What if a complaint is made about your property or development?

If you receive a letter from the council, you are entitled to know the allegation (but not who made it) and explain your side of the case. We would encourage you to respond quickly and provide any required information. It is advisable to cease any works at this stage while a preliminary assessment is undertaken to assess whether a breach of planning control has occurred. 

Officers may need to visit your site as part of any investigation and have a right of entry to land or property in which case you will be requested to assist in this process.

We recognise that some breaches of the planning regulations will be genuine mistakes, for example, where the need for planning permission was not established before commencement of work. However, there are also cases where planning laws or the terms of a planning permission have been significantly contravened or where the unauthorised work is intentional, which will be a material consideration weighed up in the determination of any successive planning application or appeal.

As part of any discussion during the investigation the council:

  • May allow an opportunity to apply for retrospective planning permission
  • Will seek resolution eg by stopping the use, removing or reducing the size of an unauthorised building
  • May serve a formal request for information S330 or Planning Contravention Notice (PCN) which is a legal document which requires you to answer a range of questions and return to us in 21 days
  • Will consider taking formal action to resolve the matter

Owners should be aware that unauthorised development could delay or potentially prevent a future sale of property or land. In addition, any formal enforcement notices served will be registered with land charges and appear on property searches. It is therefore in owners’ best interests to have all necessary planning permissions in place and any enforcement issues resolved.