Checklist for handover of planning documents at completion

The planning file you hand over at practical completion is the file a buyer's solicitor will ask for in five years. It is not the building control paperwork, and it is not the architect's drawing register. It is the evidence that the development was permitted, that every condition was discharged, that every obligation was met and that every levy notice was answered.

Assemble it as you go. Reconstructing it after the contractor has left, the consultants have closed their files and the planning portal has archived the correspondence is a miserable job, and on a self-build the person doing it is you.

Why the file matters at resale

A conveyancing solicitor acting for a buyer asks two questions about planning: was the development lawful, and has it been built in accordance with the permission and its conditions.

The first is answered by the decision notice. The second is answered by the condition discharge decisions, and this is where self-builders get caught. A permission with 20 conditions and no record of the eight that required approval before occupation is a defect on the title in practical terms, because the buyer's solicitor will either require indemnity insurance, require a retrospective discharge, or reduce the price.

Local searches do not fill the gap. A CON29 enquiry will reveal the permission but will not confirm that each condition was satisfied, and an authority has no duty to keep an accessible record indefinitely. The file is your evidence.

Unresolved conditions also matter for enforcement. Breach of condition is enforceable, and the time limits are not the same as for unauthorised development.

Decision notices and approved drawings

Start with the consents and get them complete.

• Every planning permission affecting the site, including earlier permissions that remain relevant.
• The full list of approved drawings by number and revision, with a copy of each drawing as approved rather than as later revised.
• Any listed building consent, advertisement consent or lawful development certificate.
• Prior approval decisions and any demolition prior notification determination.
• Section 96A non-material amendment decisions and section 73 decisions varying conditions, each with the drawings they approved. Where amendments were made, the piece on a worked non-material amendment request explains how those decisions sit alongside the original permission.

The drawing version point is the one people get wrong. The approved drawing is the one referenced in the condition, not the last one the builder worked from, and if the two differ you have a compliance question to resolve rather than a filing question.

Condition discharge decisions and correspondence

Build a condition schedule as a table and keep it live from the day permission is granted.

For each condition record the number, the wording in short form, whether it is pre-start, pre-occupation, ongoing or compliance-only, the date the discharge application went in, the reference, the decision date, and where the approved details are filed. Ongoing conditions, such as restrictions on hours, parking use or external lighting, do not get discharged and need flagging as live obligations that pass to the buyer.

Keep the correspondence too. Where an officer confirmed by email that a condition was satisfied without a formal decision, that email is the only evidence you will have, and it should sit in the file next to the condition it relates to.

One honest point: formal discharge applications cost a fee and take weeks, and it is tempting to proceed on an informal nod. The file is where that decision comes back to you.

Obligation compliance and payment records

Where a section 106 agreement exists, the file needs the agreement itself, any deed of variation, and proof of compliance with each obligation.

That proof is specific: receipts for financial contributions, the notices served under the agreement, affordable housing transfer documents, travel plan monitoring reports, and the authority's acknowledgement where one was given. Monitoring fees and late payment interest are the items that reappear at resale, so keep the ledger.

Biodiversity net gain brings a new set of records that did not exist before 2024. Keep the approved biodiversity gain plan, the habitat management and monitoring plan, the section 106 agreement or conservation covenant securing the 30 year period, and every monitoring report produced to date. A Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment and the metric output belong in the file alongside them, because a future owner inherits the management obligation and needs to know what it requires.

Levy notices, exemptions and clawback dates

The Community Infrastructure Levy generates more post-completion trouble than any other planning document, and almost all of it is procedural.

Keep the liability notice, the assumption of liability, the demand notice, the Form 6 notice telling the authority when work will start, and every exemption or relief claim with the authority's determination. Where a self-build exemption was claimed, the second part of the claim with its supporting evidence has to be submitted within six months of completion, and the exemption is subject to a clawback period during which a disqualifying event, such as selling the property, can make the full levy payable.

Diarise that clawback date and write it on the front of the file. A buyer's solicitor will ask for the exemption paperwork and the completion date, and an owner who sells inside the clawback period without understanding the consequence gets an unwelcome demand.

Certificates, surveys and commissioning records

The technical records that evidence conditions, rather than the Building Regulations file.

• Ecology: licence returns, mitigation completion records, bat and bird box installation photographs, and the ecologist's sign-off where a condition required supervision.
• Trees: the arboricultural supervision records and site monitoring reports, and the retained tree protection plan and method statement as approved.
• Drainage: the as-built drainage drawings, the SuDS verification report, infiltration test results and the maintenance schedule with the responsible party named.
• Contamination: the remediation verification report and any validation certificates, plus the material management records.
• Archaeology: the post-excavation report and archive deposition confirmation where a written scheme of investigation was conditioned.
• Energy and overheating: the as-built energy calculations, the Energy Performance Certificate and any commissioning records a condition required.
• Highways: the section 278 or section 38 completion certificates and the adoption position.

Photograph anything that gets buried. Root protection measures, drainage build-ups, gas membranes and soakaway construction are all invisible at completion and all potentially contested later.

An illustrative file index

Treat this as illustrative and adapt it to your scheme.

1. Consents: permissions, certificates, prior approvals, amendments.
2. Approved drawings register, with each drawing as approved.
3. Condition schedule with discharge references and decision dates.
4. Discharge approvals and supporting details, one folder per condition.
5. Section 106 agreement, variations and compliance evidence.
6. Levy notices and forms, exemption claims and the clawback diary date.
7. Biodiversity gain plan, management plan and monitoring reports.
8. Technical verification reports and certificates.
9. Photographic record of covered work.
10. Ongoing obligations summary, written for a non-specialist reader.

Item ten is the most useful page in the file and the one nobody writes. A single sheet listing what the next owner must keep doing, with the condition numbers, saves a great deal of argument.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

Browse the report types a scheme needs on PlanScope and keep the drafts with the rest of the file.

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