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Planning Enforcement Notices

If the council decides to take enforcement action at the end of the officer’s investigation this means that it is confident that the breach of planning control is unacceptable and is causing harm. 

The council can take the following types of enforcement action:

  • enforcement notices
  • breach of condition notices
  • stop notices
  • high court injunctions
  • Section 215 notices
  • prosecutions.   

The most common types of enforcement action taken by the council are enforcement notices and breach of condition notices. 

Once the enforcement action has been agreed at delegated or committee level, the case officer will instruct the council’s Legal Services Department to serve an enforcement notice on all interested parties. These details are normally obtained by a Land Registry search and/or a questionnaire. The enforcement notice will detail the breach of planning control, what action needs to be taken to remedy the breach and how long the owners have to remedy the breach (known as the ‘period of compliance’).

Owners have a legal right to appeal against the enforcement notice (in the same way they are allowed to appeal against refusals of planning applications, click here to find out how to appeal). If a valid appeal is made against an enforcement notice (or planning application) the council cannot require that the notice is complied with until the appeal is decided.

If no appeal is made, the case officer will make a site inspection after the period of compliance to check if the breach has been remedied. Failure to comply with the requirements of an enforcement notice within the given time limit is a criminal offence and the council will seek prosecution of those guilty of this offence.

An enforcement notice will appear as a charge on the Land Charges Register. This would be revealed during a Land Charges Search, so that anyone wishing to purchase the property or lease is aware of the outstanding notice and the requirements necessary to comply with it. An enforcement notice lies with the land and therefore anyone who purchases the property, or an interest in it, then becomes liable (where appropriate) for non compliance with that notice.