Who applies: tenancies, ownership certificates and notices
You can apply for permission on land you do not own, but not without telling everyone with a qualifying interest. On tenanted farms the agricultural holdings limb is where applications come unstuck.
You can apply for planning permission on land you do not own. What you cannot do is stay silent about it. Section 65 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and Article 13 of the Development Management Procedure Order 2015 require every application to carry an ownership certificate, and require notice to be served on anyone else with a qualifying interest, including agricultural tenants.
On a tenanted farm this is where applications go wrong. The certificate is signed in the farm office on the day of submission, the tenancy documents are in a solicitor's file, and nobody checks which Act the tenancy was granted under.
Why ownership is not a precondition
Planning permission attaches to land, not to a person. It does not confer any right to carry out the development, and it does not override a covenant, a tenancy or a lack of title. That is why the system allows a promoter, a neighbour or an option holder to apply on land in someone else's ownership.
The protection for the landowner is procedural. They are entitled to know an application has been made so they can make representations, and the certificate regime is how the system delivers that.
Two consequences follow. A permission granted on land you do not control is real and valuable, and it is also unimplementable until you acquire the interest you need. And a landowner who receives a notice about their own land should read the application rather than assume it is a mistake.
Certificates A, B, C and D
The certificate is a statement of fact about ownership at the date of the application, signed by or on behalf of the applicant.
| Certificate | When it applies |
|---|---|
| A | The applicant is the sole owner of all the application land, and no part is an agricultural holding |
| B | The applicant is not the sole owner, but has served notice on every other owner, each of whom is named |
| C | The applicant has served notice on some owners and has been unable to identify the rest, after reasonable enquiry, with a newspaper notice published |
| D | The applicant has been unable to identify any owner, after reasonable enquiry, with a newspaper notice published |
"Owner" has a specific meaning here. It covers a person with the freehold interest and a person with a leasehold interest of which at least seven years remain unexpired. A tenant under a three-year lease is not an owner for these purposes and gets no notice under this limb.
Notice must be served before the application is made, with the statutory minimum period allowed to run. Certificates C and D also require reasonable steps to identify the missing owners, and the local planning authority is entitled to ask what those steps were.
The agricultural holdings notice
Every certificate also deals with agricultural tenants. Where any part of the application land is, or was recently, an agricultural holding, notice must be given to every tenant of that holding whose consent is not being relied on.
The definition is the trap. The agricultural holding limb takes its meaning from the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986, so a tenancy granted under that Act is plainly caught. A farm business tenancy granted under the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995, which is the normal form for lettings since September 1995, sits in a different statutory regime, and such a tenant will qualify as an owner for certificate purposes only where at least seven years of the term remain.
Do not resolve that from memory. Get the tenancy agreement, identify which Act it was granted under and the date, and check the unexpired term. Where the position is uncertain, serve notice anyway. Serving a notice on someone who did not strictly need one causes no harm. Failing to serve someone who did causes a great deal.
Grazing licences and short seasonal arrangements are usually neither a tenancy nor an agricultural holding for this purpose, but a licence that has been renewed annually for years may have become something more. That is a question for the client's solicitor rather than the planning consultant.
Consequences of serving the wrong certificate
Issuing a certificate that is false or misleading, knowingly or recklessly, is a criminal offence under section 65 of the 1990 Act. That is the headline, and prosecutions are rare.
The practical consequences bite sooner. A local planning authority that spots a defective certificate can decline to determine the application until it is corrected, and correcting it means serving notice properly and waiting out the period again. An authority that misses it may grant permission, and the permission is then vulnerable to challenge by a person who should have been notified.
The courts have a discretion in that situation and have declined to quash permissions where the defect caused no real prejudice, so a technical error discovered late is not automatically fatal. It is not a position to rely on. A purchaser's solicitor reviewing the planning history will raise it, and answering the enquiry costs more than getting the certificate right would have done.
Where you discover an error after submission, tell the case officer immediately and serve the notice. Authorities deal with this regularly and will usually re-run the consultation rather than refuse.
Tenant applications and the landlord relationship
A tenant can apply for permission affecting the holding, serving notice on the landlord as owner. Whether the tenancy permits the tenant to carry out the works is a separate question governed by the agreement, and the council will not consider it.
That separation cuts both ways. A tenant who obtains permission for a farm diversification scheme has an asset the landlord may value at rent review. A landlord who receives notice of an application by their tenant should consider whether the proposed use is permitted under the tenancy before deciding whether to object on planning grounds, because the tenancy may already prevent it.
For diversification projects, settle the landlord and tenant position before the application rather than after. The planning case for converting a rural building to holiday letting or for a barn conversion under Class Q is hard enough without a dispute about who is entitled to implement it.
Option agreements and promotion agreements
An option holder is not the owner of the land. The landowner remains the owner, and notice must be served on them under certificate B, even where the option agreement obliges them to cooperate with the application.
Promotion agreements work the same way. The promoter usually applies as agent with the owner's written authority, and the certificate names the owner. Where several parties hold interests, list them all: the freeholder, any long leaseholder, and any mortgagee with a qualifying interest, because a lender's interest is often overlooked.
Options and promotion agreements are usually protected by a notice or restriction on the registered title, which is a useful cross-check. If the title shows an entry you cannot explain, ask before you certify.
Checking title before submitting
Run the same checks every time, and keep the evidence with the application file.
- Obtain official copies of the registered title and the title plan for the whole application site, including land outside the development area.
- Compare the title plan with the red line and identify any strip, verge or access that falls outside it.
- Check for unregistered land, which is still common in rural holdings, and establish ownership from the deeds.
- List every tenancy, licence and occupation agreement affecting the land, with the granting Act and the unexpired term.
- Note any mortgage, option, restriction or agreement that gives a third party a qualifying interest.
- Decide the certificate, serve the notices, and diarise the date the period expires.
Access strips are the recurring problem on farm applications. A field entrance that has always been used may sit on a verge in the highway authority's ownership or on a neighbour's title, and that question also determines who needs to be served when you propose a new farm track or access.
Set the ownership position out plainly in the supporting documents, in the same way you would structure a Planning Statement, so the case officer can see the certificate has been thought about.
This is general guidance rather than legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority, your solicitor or another 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.
Frequently asked questions
Can I apply for planning permission on someone else's land?
Yes. Planning permission attaches to land rather than to a person, and it confers no right to carry out the development. You must serve notice on every other owner and complete the correct ownership certificate. The permission is real and valuable, but unimplementable until you acquire the interest you need.
Who counts as an owner for certificate purposes?
A person with the freehold interest, and a person with a leasehold interest of which at least seven years remain unexpired. A tenant under a three-year lease is not an owner under that limb and receives no notice through it, although they may still need notice under the separate agricultural holdings provision.
Does a farm business tenant need notice?
It depends on the tenancy. The agricultural holdings limb takes its meaning from the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986, while most lettings since September 1995 are farm business tenancies under the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995. Such a tenant qualifies as an owner only where at least seven years remain. Where the position is unclear, serve notice anyway.
What happens if I sign the wrong certificate?
Issuing a certificate that is false or misleading, knowingly or recklessly, is an offence under section 65 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. More commonly the authority declines to determine until it is corrected, or a permission granted on a defective certificate is challenged by someone who should have been notified.
Does an option holder need to serve notice on the landowner?
Yes. An option holder is not the owner, so the landowner remains an owner for certificate purposes and must be served under certificate B, even where the option obliges them to cooperate. List every qualifying interest, including long leaseholders and any mortgagee, because lenders' interests are routinely overlooked.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.