Which notice have you actually been served?
Six notices commonly come from a planning enforcement team, and of the six only the enforcement notice carries a right of appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
Letters from a council enforcement team get called "an enforcement notice" whatever they are. Check the heading on the document and the section of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 it cites, because each one runs to a different timetable. For what the term means in general, our glossary has a short entry on the enforcement notice. This guide is about responding to one.
| Notice (section) | What it does | Deadline | Issued in England, Jan–Mar 2026 |
|---|
| Planning contravention notice (s.171C) | Asks questions before the council decides what to do | Reply within 21 days; not replying is an offence | 1,411 |
| Enforcement warning notice (s.172ZA) | Invites a retrospective application by a set date | The date in the notice; no appeal | 10 |
| Enforcement notice (s.172) | Requires steps to remedy the breach | Appeal before the effective date | 1,435 |
| Breach of condition notice (s.187A) | Requires compliance with a condition on a permission | The period in the notice | 180 |
| Stop notice (s.183) | Stops activity ahead of an enforcement notice | Normally effective 3 to 28 days after service; no appeal | 18 |
| Temporary stop notice (s.171E) | Stops activity immediately | Lasts up to 56 days in England | 73 |
Sources: Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (sections as listed); GOV.UK, Enforcement and post-permission matters; MHCLG, Planning applications in England: January to March 2026 (district-level authorities). Retrieved 12 September 2026.
Put the counts in proportion: in the same quarter councils decided 33,500 applications for householder development and granted 91% of them. Enforcement notices numbered 1,435, about one for every 23 householder decisions, and the power to issue one is discretionary: the council has to judge action expedient.
What is the response timeline?
Everything counts from the effective date printed on the notice. Your appeal must arrive before it, not on it.
| Stage | Rule | Source |
|---|
| Notice issued | The council dates the notice | s.172 |
| Notice served | No more than 28 days after issue | s.172(3)(a) |
| Effective date | At least 28 days after service | s.172(3)(b) |
| Appeal deadline | Received by the Planning Inspectorate before the effective date | s.174(3) |
| During an appeal | The notice has no effect until the appeal is decided or withdrawn | s.175(4) |
| Compliance period | The period the notice specifies for each step or activity | s.173(9) |
| After the compliance period | Owner in breach commits an offence; unlimited fine | s.179 |
Sources: s.172, s.174, s.175 and s.179, Town and Country Planning Act 1990; GOV.UK, Appeal against an enforcement notice. Retrieved 12 September 2026.
The 28 days is a minimum, and the post can eat into it. Write the effective date on the calendar the day the envelope arrives, and plan to submit the appeal online at least a week before it.
Can you appeal, and on what grounds?
Yes, if you own, rent or lawfully occupy the land. Section 174(2) sets out seven grounds, and you can rely on more than one.
- (a) Planning permission ought to be granted, or the condition ought to be discharged.
- (b) The things alleged have not happened.
- (c) They happened, but are not a breach of planning control, for example because they were permitted development and no Article 4 direction had removed those rights.
- (d) It was too late for the council to act when the notice was issued.
- (e) The notice was not served on everyone it should have been.
- (f) The steps required go further than needed to remedy the breach.
- (g) The time given to comply is too short.
Ground (a) comes with two catches. First, it carries a fee for the deemed planning application: twice the normal fee, so £1,096 for a householder scheme on one house at the £548 rate in force from 1 April 2026. It is refunded if the appeal succeeds on grounds (b) to (f). Second, since 25 April 2024 you cannot use ground (a) at all if the notice was issued after you made a related planning application, unless more than two years have passed since that application stopped being under consideration. Government guidance puts it simply: you get one attempt at permission after the event.
Ground (d) turns on the time limits in section 171B: four years for building work substantially completed before 25 April 2024, ten years for work completed since. Ground (c) is where accurate measured drawings earn their keep, because permitted development limits are dimensional, such as 3 metres of depth for a single-storey rear extension on a terraced or semi-detached house, and an inspector will check them. Ground (a) is argued against the borough's Local Plan, like any application.
Sources: Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s.174; Planning fees regulations 2012, regulation 10; MHCLG, Planning fees from 1 April 2026. The £1,096 figure is our arithmetic from those two sources. Retrieved 12 September 2026.
How long does an enforcement appeal take?
Much longer than a planning appeal. Enforcement appeals decided by written representations in June 2026 took a median of 67 weeks from being validated.
| Appeal type, decided June 2026 | Median weeks | Mean weeks | Decisions |
|---|
| Enforcement, written representations | 67 | 70 | 230 |
| Enforcement, hearings | 30* | 28* | 17* |
| Enforcement, inquiries | 35* | 31* | 4* |
| Householder planning appeals, for comparison | 12 | 14 | 351 |
* Fewer than 20 decisions; the Inspectorate warns these averages are unreliable. Enforcement figures include lawful development certificate and listed building enforcement appeals. Source: Planning Inspectorate, Appeals: average timescales (updated 30 July 2026). Across the 12 months to June 2026 the Inspectorate made 3,060 enforcement decisions: statistical release, 30 July 2026. Retrieved 12 September 2026.
A long appeal is not free time. Section 175(4) suspends the notice, but anything you build in the meantime is more to remove if you lose. If the breach is an extension you live with, the wait is tolerable. If it is a half-built roof terrace, weatherproof it and stop.
What if you decide not to appeal?
Then you comply within the period stated in the notice, which can mean taking down part or all of the work. You can also ask the council, before the effective date, whether it would accept a smaller scheme: section 173A lets it vary or withdraw a notice. Section 173(11) helps here: once you comply with a notice that asked for less than it could have, planning permission is treated as granted for what remains.
Ignoring the notice is the worst option. After the compliance period the owner commits an offence under section 179, the fine is unlimited, and the court must consider the financial benefit of the breach. Councils can also enter the land, do the work themselves under section 178 and recover the cost, and after a conviction apply for a confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
What should London homeowners do this week?
- Write down the issue date, service date and effective date.
- Check the council's planning history for your address, including any refused application for the same work.
- Collect dated evidence of when the work was finished, if time limits might help.
- Get the building measured, so any appeal or fresh application is drawn from fact.
- Decide between appeal, compliance and a revised scheme with at least two weeks in hand.
If an appeal is the answer, our planning appeal service prepares the case and drawings. If the council has not yet issued a notice, read how to apply for retrospective planning first, because that route closes once a notice is issued.
Written by Benyamen Shaukat, Technical Architect & Platform Founder. Fact-checked against the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (ss.171B–179) and Planning Inspectorate statistics on 12 September 2026.
