Prior approval timescales and the deemed consent trap

Deemed approval under the General Permitted Development Order 2015 is real, it is useful, and it is also the single most common way a permitted development scheme ends up unlawful. The prior approval 56 day deemed consent provision in paragraph W of Part 3 only bites if the application was one the authority actually received in the form the Order requires. Where it was not, the clock never started, and a developer who began work on day 57 has carried out development without permission.

The trap is not the 56 days. It is the assumption that the period began when the submission portal issued a receipt.

Which classes carry a deemed consent provision

Not every prior approval route has one, and the periods differ. Check the specific class rather than carrying a number across from another part of the Order.

Paragraph W governs the procedure for the Part 3 classes, and its effect is that development must not begin before one of three things happens: written notice that prior approval is not required, written notice granting prior approval, or the expiry of 56 days following the date on which the application was received by the authority without the authority notifying the applicant whether prior approval is given or refused.

Read the third limb carefully. It requires the absence of notification, not the absence of a decision. An authority that refuses on day 55 and tells you so has notified you, even if the refusal is weak. Deemed consent is a remedy for inaction, not for a bad decision.

Other parts of the Order set their own procedures, and some prior approval routes have no deemed consent limb at all. Part 20 upward extension classes in particular have their own procedural paragraph, so read it rather than assuming paragraph W applies.

When the period starts and what stops the clock

The period runs from the date the authority received the application. Three things complicate that.

A submission that arrives without the required fee has not been received for these purposes, and the authority is entitled to treat the period as beginning when the fee clears. Portal payment failures are common and the applicant often does not notice.

A submission that lacks information the Order requires is in the same position. Paragraph W sets out what has to accompany an application, including a written description of the proposed development, a plan indicating the site, the developer's contact address and an email address if the applicant is content to receive communications electronically, together with whatever the specific class requires. For Class MA that includes a floor plan, and for several classes it includes specified reports or statements.

And an authority that asks for further information mid-period does not thereby extend the period. Nothing in paragraph W gives the authority a power to stop the clock by asking a question, which is why some councils instead write to say the application was never valid. That letter is the one to take seriously.

Information that must accompany the application

Build the submission against the text of the Order, class by class, rather than against the portal's generic form.

1. The written description of the proposed development, drafted to match the words of the class you are relying on.
2. A plan indicating the site and showing the proposed development, at a stated scale with a scale bar.
3. The fee, paid and reconciled, with evidence retained.
4. The developer's postal address, and an email address where electronic service is accepted.
5. Everything the particular class requires, which for the residential conversion classes typically includes floor plans and any reports on contamination, flooding, noise, transport or natural light that the class names.
6. Where the class requires evidence of a qualifying condition, such as a period of vacancy or a previous lawful use, the evidence for it.

The last of those is the one most often thin. A class that requires the building to have been in a particular use on a particular date requires proof of that fact, and a bare assertion in a covering letter is not proof. Councils are increasingly willing to say that an application unsupported by the required evidence was not a valid application at all, which takes away the deemed consent before anyone has argued about the merits.

Invalid applications and why the clock may not have started

The practical difficulty is that validity is tested after the event, often by a purchaser's solicitor or by an enforcement officer, and by then the work is built.

The general position is that the deemed consent in paragraph W depends on there having been an application of the kind the Order describes. If a required document was missing, there is a real argument that no such application was ever received and the 56 days never ran. The counter-argument is that an authority which processed the application, consulted on it and never raised validity should not be heard to say otherwise years later. Both arguments get run, and the outcome depends on what was missing and how material it was.

So treat validity as the thing to secure, not the deadline. Two habits help. Ask the authority in writing, within the first week, to confirm the date of receipt and that it holds everything required by the relevant paragraph of the Order. And keep the whole submission bundle, with the portal receipt, the payment confirmation and the acknowledgement, in one place.

Where the position is uncertain, a Lawful Development Certificate under section 192 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is the only formal way to confirm that proposed works are lawful. For a conversion that will be sold or refinanced, the cost of a certificate is small against the cost of a failed sale, and the same reasoning applies to checking permitted development rights on a converted dwelling before relying on them.

Evidencing deemed approval to a lender or buyer

There is no certificate of deemed consent. That is awkward, because lenders and buyers want a document.

What you can assemble is a file: the application as submitted, the authority's acknowledgement showing the date of receipt, proof the fee was paid and when, a print of the authority's own online record showing no decision was issued, and a letter sent to the authority after the period expired inviting it to confirm that the period has passed without notification. Many councils will write back confirming the position, and some issue a standard letter for exactly this purpose. Ask.

Where a lender refuses to accept that file, the answer is a certificate of lawfulness rather than an argument. Build the time for one into the programme on any scheme you intend to refinance.

Conditions that still apply to a deemed approval

Deemed approval removes the need for the authority's approval. It removes nothing else.

The conditions and limitations written into the class itself continue to apply in full. For a residential conversion that may mean a time limit for completion, a restriction on subsequent changes of use, and a requirement that the development is carried out in accordance with the details provided in the application. That last condition is the one that catches people, because it means the scheme you build must be the scheme you described, and a change of layout after deemed consent is a change the authority has not agreed.

Separate regimes are untouched as well. Building Regulations, the Community Infrastructure Levy with its notice of chargeable development for permitted development schemes, fire safety duties, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 and any listed building or conservation area consent all stand on their own feet. A deemed consent is not a planning permission for levy purposes either, and the levy process for permitted development starts with a notice rather than with a permission.

Where the class imposes design or materials limitations, those apply too. The way Class A householder limits operate in designated areas, discussed in the treatment of side extensions under Class A in a conservation area, is a reminder that a class is a set of conditions rather than a permission to build what you like.

Practical steps in the final week of the period

Work backwards from the expiry date and do these five things.

Confirm the expiry date yourself by counting 56 days from the authority's stated date of receipt, and note that the period expires at the end of the fifty-sixth day. Write to the case officer a week before, asking whether a decision will be issued and confirming your calculation. Check the authority's public register daily in the last few days, because a decision issued but not yet received by you is still a decision in the post, and notification is about receipt.

Then do not start work on the day the period expires. Start the following day, having first saved a dated copy of the register entry showing no decision. And if the authority issues a refusal on the last day, resist the temptation to argue that it arrived too late unless you have taken advice, because beginning work on the strength of a disputed deemed consent is an enforcement risk rather than a negotiating position.

A short Planning Statement submitted with the prior approval application, walking the authority through each qualifying condition with the evidence cited, is the least costly insurance available. It makes the application harder to call invalid, and it gives the officer no reason to leave the file until day 54.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which documents a prior approval application is likely to need. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.