CIL liability notices, assumption and the surcharges

The Community Infrastructure Levy is a procedural trap far more often than it is a financial surprise. The charge itself is calculated from a published schedule and is usually predictable. What catches self-builders is the sequence of notices, because assuming liability late, or starting work before serving a commencement notice, triggers surcharges and can remove an exemption worth the entire levy.

The rule that matters most is short. Serve the commencement notice before you start, and never start before an exemption has been granted in writing.

The sequence of CIL notices

The Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010 set out an order of events, and each step depends on the one before it.

1. The additional information form goes in with the planning application, giving the floor areas and existing building details the authority needs to calculate the charge.
2. Assumption of liability is submitted, ideally at the same time, naming who will pay.
3. The collecting authority issues a liability notice after permission is granted, stating the chargeable amount and the payment procedure.
4. Any claim for relief or exemption is made and, critically, granted in writing before any work starts.
5. A commencement notice is served on the collecting authority no later than the day before development begins.
6. The authority issues a demand notice after commencement, setting out what is due and when.
7. Payment follows the authority's instalment policy, or the default period where the authority has none.

Skip a step and the later ones do not simply happen later. Several of them cannot be repaired retrospectively at all.

Set out the CIL position in the Planning Statement where the scheme relies on an exemption, because the officer's report and the decision notice will feed into the calculation.

Assuming liability and why it matters

Assumption of liability is a short form naming the person or company that will pay the levy. It can be submitted by anyone, and it can be withdrawn or transferred before commencement.

Two reasons to do it early. First, an exemption cannot be granted to someone who has not assumed liability, so a self-build claim depends on it. Second, where nobody has assumed liability by the time development begins, the charge falls on the owners of the land by default, the authority has to apportion it between them, and both of those events carry their own surcharges.

On a site with more than one owner, or where the land is held in a family arrangement, sort this out before anything happens on site. Apportionment between owners is the most avoidable cost in the whole regime.

Commencement and the notice that must precede it

Regulation 67 requires a commencement notice to be submitted to the collecting authority no later than the day before the day on which the chargeable development begins. It has to state the intended commencement date, and it has to reach the authority, so send it in a way that produces a receipt.

Commencement here means the same thing as in planning law: the carrying out of a material operation under section 56 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Digging the foundation trench counts. Site clearance does not. Where the two systems disagree in a particular case, the authority may serve a determination of a deemed commencement date, which carries its own appeal route.

The consequences of missing the notice are severe and immediate. The right to pay by instalments is lost, so the entire amount becomes payable at once. A surcharge is added. And on a self-build exemption, the exemption itself falls away, converting a nil charge into a full one.

That last outcome has ruined more self-build budgets than any policy change. The exemption is generous, and it is conditional on paperwork that takes ten minutes.

Surcharges and how they arise

The Regulations set out a series of surcharges, and the amounts are fixed in the legislation rather than by the council. Check the current text, since the Regulations are amended from time to time, but the structure is as follows.

Late payment interest runs alongside the surcharges at a rate tied to the Bank of England base rate.

Disqualifying events deserve a note. On a self-build exemption the dwelling has to remain the applicant's principal residence for three years from completion, and evidence has to be provided within six months of completion. Selling within the three years, or letting the property, is a disqualifying event that has to be notified within a short period, and failing to notify triggers a surcharge on top of the levy becoming payable.

Instalment policies

Most charging authorities publish an instalment policy setting out how large charges can be spread, typically in stages tied to the size of the charge and running from commencement. Where an authority has no policy, the default in the Regulations is payment in full within a defined period after commencement.

The instalment policy is a concession, not a right. It is available only where liability has been assumed and a commencement notice has been served properly, which is another reason those two forms matter more than their length suggests.

Check the policy that applies at the date of commencement rather than the one in force when permission was granted, because authorities revise them.

Appealing a CIL determination

There are two distinct routes and both run on short deadlines.

The first is a request to the collecting authority to review the calculation of the chargeable amount. This has to be made within a short period of the liability notice being issued, and it is the right route where the authority has measured the floorspace incorrectly, applied the wrong rate, or failed to deduct the floorspace of an existing building that qualifies for offset.

The second is a formal appeal to the Valuation Office Agency, available on grounds including the chargeable amount, apportionment between owners, the refusal of charitable or self-build relief, the imposition of a surcharge, and a deemed commencement date determination. Each ground has its own time limit and most require the internal review to have been requested first.

A separate route exists to the Planning Inspectorate against a CIL stop notice, which is the enforcement measure the authority can use where the levy goes unpaid.

Existing floorspace offset is the most common substantive dispute. Where a building on the site has been in lawful use for a continuous period within a defined window before permission, its floorspace can be deducted from the calculation, and the evidence for that lawful use is the same kind of evidence used for a lawful development certificate: rating records, utility accounts, tenancy agreements and dated photographs. Assemble it before the liability notice arrives rather than after.

Three habits keep CIL from becoming a problem. Assume liability with the application. Get any exemption granted in writing before a machine goes on site. And serve the commencement notice the week before, not the morning of.

Browse the 66 report types by category to build the supporting document list for your application, and start from your postcode if you are working out what a self-build scheme on your plot will need.

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.