Lawful development certificates.

If it has not decided by then, you can appeal to the Planning Inspectorate for non-determination; agreeing an extension is often quicker, because an appeal is slower than a late decision. A well-prepared application is the quickest one. A certificate is decided on evidence and a council that has to write back asking for dates, photographs or plans has stopped the clock in practice even where it has not in law. On a proposed project the drawings decide it, so measured, dimensioned plans that show the limits being met save more time than anything else.

Planning fees are set by regulations; they rise each April when prices have risen and can change at other times, so check the Planning Portal's fee calculator for the project in hand. On top of the council's fee there is the cost of the evidence: drawings and, for an existing use, any statutory declarations, which have to be made before a solicitor or another person authorised to take them. On a proposed householder project the certificate costs half the fee for a planning application, which is part of why it is worth having where the answer matters.

The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 made the change, in England. The old four-year limit still applies where building works were substantially completed, or the change to a single home took place, before 25 April 2024. Everything else, including other changes of use and most breaches of condition, was already ten years and stays so; a condition breach that made a building a separate home, such as an annexe let on its own, followed the four-year rule. So the date the works were finished or the use began matters twice: once for whether the clock has run and once for which clock applies. A certificate for an existing use or building is how a run clock is proved.

The law presumes the certified use or development to be lawful, which protects it from enforcement, but it is not a permission and carries no conditions of its own. If the use later changes or the building is altered, the certificate does not stretch to cover the change; the new position needs its own check. Read the certificate's wording closely: the description and the plan attached to it define exactly what is protected and a buyer's solicitor will read it the same way.

The council asks two things only: what happened and whether it is lawful. If the evidence shows the time for enforcement has passed, or that a proposed project falls within permitted development, the certificate should follow, whatever the council's view of how it looks. That cuts both ways. A project the council would happily approve on its merits still cannot be certified if it falls outside the rules or the evidence is thin; the answer then is a planning application.

Where a refusal is about evidence, such as a gap in the dates or declarations that do not agree with each other, applying again with the gap filled is often quicker than an appeal; the Inspectorate expects an appeal to rest on the evidence the council had. Any certificate application, granted or refused, tells the council about something that may be unauthorised. So be sure of the evidence before applying, rather than using an application to find out.

A certificate answers that question in a way nothing else does. A missing permission can surface in the buyer's searches or enquiries, partway through a sale. The alternatives are an indemnity policy or a retrospective application and each has drawbacks. Where an extension, a conversion or a use has been in place long enough to be lawful, applying for a certificate before marketing the property turns an awkward question into a document.

Revocation is the council's decision. Knowingly or recklessly making a false or misleading statement to obtain a certificate, or withholding material information with intent to deceive, is also a criminal offence. So the evidence has to be what it says it is. Where the history is unclear, the right course is to say so and evidence what can be evidenced, not to tidy the dates.