Prior approval not required, granted, or deemed

Ask a client what their prior approval says and you will get one of three answers, which is why prior approval not required meaning trips people up so often. A prior approval application under the GPDO 2015 can end with the authority determining that its approval is not required, with the authority determining that approval is required and then granting it, or with the authority saying nothing at all until the statutory period runs out. All three let you build. They differ in what conditions attach, in what paperwork exists afterwards, and in how a lender's solicitor reacts in three years.

What each outcome means

The first outcome is a determination that prior approval is not required. The authority has looked at the submitted details, decided it does not need to approve the specified matters, and told you so. The development is permitted by the Order, and you proceed in accordance with the details you submitted.

The second is a determination that prior approval is required, followed by a grant of that approval. The authority may attach conditions, and those conditions have to relate to the matters the relevant class puts before it. On a Class MA residential conversion that means transport, contamination, flooding, noise, natural light, fire safety and, in a conservation area, the ground floor use question. Nothing wider.

The third is expiry. Where the authority does not notify the applicant of its determination within the period the class specifies, development may proceed in accordance with the details submitted. The periods differ by class and this is where errors happen: 56 days for most Part 3 conversion classes, 42 days for the larger home extension route in Part 1, and 28 days for agricultural and forestry notifications in Part 6. Read the class rather than relying on a number you carry around.

Conditions in each case

The conditions in the Order itself always apply, whichever outcome you get. Those are the ones that matter most in practice and they are the ones most often missed, because they arrive in the statutory text rather than on a decision notice.

Completion deadlines are the obvious example. A Class MA conversion has to be completed within three years of the prior approval. A Part 6 notification runs on a five year period. Materials matching provisions, restrictions on external works and requirements to build in accordance with the submitted details all sit in the same place.

Where the authority determines that prior approval is not required, it cannot add conditions of its own. That sounds like the best outcome and usually is, but it also means there is no negotiated flexibility and no discharge process. What you submitted is what you build.

Where prior approval is granted subject to conditions, those conditions are appealable under section 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 in the ordinary way, and they can be varied later by a section 73 application only if the underlying consent is a planning permission. A prior approval is not, so the mechanics of amending a prior approval scheme run differently and usually mean a fresh application.

Where the period simply expired, the Order conditions still bind you. There is nobody to discharge them with and no notice to read them from.

Why there is no notice on a deemed approval

Nothing in the Order requires an authority to issue a document when it has failed to determine an application. The permission comes from the Order, triggered by the passage of time, so the paperwork is whatever you generated yourself.

That is an uncomfortable position for a transaction. A buyer's solicitor asked to advise on a converted building will look for a decision notice, find none, and raise an enquiry. The answer has to be a reconstruction from your own file, and the quality of that file determines whether the enquiry closes in a week or a month.

Some authorities will write a short letter confirming that the period expired without a determination. Ask for one. It costs nothing and it converts a reconstruction into a confirmation.

Evidence to retain where the period expires

Build this file at the time, not when the sale falls through.

1. The complete application as submitted, including every plan and every supporting document, in the form sent.
2. Proof of submission and of receipt: the portal receipt with its timestamp, or recorded delivery, or an email acknowledgement from the authority naming the application.
3. The authority's validation acknowledgement, which is where the receipt date for counting the period usually comes from.
4. A dated note of the period, identifying the class, the applicable number of days and the expiry date.
5. Any correspondence within the period, including requests for further information, because a request does not stop the clock unless the class says so.
6. Photographs and invoices showing when works began and what was built, matched against the submitted plans.
7. Where advice was taken on the expiry, the advice itself.

Then consider a certificate of lawfulness of existing use or development under section 191, or for proposed operations under section 192, depending on the timing. A certificate is the only document that makes the position conclusive, and lenders treat it very differently from a solicitor's opinion.

How lenders and buyers treat each outcome

In descending order of comfort: a grant of prior approval with a decision notice, a determination that prior approval is not required with a decision notice, and then an expiry with no notice at all.

That ordering has little to do with planning law and a great deal to do with what a conveyancer can put on a report on title. All three are equally valid as a matter of law. Only two of them produce a document.

Where the third applies, the practical fix is a certificate of lawfulness obtained before marketing rather than during it. Indemnity insurance is sometimes offered as an alternative and it is a weaker answer, because the insurer's position depends on no contact having been made with the authority.

Keep the levy position in the same file. Development permitted by the Order can still attract Community Infrastructure Levy liability, and the notice the levy regulations require before works begin is one of the easiest things to miss on a permitted development scheme, with consequences set out in levy liability on permitted development.

Challenging a determination the council got wrong

Three situations arise and each has a different route.

The authority refuses prior approval. That is appealable under section 78, and the inspector is confined to the matters the class specifies.

The authority determines that prior approval is required when you think it should not be. There is no separate appeal against that determination. The practical answer is to apply for the approval and argue the substance, or to seek a certificate of lawfulness if you believe the development is permitted regardless.

The authority asserts that the class does not apply at all, for example that the building was not in the qualifying use for the required period. That is a dispute about facts and the right forum is usually a certificate application under section 191 or 192, where the evidential question is decided directly rather than as part of a merits assessment.

One further point on timing. An authority that determines an application after the period has expired has determined nothing of consequence, but it may still write to you as though it has. Check the dates before treating a late refusal as a refusal, and take advice before relying on the expiry.

Time limits for implementation

Each class sets its own, and mixing them up is a common and expensive error.

Check the deadline in the class text for your scheme, because these have been amended more than once. And note that a completion deadline behaves differently from the start deadline on a planning permission, so a scheme that has begun is not necessarily safe. That distinction sits behind what happens when a prior approval lapses, which is the position to check before a programme slips.

Recording the outcome on the property file

Whichever outcome you got, the file should let a stranger reconstruct the position in fifteen minutes.

Keep the determination or the evidence of expiry at the front, with the class identified by Schedule, Part and Class rather than by nickname. Attach the submitted plans marked as the approved details. List the Order conditions applying to that class, with a note against each recording compliance. Record the implementation deadline and the actual completion date. Attach any certificate of lawfulness. Keep the building regulations file separately and completely.

An illustrative example. A first floor office converted to two flats under Class MA. The applicant submitted in March, the authority acknowledged receipt on 14 March, and nothing arrived by the 56th day. Works started in June and finished in October. On refinancing two years later the lender's solicitor raised an enquiry, which was answered with the portal receipt, the validation acknowledgement, a dated note of the expiry calculation, the building control completion certificate and a section 191 certificate obtained the previous autumn. The enquiry closed in four working days.

A short planning statement at the front of that file, summarising which route was used and why the development was lawful, is worth far more than its cost.

Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports your site is likely to need. This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it, and note that a Lawful Development Certificate is the only formal way to confirm that development or a use is lawful. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.