The CIL commencement notice and what happens if you miss it
A missed CIL commencement notice costs instalment rights and up to £2,500 in surcharge, even where full relief applies. Here is the sequence and the fix.
The commencement notice is the shortest document in the Community Infrastructure Levy system and the one that costs most when it is forgotten. It tells the collecting authority the date development will begin, and it has to arrive before that date. Get it wrong and you lose the right to pay by instalments, pick up a surcharge of up to £2,500, and in some cases watch a hard-won exemption turn into a bill.
None of that depends on how much levy is due. A self-builder with a full exemption and a nil payment can still be caught, because the duty attaches to the development rather than to the money.
The liability notice and what it tells you
Once planning permission is granted for a chargeable development, the collecting authority issues a liability notice. It states the chargeable amount, the rates and indexation used, the floor areas taken into account, and who the authority believes is liable. It arrives by post or email and it is frequently filed and forgotten.
Read it properly on the day it arrives. Three things need checking:
- The measured floor areas, because the levy is calculated on gross internal area and errors here are the most valuable to correct.
- Any deduction for existing buildings, which depends on lawful use for a continuous period and is often missed.
- The reference number, which every later form has to quote.
If the chargeable amount looks wrong, request a review in writing within 28 days. That route, and the appeal that follows it, closes once development has begun, so the window is short.
Assuming liability
Assumption of liability is a separate step, made on a form and sent to the collecting authority. It has to be done before development begins.
Where nobody assumes liability, the levy falls on the landowners and the authority apportions it between the land interests, adding surcharges as it goes. On a site assembled from several titles that arithmetic gets ugly quickly.
Liability can be transferred afterwards, and builders who agree to take the levy on as part of a contract should file the transfer form rather than rely on the building contract. The authority acts on the forms it holds.
Serving the notice and the date it carries
The commencement notice states the intended start date and must reach the collecting authority before that day. Serving it on the morning the diggers arrive is late.
What counts as starting is defined by reference to material operations in section 56 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. That includes digging trenches for foundations, laying out a road, and demolition where the demolition forms part of the development. It catches work that feels preparatory. Site clearance carried out to discharge a pre-commencement condition has been treated as a start, and so has excavation for a temporary site compound where it forms part of the permitted scheme.
Send the notice with a week in hand and by a method that produces a receipt. Where the start date slips, serve a fresh notice with the new date rather than leaving the old one in place. Authorities are generally content with that, and the cost of the extra form is nothing compared with a disputed date.
Keep dated photographs of the site on the stated day. If the authority later forms a different view of when work began, those photographs are the evidence that answers a deemed commencement date.
The surcharges that follow a missing notice
Failure to serve a commencement notice before development begins attracts a surcharge of 20 per cent of the chargeable amount, capped at £2,500. It is applied by the collecting authority and it appears on the demand notice.
That surcharge stacks with others. Failing to assume liability adds a sum for each liable person, apportionment adds a sum for each land interest, and late payment brings its own charges at 30 days, six months and twelve months, with interest running above the Bank of England base rate throughout. The full menu sits in Part 9 of the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010, and the related traps are set out in CIL commencement notices and the surcharge for missing one.
Appeals against a surcharge go to the Valuation Office Agency within 28 days. The grounds are narrow: that the breach did not happen, that the authority failed to serve the notices it was required to serve, or that the calculation is wrong. Hardship is not a ground.
Losing the right to pay by instalments
This is the consequence that hurts cashflow most and gets the least attention. Where a collecting authority has adopted an instalment policy, the right to use it is conditional on a valid commencement notice having been served.
Without one, the whole levy becomes payable on the day development begins. A scheme expecting to pay in three tranches across an eighteen-month build receives a single demand at the point when its costs are highest and its revenue is nil. On a small development that alone can stop the job.
The instalment policy is published by the charging authority and varies widely, so read the actual policy rather than assuming a standard pattern. Some set thresholds below which the full sum is payable anyway.
Where relief is affected
Self-build exemptions, residential extension and annexe relief, social housing relief and charitable relief all depend on procedural compliance. The extension relief has its own floor area limits, set out in the CIL extension exemption and the 100 m2 threshold. The commencement notice duty applies to every one of them.
Before the 2019 amendments, a missing commencement notice could remove the relief entirely, which produced some famously severe outcomes for self-builders. The regulations were changed so that the penalty in those cases is a surcharge rather than automatic withdrawal, calculated on the notional chargeable amount. That is a substantial improvement and it is still a bill for up to £2,500 on a development that was meant to pay nothing.
Self-build relief carries further duties after completion, including submitting the evidence forms within the required period and occupying the home as a principal residence for three years. Selling inside that period triggers a clawback of the full amount.
Putting it right after work has started
If you have started without serving the notice, do not stop writing letters and hope. Contact the collecting authority immediately, in writing, with the actual start date and an explanation.
Authorities have discretion over how they apply surcharges and some will accept a late notice where the development has only just begun and nothing else has gone wrong. That discretion evaporates once officers feel they are being managed. Provide the site photographs, the contractor's records and the dates, and ask what the authority needs.
Where a surcharge is imposed, diarise the 28-day appeal deadline on the day the notice arrives, and take the appeal on procedural grounds if you have them. Where the levy itself is now payable in full, ask the authority whether it will agree a payment schedule outside the instalment policy. Many will, because a liability order and a charging order help nobody. Where highway works also sit in the package, the choice between direct works and a contribution is a separate negotiation, covered in section 278 works or a section 106 contribution.
The wider lesson for anyone budgeting a small scheme is that the levy timetable runs on planning dates rather than construction dates. Fold it into the same programme as the discharge of conditions and the validation checklist, and see the 66 report types by category if you are still assembling the application itself.
This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.
Frequently asked questions
When must a CIL commencement notice be served?
Before the day development begins, not on it. The notice states the intended start date and has to reach the collecting authority in advance. Send it about a week ahead by a method that produces a receipt, and if the start date slips, serve a fresh notice with the revised date rather than leaving the original in place.
Do I need a commencement notice if my development is exempt?
Yes. The duty attaches to the chargeable development rather than to the sum payable, so self-build, extension, annexe, social housing and charitable relief all carry it. Since the 2019 amendments a missing notice triggers a surcharge calculated on the notional chargeable amount rather than automatic withdrawal of the relief.
What happens to my instalment rights?
They are lost. Where the charging authority has an instalment policy, the right to use it depends on a valid commencement notice having been served. Without one the full levy falls due on the day development begins, which turns a staged payment across a build programme into a single demand at the worst point for cashflow.
What counts as beginning development?
The material operations defined in section 56 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Digging foundation trenches, laying out a road and demolition forming part of the permitted scheme all count. Site clearance carried out to discharge a pre-commencement condition can also count, so check before anyone moves earth or brings plant on to the site.
Can anything be done after starting without the notice?
Contact the collecting authority in writing straight away with the actual start date, dated site photographs and the contractor's records. Authorities have discretion over surcharges and some accept a late notice where work has only just started. If a surcharge is imposed, the appeal to the Valuation Office Agency must be made within 28 days.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.