Accompanied and unaccompanied inspector site visits

Before deciding a written representations appeal, the inspector visits the site. If everything relevant can be seen from the street or another public place, the visit is unaccompanied and nobody needs to be there. If the inspector needs to go onto your land, or inside the house, the visit is accompanied, which means you and a council officer are both present and the inspector will only look at physical features rather than discuss the merits.

That last point surprises most householders. The site visit is not a hearing, and anything you say about policy or about your neighbour's objection has no place in it.

Which type of visit applies and why

The Planning Inspectorate decides the type of visit from the appeal papers, and it tells both parties the date. An unaccompanied visit is used where the appeal site and its surroundings can be seen adequately from public land, which covers a great many householder appeals on open frontages.

An accompanied visit is arranged where access to private land is needed: a rear garden behind a locked gate, a site reached across a yard, an interior that matters to the appeal, or viewpoints only available from the appeal property. It is also used where the council or a neighbour has asked for a particular view to be seen and arrangements are required.

You can ask for an accompanied visit in your statement, with reasons. The usual reason that works is that something relevant cannot be seen from anywhere public: the relationship between a proposed extension and a neighbour's rear windows, the fall of the land, or the height of an existing boundary wall.

Arranging access to the site

If the visit is accompanied, the Inspectorate will confirm the time and both parties attend. Practical preparation is simple and worth doing.

• Be there in person or send someone who knows the site and holds every key.
• Move vehicles so levels, boundaries and the frontage are visible.
• Secure dogs and make sure any scaffolding, ladders or loose ground is safe.
• Have the approved and appealed drawings on paper, even if everyone has them on a tablet.
• Allow longer than you think, though many householder visits last well under an hour.

If the site cannot be accessed when the inspector arrives, the appeal is not usually postponed. The inspector will see what can be seen and decide on that, which rarely helps the appellant.

Who may attend and what they may say

At an accompanied visit the inspector is normally accompanied by the appellant or the agent and a representative of the local planning authority. The inspector will usually not proceed with an accompanied visit unless both sides are present or the absent party has confirmed it may go ahead, because the visit must be seen to be even-handed.

What you may do is point out physical things: a boundary line, a tree, a window, a level change, where a proposed wall would sit. What you may not do is argue the appeal. If you start explaining why the council's reason for refusal is wrong, the inspector will stop you and will say that the written material is where that belongs.

The inspector may ask factual questions, and you should answer them plainly. Questions like how the rear access is used, whether a window is a bathroom, or when a hedge was planted are fair and useful. Do not offer new documents on the day. Material handed over at a site visit is not part of the appeal, and offering it puts the inspector in an awkward position.

Viewpoints from neighbouring land

Neighbours sometimes want the inspector to look at the proposal from inside their house, usually to show the effect on light or outlook. That has to be requested in writing during the appeal, not on the day, and the Inspectorate will arrange it as part of the visit where it is necessary.

Where a neighbour has asked, the inspector views the site from that property with the parties present and the same rules apply: no discussion of the merits. A neighbour who wants to argue their case does so in their written representations, which are copied to both parties and carry the same weight whether or not they attend the visit.

If you are the appellant and you think a neighbour's viewpoint helps you, say so in your statement and say why. Inspectors are alert to the difference between a view that shows a real relationship and one chosen to exaggerate.

Interiors and when they are inspected

Interiors are inspected where the appeal turns on something inside. A loft conversion appeal may need the roof space seen for headroom. A refusal based on the effect on a neighbour's living room may need that room seen. An appeal about a flat conversion may need the internal layout understood.

For a listed building, internal inspection is normal, because the significance of the interior is usually part of the case, and the material in your Heritage Statement will be read against what the inspector sees.

Where the interior matters, say so in your statement and offer access. Where it does not, do not invite the inspector in. A tour of an unrelated kitchen extension does not help and can raise questions that were never part of the appeal.

Marking up plans for the inspector

The most useful thing you can do costs nothing. Submit, with your statement, a plan that marks the viewpoints you want looked at, numbered, with a short caption for each, and matching photographs taken from those points.

An illustrative example. A rear extension appeal refused on loss of light to a neighbour's kitchen window. The statement includes a site plan marking four viewpoints: the neighbour's rear boundary, the point where the proposed flank wall would meet it, the existing outbuilding of similar depth two doors down, and the neighbour's window itself. The inspector can then stand in each place and check the written case against the ground. Nobody needs to say a word.

Keep the markup honest. A viewpoint chosen to hide something will be noticed, and inspectors walk the surrounding streets on an unaccompanied visit anyway. The same discipline that goes into a Planning Statement belongs in the viewpoint plan.

What the visit cannot achieve

The inspector will not tell you what the decision will be, will not negotiate, and will not accept an amended scheme. The appeal is determined on the development that was applied for, and a revised design means a new application rather than a change of position at the visit. If you want to discuss alternatives, the trade-offs in appealing non-determination or waiting are the place to start, before you commit to an appeal at all.

Nor does the visit fix an incomplete case. If the written statement does not explain the policy argument, standing on the site will not supply it. And if a document the council should have supplied is missing, the time to chase it is at the questionnaire stage, as set out in getting consultee responses and the officer's case file.

The decision arrives in writing, usually some weeks later. It will describe what the inspector saw, and reading that description is the quickest way to tell whether your viewpoint plan did its job.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Appeal procedures change, so check the Planning Inspectorate's current procedural guidance and the letter notifying your visit for the arrangements that apply to your appeal.

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