A checklist for ownership certificates and notices

Every planning application carries an ownership certificate, and a wrong one is the quickest way to put a permission at risk. The ownership certificate planning application rules are set by section 65 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and the Development Management Procedure Order, and they require the applicant to certify who owned the application site on the day 21 days before the date of the application, and to have given notice to anyone other than themselves.

Get it right at the start. Correcting it later restarts publicity and, in the worst case, exposes the permission to challenge.

What each certificate means

Four certificates cover the possibilities, and only one of them is signed.

• Certificate A: the applicant was the sole owner of the whole application site throughout the 21 days before the application, and no part is or was within the previous two years an agricultural holding.
• Certificate B: the applicant was not the sole owner, but knows the name and address of every other owner and has given each of them notice.
• Certificate C: the applicant has been unable to identify or trace every owner, has given notice to those known, has taken reasonable steps to find the rest, and has published notice in a local newspaper.
• Certificate D: the applicant has been unable to identify or trace any owner, has taken reasonable steps, and has published notice in a local newspaper.

Certificate A is signed far more often than the facts justify. Anything other than a single registered freehold title wholly within the applicant's name, with no long leases and no agricultural tenancy, deserves a second look.

Who counts as an owner

Owner has a defined meaning here and it is narrower than people expect. It means the freeholder, or a person holding a lease with at least seven years unexpired at the date of the application.

So a monthly tenant is not an owner and does not need notice. A tenant with nine years left on a commercial lease is, and does. A mortgagee is not an owner for this purpose, although the mortgage terms may require consent for other reasons.

Two points catch people out. The seven year test applies at the date of the application, so a lease with seven years and one month left should be checked against the submission date rather than the date the drawings were finished. And where several titles make up the site, each has to be checked separately, because the position can differ across a red line that looks like one plot on the ground.

Checking title before you choose

Order official copies of the register and the title plan from HM Land Registry for every title touching the red line, and compare the title plan against the application site plan at the same scale.

Then work through the usual traps.

1. The highway verge or footway crossed by a new access, which is frequently vested in the highway authority rather than in the applicant.
2. A shared driveway or accessway held in separate ownership, or subject to rights that the plan does not show.
3. A narrow strip along a rear boundary retained by a former developer, which is the classic ransom strip.
4. Land still shown in the name of a deceased owner or a dissolved company.
5. Unregistered land, where the deeds packet is the only evidence and the search takes longer.
6. Roof space or a substation site let to a utility or telecoms operator on a long lease.
7. Land subject to an option or a conditional contract, which does not make the buyer an owner but does affect who should be told.

Where a title question cannot be resolved in time, Certificate C exists for that situation and is safer than signing Certificate A and hoping.

Serving notice properly

The notice is a prescribed form, and it tells the recipient that an application is being made, describes the proposal, identifies the land and says where representations can be sent.

Serve it on every owner as defined, by a method that gives evidence of service. Post to the address in the register or the last known address, and keep a record of what was sent, to whom and on what date. Where an owner is a company, serve at the registered office.

Because the certificate is given by reference to who owned the land 21 days before the date of the application, identify the owners as at that date and work back from your intended submission date. Serving on the right people on the wrong basis is still a defective certificate.

Where Certificate C or D applies, the newspaper notice must be published in a newspaper circulating in the area where the land is situated, and the certificate records the publication date and the name of the paper. Keep the tear sheet.

Agricultural holdings and the separate notice

Any part of the site that is or was within the previous two years an agricultural holding requires a separate notice to the agricultural tenant, and the certificate has to say so. This is a distinct requirement from the ownership notice and a distinct form.

It applies to a great deal of land people do not think of as farmed, including grazing paddocks let on an agricultural tenancy and field corners at the edge of a development site. Where the tenancy arrangement is informal or undocumented, ask the landowner directly rather than inferring from the fence line, and record the answer.

The two year look-back is the part most often missed. A holding surrendered eighteen months ago still triggers the notice.

Consequences of a false certificate

Knowingly or recklessly issuing a certificate that is false or misleading in a material particular is a criminal offence under section 65 of the 1990 Act, punishable by a fine.

The effect on the permission itself is less absolute than people assume. The courts have not treated every defective certificate as making a permission void, and the outcome depends on the facts, including whether anyone was prejudiced. But a defect gives an aggrieved owner a foundation for judicial review, and it gives a purchaser's solicitor a reason to require indemnity insurance or a fresh application. Neither is a good place to end up.

The practical risk is commercial rather than criminal for most applicants. A permission with a questionable certificate is harder to sell, harder to fund and harder to implement with confidence.

Correcting a certificate after submission

If the error surfaces before determination, tell the case officer immediately and in writing. The usual remedy is to serve the correct notices, submit a corrected certificate and allow a fresh representation period for anyone newly notified. Expect the determination period to be extended and expect publicity to be repeated.

If the error surfaces after permission is granted, take legal advice before doing anything. Options range from serving late notice and accepting the position, to applying afresh with correct certificates, and the right answer depends on who was left out and what they would have said.

Record-keeping is what makes the difference here. Keep the title copies, the dated notices, the proof of posting, the newspaper page and the certificate itself in the application file. When the question comes up at sale, five years later, that file is the answer.

Set out the site and ownership position clearly in the Planning Statement and keep the red line on the location plan consistent with every other drawing, including the Design and Access Statement where one is required. Browse the 66 PlanScope report types when you are assembling the rest of the submission pack.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to start building the document set for your application.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.