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Lawful Development Certificate Appeal

The government’s Planning portal clarifies that, if an application for a Lawful Development Certificate (LDC) is wholly or partly refused, or is granted in a different form from the application, or is deemed to have been refused (because the local planning authority (LPA) has not determined the application within the time-limit of eight weeks of receiving the application), then you can appeal.

Most appeals of LDC relate to change of use of commercial property, particularly from retail and business uses to residential use and many Council planning refusals of this kind have been overturned via an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. Issues of highways and transportation are commonly disputed and in the case of loss of commercial uses, the impacts of the loss of office or retail use has often been contested.

Refusals of LDC applications do commonly concern householder Permitted Development, (PD) and, although it these are rarely overturned, Get Planning and Architecture have had success with this kind of appeal.

You should note that the Planning Inspectorate are likely to reject an LDC appeal if an effective Enforcement Notice is in force at the property. This is because, if such a notice is in force, this makes the proposal unlawful.

There is no time limit for your appeal of a LDC, however once an appeal is lodged you can expect to wait at least 26 weeks for a decision from the Planning Inspectorate.