Planning checks before buying a house

Most planning problems in a house sale are not planning refusals. They are missing paperwork: an extension nobody can prove was allowed, a listed home with unapproved changes, a new build with rights removed. You can find out most of it before you exchange contracts. This guide covers England.

The two questions behind every check

1. Did the work or use need planning permission?
2. If it did, was it granted, and was the work built as approved?

Planning permission is generally needed when work changes how a building looks from outside. Some extensions are permitted development and need no application, so an empty planning history is not always a problem. Building regulations approval is a separate system. Work often needs both, and a home can have one without the other.

An extended house

Look at what has been added: a rear or side extension, a loft conversion, a conservatory, a garage turned into a room. Then work out which of three routes explains it.

• Planning permission was granted. The council’s planning register should show the application, the plans and the decision with any conditions. Check the extension matches the approved plans.
• It was permitted development. There will be no application. The only proof is a lawful development certificate, if the owner applied for one, or the facts: the size, the date and the rules at the time.
• It was built without permission it needed. This is a breach of planning control. The council can act within a time limit, which is 10 years for building work finished on or after 25th April 2024 and 4 years for work finished before that date. After the limit, the council can generally no longer take enforcement action.

A lawful development certificate is the cleanest proof. It is a formal decision from the council that a use or piece of work is lawful, which means no action can be taken against it or permission was never needed. For work that is already built, the owner supplies evidence such as dated photos or bills, and the council decides on the balance of probability. Anyone can apply for one. See lawful development certificates.

Building regulations are a separate check. Ask for the building control approval and the completion certificate. For some work, such as a boiler or electrics, a tradesperson registered with a competent person scheme can certify the work instead.

A flat

A flat usually means a lease, and the lease decides a lot.

• Alterations. The lease sets out whether you need the landlord’s permission to alter the flat. Breaking its conditions can lead to court action, and in serious cases a court can take away the lease.
• Planning. The permitted development rules for householders are written for houses. A building containing flats, and a single flat within a building, do not count as a house for them. Work a house owner could do without an application may need one for a flat.
• Both can apply. Planning permission does not replace what the lease requires, and the landlord’s consent does not replace planning permission.

Your conveyancer should read the lease and the seller’s leasehold information, and ask for the paperwork behind any alterations the current or previous leaseholder made.

A listed home

If any part of the property is listed, you need listed building consent to change it, including some internal work. Only part of a property can be listed, a wall for example. Listed buildings face stricter planning controls than ordinary homes.

The point that catches buyers out: there is no time limit for enforcement action against unauthorised work to a listed building, and it does not matter who owned the property when the work was done. A buyer can face action for what a previous owner did. Unauthorised work that affects a listed building’s historic or architectural significance is an offence in its own right. A lawful development certificate does not replace listed building consent.

So for a listed home, ask for the listed building consents for every alteration, not just planning permissions, and ask your conveyancer to check each one against what you can see in the house. Our guide to listed buildings explains what needs consent.

Conservation areas and Article 4 directions

A conservation area is an area of special historical or architectural interest, and buildings in it face stricter planning controls. Cladding the outside of a house, for example, needs an application there. Trees need care too: in many cases the owner must tell the council before working on a tree, and then wait six weeks.

An Article 4 direction is the council removing permitted development rights across an area, so work that would normally need no application does. Rights may also have been removed by a condition on the home’s original planning permission. Government guidance says checks should be made with the council before any development.

Both affect what you can do after you buy, as much as what the seller did before. Check the conservation area and Article 4 guides, and ask the council whether the address is covered.

A new build

Planning permission usually runs with the land, so the conditions on the original permission stay with the house, and they still have effect unless they have been discharged. Look for:

• Conditions that removed permitted development rights, which would mean an extension, outbuilding or loft conversion needs an application. Guidance says these must be clear about exactly which rights are limited.
• Conditions about the land around the home, such as landscaping, parking or boundaries.

Read the decision notice for the estate, not just the sales brochure. Development that breaks a condition can be enforced against. The Law Society’s standard seller information form is not meant for new build homes, so ask your conveyancer what the developer is providing instead.

Rural homes and green belt

Green belt policy treats most new building as inappropriate, which is harmful by definition and not approved except in very special circumstances. There are exceptions, and the ones that matter to a homebuyer are:

• Extensions and alterations, as long as they do not make the building disproportionately bigger than the original building. The original building means the one that stood on 1st July 1948, or the building as first built if it came later. Earlier extensions therefore count towards the total.
• Replacement buildings, which should be the same use and not materially larger than the one replaced.
• Limited infilling in villages within the green belt.

If a home you want to buy is in the green belt, assume there is little room to extend it further. Ask the council whether the address is in the green belt, and check what extensions the house already has.

Planning applications next door and nearby

You are buying the street as well as the house. Three things to do.

• Look at the register. Search nearby addresses for live applications and recent decisions. An approved application can still be built: permission normally lasts three years to start work.
• Ask the seller. The seller’s information form asks about notices received about the property or nearby developments, such as planning applications and road proposals. It also asks about disputes with neighbours.
• Read the council’s answer on the area. The search asks what the development plan designates or proposes for the property or the area.

If an application is still open for comments, you can make one before you own the home. See objecting to a planning application.

What the searches show and what they do not

Your conveyancer normally orders two. The first checks the local land charges register, which holds things that bind later owners: conditions on planning permissions, listed building and conservation area entries, tree preservation orders and planning and enforcement notices. An official search costs £15 through HM Land Registry, and anyone can do a personal search for free. The second is a set of standard questions to the council, which the council answers.

The council’s standard questions cover:

• planning permissions, listed building consents, lawful development certificates, building regulations approvals and completion certificates for the property, granted, refused or pending
• the development plan designation for the property and the area
• enforcement notices, breach of condition notices, stop notices and directions restricting permitted development
• tree preservation orders

What they do not cover:

• Work done as permitted development, because it needed no application, so there is nothing to find unless a certificate was issued.
• Neighbouring land. The planning questions ask about the property being bought.
• Whether the work was built as approved. Someone has to compare the plans with the house.

What to ask the conveyancer

• Have you seen the planning permission, building control approval and completion certificate for every alteration, not just a list of them?
• Does anything need a lawful development certificate or a retrospective application before exchange?
• Is the property listed, in a conservation area or covered by an Article 4 direction, or are there conditions that removed rights?
• Which of the searches have been ordered, and what do the results show?
• Does my lender need anything extra, and does it accept insurance for missing paperwork?
• If there is a flat or a lease, what does the lease say about alterations?

Missing paperwork and indemnity insurance

If work was done and the paperwork is missing, there are four options, and they can be combined:

• The seller finds or obtains the missing papers, for example a lawful development certificate or a retrospective application.
• The price or a retention reflects the risk.
• For missing building regulations sign-off, the owner can apply to the council for a regularisation certificate for work started on or after 11th November 1985. The council may ask to open up the work for inspection.
• A legal indemnity insurance policy.

An indemnity policy is insurance, not permission. It pays out if a named problem arises later. It does not make the work lawful. Time passing, a certificate or permission does that. A Law Society article from 2015 says policies for missing building regulations approval typically require that the work is at least 12 months old, that the council has not been alerted to it and that no enforcement action has been taken or threatened. Terms vary by insurer, so do not contact the council about the work before you have spoken to your conveyancer. Ask your conveyancer whether your lender accepts a policy in your case.

Look up the home and the street yourself

1. Search the address on the council’s planning register. It shows each application, its plans and its decision, including conditions and appeals. See finding planning applications.
2. Search the same street, and the roads either side, for extensions that match the one you are looking at.
3. Use the search below to see applications near a postcode.
4. Ask the council whether the address is listed, in a conservation area, in the green belt or covered by an Article 4 direction.
5. Read any decision notices in full.

Search a postcode to see recent applications nearby.

Source: Permitted development rights for householders: technical guidance and Lawful development certificates, gov.uk; Enforcement and post-permission matters, Use of planning conditions and Green belt chapter of the National Planning Policy Framework, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government; Local land charges practice guide, HM Land Registry; Leasehold property, gov.uk; TA6 property information form explanatory notes, Law Society; Build me up, Law Society; Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 91 and section 171B, legislation.gov.uk.