Planning FAQ
What is a Lawful Development Certificate?
An LDC is formal council confirmation that your proposal qualifies as Permitted Development. Costs £103 + drawings. Useful for selling.
An LDC is formal council confirmation that your proposal qualifies as Permitted Development. Costs £103 + drawings. Useful for selling.
A Lawful Development Certificate is a formal decision that works are lawful — either because they are permitted development, or because they have become immune from enforcement through the passage of time. For proposed works the fee is £274 and the determination period eight weeks.
A certificate for proposed development confirms that work you intend to carry out does not need permission. A certificate for existing development confirms that something already built or in use is lawful, usually because the immunity period has passed.
The evidence differs completely. A proposed certificate is decided on the drawings as a matter of fact and law — design merit is irrelevant. An existing certificate requires the applicant to prove, on the balance of probabilities, when the breach began: dated photographs, invoices, council tax records, statutory declarations.
Because a conveyancing solicitor will ask for it, because a council can otherwise disagree later about a volume calculation or an eaves height, and because it converts a judgement into a binding decision the authority cannot revisit.
Where a loft conversion sits near the 40 or 50 m³ limit, or an outbuilding near the 2.5 m boundary height, the £274 is the cheapest risk reduction in the project.
Existing and proposed plans, elevations and sections at a stated scale, a 1:1250 location plan, a 1:500 site plan, and a written statement identifying precisely which GPDO class is relied on and how every condition and limitation is satisfied. The statement matters more here than in a normal application.
Yes, if the works do not in fact meet the class conditions — but not on design or amenity grounds. A refusal is effectively a finding that permission is required, and is appealable.
How what is a lawful development certificate? plays out in Hackney: London Borough of Hackney (Hackney Council) maintains 29 conservation areas, the De Beauvoir Town Conservation Area and the Stoke Newington Conservation Area among them, and an Article 4 direction is in force there, so permitted development cannot be assumed. Anyone dealing with what is a lawful development certificate? at a Hackney address is therefore working to a £548 householder application decided in 8 weeks, or a £249 prior approval over 6 weeks where what is a lawful development certificate? still qualifies. are the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the GPDO 2015 and the Building Regulations 2010.
| Fee, proposed development | £274 |
|---|---|
| Fee, existing development | £548 |
| Determination period | 8 weeks |
| Test applied | Fact and law, not planning merit |
| Immunity, breaches from 25 April 2024 | 10 years |
| Validity | 3 years, as for a permission |
No. It certifies that permission is not needed.
No. Design and amenity are irrelevant to the decision.
Not legally, but it is strongly advisable where the volume is close to the limit.
Pick a slot that suits you. No obligation and no sales pressure, just straight answers on your planning route.
