Prior approval refusal or a deemed approval

A prior approval application that gets no answer in time is not refused and it is not quite approved either. The prior approval refusal and deemed approval distinction matters because the General Permitted Development Order makes the development permitted once the determination period expires without written notice of the authority's decision, which is a right to build rather than a grant of permission. The difference shows up in three places: what you can appeal, what conditions still bite, and what a lender or a buyer will accept as evidence. Relying on silence works, but only if your paperwork from day one is in order.

How the determination period works

Most prior approval routes in Schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 run through the procedure in paragraph W of Part 3, or through a parallel provision in their own Part. The common pattern is 56 days from the day after a valid application is received, within which the authority must notify the applicant in writing of its determination.

The periods vary by class, so check the class you are relying on rather than assuming 56 days. Larger home extensions under Part 1 run on a shorter period under the neighbour consultation scheme. Agricultural prior notifications under Part 6 run on 28 days. Telecommunications under Part 16 runs on 56 days.

Three features of the clock catch people out.

The period runs from receipt of a valid application, so a missing fee, a missing plan or a missing piece of required information means the clock has not started. The authority has to give the applicant written notice of its determination inside the period, so a decision taken in committee on day 55 and posted on day 60 is out of time. And the applicant can agree an extension in writing, which many authorities will request, so think before agreeing one as a courtesy.

What happens when the authority does not respond

Where the period expires with no written notice, the development may be begun, subject to the conditions and limitations attached to the class.

This is the point worth being precise about. You have not been granted planning permission. You have satisfied the procedural condition attached to a permitted development right, so the right is now exercisable. Everything else about the right still applies: the limits on size and location, the conditions in the class, and the general exclusions in Article 3 and Schedule 2.

A practical consequence is that there is no decision notice to produce. Where a conveyancer or a funder asks for the permission, you have an application, a date-stamped receipt, a validation acknowledgement and the absence of a decision, which is a weaker-looking file than a decision notice even though the legal position is sound.

Evidence that the period has expired

Assemble this at the point of submission rather than reconstructing it later.

• The submitted application and the full list of documents sent, with file names and sizes.
• The portal submission reference and the date-stamped submission receipt.
• The fee payment receipt with its date.
• The authority's acknowledgement and any validation email, including the date it treated the application as valid.
• Any correspondence about further information, because a request for information does not stop the clock unless the application was invalid.
• Any written agreement to extend the period, or evidence that you declined to agree one.
• A dated screenshot or download of the public register entry showing no decision.

Where the authority's acknowledgement states a target date, keep it. Where it states a date you disagree with, write and say so at the time rather than after the period has run.

Conditions that still apply on a deemed approval

This is the part most often misunderstood. The class conditions survive, and breaching them makes the development unlawful even though the procedure was satisfied.

For Class MA the space standard condition is the one that catches conversions designed before the rules were checked, and the comparison with local policy minimums is set out in the nationally described space standard or local minimum sizes.

Where prior approval was sought on specified matters such as transport, contamination, flooding or noise, and the authority did not respond, those matters are not resolved. They are simply no longer subject to its approval. If the site turns out to be contaminated, the liability has not gone anywhere.

Risks of relying on deemed approval

The legal position is clear enough. The practical position has sharp edges.

The first risk is validity. If the authority later says the application was never valid, the clock never started, and the development is unauthorised. Fee shortfalls and missing ownership certificates are the usual causes.

The second is the scope of what was applied for. The development that becomes permitted is the development described in your application and shown on your plans. Building something slightly different is outside it, and there is no decision notice with approved drawings to anchor the comparison, so the application documents themselves become the approved scheme.

The third is commercial. Buyers, lenders and insurers prefer a document. Expect questions on sale, and expect a solicitor to ask for a certificate rather than take the file.

The fourth is time. The right to begin usually has to be exercised within a period set by the class, and in some cases the development must be completed within a stated period. Check it, because an unexercised right can lapse.

Where a certificate confirms the position

A Lawful Development Certificate under section 192 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 confirms that proposed works would be lawful; section 191 confirms that existing works or an existing use are lawful.

For a deemed approval that matters commercially, applying for a certificate is usually worth the fee and the eight weeks. It produces a formal document stating that the development is lawful, which is what a conveyancer actually wants, and it forces the authority to engage with the validity question while the evidence is fresh rather than years later.

Where the authority refuses prior approval rather than staying silent, the route is different: a refusal carries a right of appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, and the relevant procedure and timescale depend on the type of development, as set out in the householder appeal or the fast track commercial route.

Record keeping from the day of submission

The whole position rests on documents you either kept or did not.

1. Submit through a route that produces a dated receipt and keep it, along with a complete copy of everything sent.
2. Pay the fee at submission and keep the receipt. Pay the right fee: check the current figure against the national fee schedule, because the fees are indexed and change.
3. Diarise the expiry date the day you submit, calculated from the day after valid receipt, and diarise a reminder a week before.
4. On expiry, download the register entry showing no decision, and write to the authority stating that the period has expired and that you intend to proceed in accordance with the submitted documents. Keep the letter and any reply.
5. Photograph the site before works begin, so the before condition is recorded.
6. Build exactly what was applied for. Any change needs assessing against the class limits before it happens.

A short Planning Statement submitted with the prior approval application also helps here, because it records the basis on which the right was claimed and the conditions you accepted, which is the document that explains the file to a stranger three years later.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. A Lawful Development Certificate is the only formal way to confirm that works are lawful.

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