The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill is having its second reading at the moment in the House of Lords. One element of the draft bill, which may have escaped your attention, is a proposal to amend the periods within which one can obtain immunity from enforcement action.
The current position is that immunity for operational development or a change of use of building to a single dwelling house is a period of 4 years.
The Bill proposes to extend these periods to 10 years.
The rationale behind such an amendment is to bring all the time limits within which you can obtain immunity from enforcement action by the use of a Certificate of Lawfulness to be the same 10 year period.
There is no actual timetable for the enactment of the Bill. However, it is well advanced in the statutory process, having a second reading at the House of Lords.
The immediate issue is that if you have accrued a period of 4 years of immunity and you wish to regularise either operational development or the use of a building as a single dwelling house, then it would be prudent to make an application to the Local Authority as soon as possible.
The reason for this is that if you have a period of immunity of less than 10 years, should the Bill be enacted as legislation then you would effectively lose your period of immunity, and you would not have the opportunity to make an application for a certificate of lawfulness to the Local Authority to regularise the operational development or use of a building as a dwelling house.
Clearly, the prudent advice is, if you have operational development without permission or the change of use of a building to a single dwelling house without permission which has either substantially completed as operational development for more than 4 years, or more than 4 years' use as a single dwelling house, then it would be wise to make an application to the Local Authority as soon as possible to regularise your position.
For more information on the article above please contact Gareth Pinwell or the planning & infrastructure consenting team.
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