were told to demolish your entire house because you have built an unlawful conservatory, that might be deemed excessive.
- Ground G: “that any period specified in the notice in accordance with section 173(9) falls short of what should reasonably be allowed.” It may be that you think the deadlines in the notice are too strict. For example, if you are being asked to demolish your primary residence and have not been given enough time to find alternative accommodation.
It is important to note that the consequences of enforcement can be very severe. If the appeal fails and the enforcement notice is upheld this can result in a landowner being required to demolish all or part of their property or to stop using land or property in a particular way.
It is a criminal offence to fail to comply with a planning enforcement notice that has come into effect. Your local council is permitted to prosecute you and take direct action to ensure the work outlined in the notice is completed, including hiring contractors to complete the work and looking to the landowner to meet these costs.
For more information about appealing an enforcement notice contact us today, or read our guides:
T: 01634 811118
E: mail@kslaw.co.uk