Planning Enforcement Charter 2024-2026
Time Limits Prevent Action (Enforcement Immunity Rules)
Building works which have been substantially completed for more than four years will be immune from enforcement action. Changes of use generally will be immune if they have existed continuously for more than ten years, as will be any breach of a condition which has been attached to an earlier planning permission. This may be confirmed as lawful through certification of this claim.
An Enforcement Notice "stops the clock" towards immunity being reached, although the length of existence of the development may be disputed and challenged as a ground of appeal that at the time the Notice was served the development was immune from enforcement action.