Planning Permission · Report on Title scenarios
Planning permission
5 situations in which missing planning permission comes up during a conveyancing transaction, each answering a different question.
- The planning conditions were never dischargedUndischarged pre-commencement and pre-occupation conditions are a live breach of planning control. What the council can still do, and why contacting it can cost you the insurance.
- I have declined the planning indemnity policy — what am I taking on?A buyer who turns down indemnity cover for a planning breach takes the enforcement risk personally. What the authority can do, where criminal liability actually starts, and the waiver you will be asked to sign.
- There is an Article 4 direction on the propertyAn Article 4 direction withdraws permitted development rights for a defined area or kind of work. What that removes, why basements are a common target, and what it does to your plans.
- A restriction stops the house becoming a house in multiple occupationA local land charge restricting change of use from a dwellinghouse to a small HMO. What the two use classes are, who it affects, and who it does not affect at all.
- The development is still being built — what will go up around me?A plot on a part-built development. Why the searches answer questions about your plot and not about the site, what the planning portal will tell you, and why it has to be before exchange.
Already bought, and missing planning permission has become a problem?
These pages are written for someone still deciding. If this came up after you completed, the question is a different one — what was known during the purchase, and what should have been reported to you.
Tell us what happened → WhenIBought.comDealing with this on a current conveyancing matter?
Current Report on Title paragraph
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