Contact us

Planning enforcement

Planning enforcement notices: specialist appeals and advice

Received an enforcement notice? Our chartered planning consultants help homeowners and developers across London and England respond quickly and effectively.

Receiving an enforcement notice is very stressful and carries serious legal consequences, but most cases can be resolved.

We help homeowners and developers respond quickly and professionally, to give themselves the best chance of success.

5★ Rated on Google

Backed by hundreds of reviews from homeowners and developers.

Specialists in enforcement cases

We are based in London and work across England advising on breaches of planning control, enforcement investigations and formal notices, including appeals.

Led by chartered town planners

All of our consultants are RTPI-accredited with 10+ years experience in both local government and private practice.

What should I do if I receive an enforcement notice?

Enforcement notices are serious - but most issues can be resolved.

Councils serve notices where they believe there has been a breach of planning control and that it is expedient to act.

In reality, many cases arise from simple mistakes or misunderstandings. Building work rarely follows the approved plans exactly. Small changes are made on site, permitted development rights are misunderstood, or a planning condition is overlooked.

It is not unusual for a notice to come as a complete surprise. Many clients have obtained planning permission, instructed a builder and acted in good faith, only to find themselves facing formal enforcement action.

Notices are also sometimes served before there has been any real attempt to resolve matters through discussion.

In most cases, it is worth appealing a notice. The effect of the notice is paused while the appeal is heard.

Get a free assessment

How we deal with enforcement cases

A clear plan to respond effectively and protect your position.

1. Initial review

We review the enforcement notice, the planning history and what has actually been built, so that we gain a complete understanding of what has happened. 

That usually involves looking at the approved plans, any application or refusal documents, photographs and any other background information you provide.

From that, we can usually identify the available options.

2. Strategy and evidence

We look closely at what the notice actually alleges, whether that is correct and what evidence is needed to respond to it.

That may involve factual evidence about what has been built, evidence that the development is lawful and arguments that planning permission should be granted retrospectively for the development.

Sometimes the notice is flawed or badly worded, and can be challenged on that basis. 

3. Appeal or other route

Where an appeal is the right approach, we prepare and manage it.

In other cases, it may be more appropriate to submit a retrospective application, propose amendments or deal with the matter directly with the council. The right approach depends on the circumstances.

4. Managing the case through to decision

We handle the entire process from start to finish.

We liaise with the council, respond to any further questions and update you throughout. Most enforcement appeal cases are decided through written representations, meaning no hearing is required. We guide you until the matter is fully resolved.

Why Choose Us?

We deal with enforcement cases regularly and have won appeals across England

We deal with hundreds of enforcement cases each year, including appeals against notices requiring demolition, alterations and changes of use.

These cases are often more fact-sensitive than they first appear, and the outcome usually depends on the detail.

We review the notice, prepare the necessary submissions and deal with the appeal process where required. Our fees are fixed, and we will set these out clearly at the outset.

Get a free assessment

Frequently asked questions

What is planning enforcement?

Every council planning department has a team of officers who deal with breaches of planning control. They investigate cases where people have built something without permission, or without complying with a planning permission. They also investigate breaches of condition or unlawful changes of use. If they find a breach, they can serve an enforcement notice, demanding that it be reversed.

Councils don’t go around looking for breaches – there is no planning police force. The planners don’t go around checking that planning permissions have been built out properly. Most investigations start as a result of a complaint from a neighbour. In reality, most breaches don’t ever come to the planners’ attention – lots of people get away with it.

If a neighbour rings up to say that it looks like something has been built without planning permission, or not in accordance with a planning permission, a case officer will normally go around and visit the site. Sometimes they will write to the owner first, or serve a Planning Contravention Notice (PCN).

A Planning Contravention Notice (PCN) is a document that asks you to provide information to help the council assess whether a breach of planning control has occurred. You are legally required to reply to the PCN, giving honest and complete answers, within the time limit set out on the notice (usually 21 days). You may be fined a maximum of £1,000 if you do not respond in full and honestly.

If you receive a PCN, contact us for advice on how to respond. The answers you give in your response to the PCN may determine whether further enforcement action is taken and, though your answers must, by law, be complete and truthful, care should still be taken to ensure that you do not unnecessarily incriminate yourself.

If the council’s investigation reveals that there has been a breach of planning control, it must decide what action to take. it does not have to take any action at all – it should only take action if it is ‘expedient’ (in the public interest) – minor breaches should be ignored.

Try to work with the enforcement officer – they are not the enemy and they are not there to make your life difficult. Try to build a rapport with them and ask them for their advice. Don’t be aggressive or lie to them – remember they are more likely to be helpful to someone who has been open and honest.

You can try and avoid an enforcement notice by negotiating with the enforcement officer to see if the development could be changed to make it acceptable, or by submitting a planning application or a certificate of lawfulness for the development that has been carried out.

If you have a development that does not have planning permission, you can apply for permission retrospectively (i.e. after it is complete). A retrospective planning application is exactly the same as a regular planning application, except that the development is already in place. You submit the same application form, plans and application fee, and the application is assessed on the same policies, as if the development had not yet taken place.

If the council tells you that what you have built will not be granted permission, you can apply for it, but with amendments that might make it acceptable. For example, if you have built an extension and the council does not like the design of the roof, you could apply to keep the extension but change the roof.

If the development you have carried out has been in place for 4 years (the ‘4 year rule’) or 10 years (the ’10 year rule’), it may be too late for the council to take enforcement action against it. You can apply for a Certificate of Lawfulness (also known as a Lawful Development Certificate) to confirm that your development is now lawful by virtue of the passage of time.

If you don’t have planning permission for your development, but you think it does not need permission because it is permitted development, you can also submit an application for a Certificate of Lawfulness to establish that fact.

It is very important that you take professional advice. An Enforcement Notice is an important legal document that might require you to reverse an act of development. You normally have 28 days to appeal the Notice and, if it takes effect and you do not comply with requirements, you are at risk of prosecution and a fine.

Whatever you do, never just ignore an enforcement notice. 

Just Planning is a specialist planning appeal consultancy with many years’ experience of appealing against hundreds of enforcement notices. Please do not hesitate to contact us for some advice.

It is almost always worth appealing an enforcement notice. At the very least, appealing it buys you some time – enforcement appeals take 9–12 months to be decided. Once you appeal, the enforcement action is paused and you can retain the unauthorised development while a decision is made. If you do not appeal within the time period set out in the notice itself (usually 28 days), the Notice takes effect, and you are obliged to comply with its requirements.

Planning appeals in England and Wales are decided by the Planning Inspectorate, a central government agency based in Bristol. The inspectorate is entirely separate from local councils. When you appeal, an independent inspector is appointed to consider your case and make a decision.

The Planning Inspectorate has published a guide to the planning enforcement appeal process – available here.

Most planning inspectorate appeals are decided through written representations, meaning that both sides submit written Appeal Statements and the inspector makes a decision based on those arguments.

The inspector will usually carry out a brief site visit. The site visit is purely for the inspector to see the site and is not an opportunity for either side to make its case.

The appeal process is generally straight forward and stress free. Our consultants will handle all correspondence and there is little for you to do. You may need to provide access to the inspector for the site visit but can otherwise just await the decision.

Enforcement appeals can be made on 7 grounds (grounds a to g), as follows:

  • Planning permission should be granted for the development;
  • There has been no breach of planning control;
  • The breach alleged in the enforcement notice has not occurred as a matter of fact;
  • It is too late for the council to take action (under the 4- or 10-year rules);
  • The notice was not properly served;
  • The requirements of the notice are excessive;
  • The period for compliance is too short.

If you appeal under ground (a), that planning permission should be granted for the development, you will usually have to pay a fee to the council of double the usual planning application fee.

Councils will not generally withdraw an enforcement notice after they have gone to the trouble of serving it, unless they discover that they have made an error in the way it is drafted. They are also very unlikely to withdraw the notice if you have not appealed in time, or if the appeal has failed.

However, we are sometimes successful in getting a Notice withdrawn after we have submitted an appeal and the council sees that we have made a strong case and are likely to win the appeal.

If you have received an Enforcement Notice, email us a copy of it and we will take a look and give you some free advice on what it means and what we think you should do.

We will also give you a quote for any application or appeal we recommend. We charge fixed fees (no hourly rates or hidden extras) so you know precisely how much you will have to pay.

Typical fees for a homeowner enforcement appeal are £1,500 to £2,000 plus VAT.

Every year, thousands of people make honest mistakes that cause them enforcement headaches. Often people carry out an extension to their house that they think is permitted development, but it is not, or they build it slightly larger than they should have. This is particularly common with dormer roof extensions, and with outbuildings in rear gardens.

Councils are also targeting ‘beds in sheds’, where people are renting out outbuildings as separate houses, or unlawful houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), where houses or flats are being rented to groups of sharers without planning permission. Finally, councils often target houses which have been converted into flats without planning permission.

The 15 councils that served the most enforcement notices in the past 12 months were:

  1. Brent
  2. Westminster
  3. Bradford
  4. Buckinghamshire
  5. Barnet
  6. Ealing
  7. Cornwall
  8. Wirral
  9. Havering
  10. Sheffield
  11. Camden
  12. Slough
  13. Tower Hamlets
  14. North Devon
  15. Waltham Forest

If an enforcement appeal fails, the enforcement notice will usually take effect and you must comply with its requirements within the period given. If you do not comply in time, you may commit a criminal offence and the council can consider further action, including prosecution or direct action.

There may still be some options, such as a revised planning application, discussions with the enforcement officer or agreeing a practical timetable for compliance, but the notice should not be ignored.

Need planning advice?

Get a free expert assessment.

Fill in the form below to receive our assessment on your chances of success. You will also receive a personalised fixed-fee quote for the preparation, submission and management of your appeal.

If you prefer to email, we can be reached at info@just-planning.co.uk.