Investigate in advance what information the planning department might have on the use of the building.
When you buy a building you most of the time find that, especially if it is derelict or not in use, the planning department does not have much information about its real planning status. If you cannot find any planning information within the past 10 years on the council planning portal, then it is a good idea to look for the evidence of its most likely past use. And sometimes you can find evidence to the use which is the most favourable to you.
Therefore, before purchasing any building, I always perform a simple search on the planning portal of the respective council to see if there is any information in connection with its use over the past 10 years.
Step 1 perform a simple search on the planning portal of the specific council
Step 2 if within the past 10 years to date there is no information in connection with the past use of the property and there is no planning pallicatgion of any type. Then perform further investigation on the possible information the planning department might have. Specifically, call the planning department and ask any planning officer in the council what information they might have. What you find is that sometimes they have more information and documentation not published on their website, and you need this. In case this information is older than 10 years, you are ok to carry on with the CEU application.
Step 3 go ahead and start your own investigation and gather your documentation.
Why planning consultants have existing use applications?
It oiis not as if all planning consultants hate existing use applications, some of the m do . The issue is that these planning applications do not require much of their expertise. They are many times easier to deal with than full planning applications.
It is up to you to come up with the evidence to support the applications and there is very little the planning consultant s can do they can only guide you as much as this book does. Therefore, they struggle to justify their fees due to this type of planning applications.
The council investigation.
Once you submit your application, then the council will start their own investigation. This will be done consulting their own planning records, which you have done already. Then what they are left is doing the same investigation you have done.
Which is internet investigations to look if there is any indication separate to your evidence as of the use of the property.
The council officer will try to citenct over the phone the past tenants if they can find their phone numbers, but this is not very easy of course as they usually need to find those numbers on the internet and most of the time their contact details have changed or the past tenants simply are not reachable. If you know about planning applicaiton sthen you alsoe know that the planning officers are overwhelmed with planning applications and they do not have mush resources to conduct their own investigations, therefor ethey will try only slightly only over a2 to 3 hours in todal not even a dauy andf they will conclude their own independent enquiry.
At that point, that do not have anything thing else other than the evidence you submitted to them yourself. This is why you are at an inherent advantage because you heve far more resources to gather the evidence and building the case accordingly.
The benefits of Certificate of Existing use are several versus conventional planning permission applications.
Existing Use planning applications do not require public consultation. Basically, neighbours and politics are out of the discussion. There is nothing the neighbours can do to object to the building’s past use. There is nothing the planning department and its policies can do to object to its established use. It is a mere legal exercise for you to prove how the use was continuous over 4 or 10 years. This is all you have to do, so you can imagine how much cheaper and easier it is for you to obtain a Certificate of Lawful Use instead of applying for full planning permission. It does not matter whether the neighbours like the established use of the building. It does not matter whether the development you have in hand is against planning policy, it does not matter whether you have the whole planning department against the development, if you provide enough evidence then you will be granted the planning permission without any restriction.
CEU are a simple exercise in roving the past use over 10 or 4 years on a continuous basis. This is all it is, there are no other requirements, therefore it is several times easier and cheaper than applying for full planning permission.
While in full planning permission applications the planners can apply conditions to your development, like financial contributions to building new roads, a mixture between 2 and 3-bedroom flats etc. In an existing use planning application, the planners have zero powers to apply any conditions to your planning approval. Therefore, you will have a planning approval for its existing use without any restriction, conditions etc. You will be able to keep and benefit from any potential permitted Development rights.
In full planning applications decision, the planners are perfectly within their right to withdraw permitted development rights which you would normally otherwise have. There had been many cases where for example the council in Blackpool would be favourable to convert a hotel into a C3 single family home, however would take the permitted development right to convert it into an HMO class C4 which the house would otherwise have in normal circumstances.
What does continuous use mean?
Continuous use means that the property must have been used continuously over a determined period of time. This might be 10 or 4 years depending on the applicable legislation. The word continuously means in proactice that the property must have been occupied and in use for the entire period.
Coninous use does not mean:
1 use over 24 hours a day 365 days a week. The building can be shut at night and still retain its use and still be classed as continous use. It can still be shut over holidays to the public and still etin its use. It can remain vacant for a while and still retain its last use as long as it has been larketed or refurbished for the purposes of continouing its last use.
It means simply that there is a tenant of a business using the premises for a specific use or uses of the property. For exmaple a restaurant can use the property during normal restaurant working hours but not at night or during speciifc periods of low demand times. This is permissable. However the use of
Use abandonment
The final decision.
You have to knowthat in practice the council will try to challange your applicaiton whenenver possible. Thiis is their job. However igf you have doen a good job then the council will have no option other than grant your CEU certificte with full apploval, wioothout restricitons and conditions of course.
In cese the council have some evicdence obout a different use during the past 10 years. thhen they will try to negociate with you to agree to a suitable establisehed use for the porperty.