Temporary stop notices and stop notices explained

A temporary stop notice requires an activity to stop immediately, and a local planning authority can serve one as soon as it thinks there has been a breach of planning control and that the activity should cease at once. It needs no enforcement notice behind it. A stop notice under section 183 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is the older and heavier instrument, and it can only be served alongside or after an enforcement notice.

For a landlord who arrives to find a laminated notice cable-tied to the scaffolding, the first question is which of the two it is, because the answer changes the timescale entirely.

What each notice does

The temporary stop notice sits in sections 171E to 171H of the 1990 Act, inserted by the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. It prohibits the activity specified in it, takes effect when a copy is displayed on the land, and buys the authority time to decide whether to take formal enforcement action.

The stop notice in sections 183 to 187 is different in structure. It prohibits activity that is already the subject of an enforcement notice, and it bites earlier than the enforcement notice does, closing the gap during which an appeal would otherwise suspend everything.

Duration and when it expires

A temporary stop notice runs for a fixed period set by statute. It was originally 28 days from display, and the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 extended it in England. Check the commencement position and the current period before advising a client, because this is one of the provisions that changed recently and older textbooks are out of date.

When the period expires the notice lapses. A second temporary stop notice cannot be served in respect of the same activity unless the authority has taken other enforcement action in the meantime, so the notice is a pause rather than a permanent solution. What the authority does inside that window is the real question.

A stop notice has no fixed life. It ceases to have effect when the related enforcement notice takes effect, is withdrawn or is quashed, or when the authority withdraws the stop notice itself.

Service and display

Both notices must be served on the occupier of the land and on anyone the authority considers has an interest in it or is engaged in the activity. For a let property that means the landlord and the tenant, and a notice served only on a tenant may still bind the activity while leaving the owner uninformed.

Display is what makes a temporary stop notice effective. The authority displays a copy on the land together with a statement of the effect of the notice and of the penalties for contravening it. From that moment the prohibition applies, whether or not the person carrying out the activity has read it.

That has a practical consequence on a site with subcontractors. Nobody gets a grace period while the paperwork is checked, so the sensible immediate response is to stop, photograph the notice in place and take advice the same day.

Activities that cannot be stopped

Both regimes contain protections, and they are narrower than people hope.

Neither notice can prohibit the use of a building as a dwellinghouse. That protects occupation, not works, so an unauthorised conversion can be stopped mid-build even though people already living in a completed flat cannot be turned out by this route.

A stop notice cannot prohibit an activity that has been carried on for more than four years ending with the service of the notice, disregarding any period during which it was authorised, and that limit does not apply to building, engineering, mining or other operations or to a change of use to a single dwellinghouse. The enforcement time limits themselves were altered by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, so check how the current position interacts with this restriction before relying on it.

Neither notice can require the removal of what has already been built. They stop activity. Undoing the breach is what an enforcement notice does.

Compensation risk for the authority

This is the reason stop notices are used less often than the powers would allow, and it shapes how authorities behave.

Under section 186, compensation may be payable for loss or damage directly attributable to a stop notice where the enforcement notice is quashed on certain grounds, is varied so the activity ceases to be a breach, or is withdrawn by the authority. The sums can be substantial on a commercial site, because they cover losses during the prohibition.

Section 171H provides for compensation in respect of a temporary stop notice on narrower grounds, broadly where the activity turns out not to have been a breach, and there are exclusions where the person had been asked to provide information and failed to do so.

For a landlord this cuts two ways. It means an authority will usually be confident before it serves, and it means that where the notice was wrong, there is a statutory route to recover losses rather than a judicial review.

Offences and penalties

Contravening either notice is a criminal offence, prosecuted in the magistrates court or on indictment. On conviction the court is required to have regard to any financial benefit that has accrued or is likely to accrue as a result of the offence, which is why fines in commercial cases can be far higher than the cost of compliance would have been.

Both regimes make it an offence for a person who owns, occupies or is otherwise in control of the land to carry out or permit the prohibited activity. Permitting is enough, so a landlord who knows work is continuing and does nothing is exposed.

Reasonable excuse defences exist but are narrow, and typically turn on whether a copy of the notice was displayed or served properly rather than on whether the underlying activity was lawful.

What usually follows

A temporary stop notice is a signal that the authority is preparing something. Within the notice period it will normally either serve an enforcement notice, invite a retrospective application, or conclude there was no breach and let the notice lapse.

The productive response is to use the window rather than argue about the notice. Establish the lawful use and planning history, take advice on whether the activity was in fact a breach, and decide between a retrospective application, a lawful development certificate and a negotiated cessation. Where the underlying question is whether a use has changed at all, the analysis starts with the development plan and what counts and with the lawful use of the unit.

Where a retrospective application is the route, the supporting documents are the same as for any application, and the 66 report types by category index is a quick way to scope them. Where the dispute is about conditions attached to an existing permission rather than the use itself, deemed discharge under section 74A may be relevant to how the position arose.

One honest observation. Authorities rarely serve these notices on a whim, because of the compensation exposure and the staff time involved. Where one has been served, something in the file has convinced a senior officer, and finding out what that is beats disputing the notice on principle.

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. Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which documents a retrospective application would need.