Section 330 notices requiring ownership information

A section 330 notice is a written demand from a council requiring you to say what interest you hold in a piece of land and who else holds an interest in it. The power sits in section 330 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, it can be served on an occupier or on anyone receiving rent from the land, and ignoring it is a criminal offence. If one has landed on your doormat, the council is most likely trying to work out who to serve something else on, and the something else is usually an enforcement notice.

What the authority can demand

The section lets the authority require the recipient to state, in writing, the nature of their own interest in the land and the name and address of any other person known to them who has an interest in it. That covers freeholders, leaseholders, tenants, mortgagees and anyone with an option or a licence, so far as the recipient actually knows about them.

The notice must state the purpose for which the information is required, and the purpose has to be connected with the authority's functions under the Act. That is a wide category, but it is not unlimited. A notice served to build a general database of ownership in an area, unconnected with any function, would be outside the power.

The information demanded is about interests in land. It is not a power to ask what you have been doing on the land, what the building is used for or who has been operating a business there. That is a different notice, and the distinction matters.

Who can be served and what the period is

Service is on the occupier of the land, or on a person who has an interest in it either as freeholder, mortgagee or lessee, or on a person who directly or indirectly receives rent from it. Managing agents and rent collectors are squarely within the last category, which surprises people who think they are outside the dispute.

The section sets a minimum period for the reply and the notice specifies the actual date, so read the date on your notice rather than assuming a standard period applies. If the date is unworkable because the information is held by someone abroad or by a company in administration, write to the officer named on the notice before the date and ask for an extension in writing. Authorities generally give one. What they do not forgive is silence.

The offences

Two separate offences arise. Failing to give the information required within the period, without reasonable excuse, is an offence and carries a fine on conviction. Knowingly or recklessly giving information that is false or misleading in a material particular is a separate and more serious offence.

The practical consequence of the second is that a guess is worse than an admission of ignorance. If you do not know who the freeholder is, say so. The section requires you to give the names and addresses of persons known to you, so an honest statement that you do not know is a complete answer on that limb, while a plausible but wrong name is an exposure you have created for yourself.

How this differs from a Land Registry search

A search of the register tells the authority who is registered as proprietor. A section 330 notice tells the authority what interests actually exist, including the ones that never appear on the register: short leases, licences, informal occupation arrangements, and the identity of the person actually in occupation.

That gap is why the power exists. An enforcement notice has to be served on the owner, the occupier and anyone else with an interest that would be materially affected. Serve it on the registered proprietor alone and miss an occupier, and the notice is vulnerable.

There is also a parallel power in section 16 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, which allows a council to require information about interests in land for the purposes of any of its functions, not just planning. Authorities sometimes use it where the planning purpose is not yet settled.

Use in enforcement investigations

The usual sequence is straightforward once you know it. The authority receives a complaint, opens an investigation, and needs to know who is who before it can act. It serves a section 330 notice to map the interests, and separately may serve a planning contravention notice under section 171C to ask about the activity itself. Then, if enforcement follows, the notice is served on everyone the section 330 replies identified.

Receiving a section 330 notice is therefore an early warning rather than an accusation. Nothing in it says the council has decided anything. But it does mean a file is open, and the sensible response is to find out what the investigation concerns before the next notice arrives.

Ask the authority, politely and in writing, what the investigation relates to. Officers are not obliged to tell you and often will, because an applicant who regularises the position voluntarily saves them a formal notice.

The limits on the power

Three limits are worth knowing.

• The information must be required for a purpose connected with the authority's functions under the Act, and the notice has to say what that purpose is.
• The demand is confined to interests in land, so a notice asking about activities, turnover or occupancy patterns is asking for something section 330 does not cover.
• You are required to give what you know. There is no duty to carry out research, commission a search or interrogate a tenant on the authority's behalf.

A notice that strays outside those limits can be answered on the part that is within the power, with a short line saying the remainder falls outside section 330. That is a better position than either refusing outright or answering questions the authority had no right to ask.

Answering it properly

1. Diarise the reply date the day the notice arrives and work backwards.
2. Identify the exact land: check the plan attached to the notice against your title plan, because the red line often includes more or less than you expect.
3. Set out your own interest precisely, with dates, and attach the lease or transfer reference if you have one.
4. List the other interests you actually know about, with addresses, and state clearly where you do not know.
5. Reply in writing to the officer named, keep a dated copy, and send it by a method that gives proof of delivery.
6. Take advice before replying if the land is the subject of an ongoing dispute, because the reply is a document that can be used later.

If the notice has arrived because a neighbour has complained about works on your land, the more useful next step is to establish whether what has been done is lawful. That question is answered by a lawful development certificate, not by correspondence. And if the answer is that a retrospective application is needed, the supporting documents are the ordinary ones, including in most cases a biodiversity gain plan before development can lawfully proceed. Timing arguments about a plan still in preparation are dealt with in our note on prematurity.

You can browse the report types by category to see what an application on the site would involve, or enter the postcode on PlanScope to see which constraints the site carries.

This is general guidance, not legal advice, and you should 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.