Section 191: Certificate of lawfulness of existing use or development., Town and Country Planning Act 1990

If any person wishes to ascertain whether—

any existing use of buildings or other land is lawful;

any operations which have been carried out in, on, over or under land are lawful; or

any other matter constituting a failure to comply with any condition or limitation subject to which planning permission has been granted is lawful,

he may make an application for the purpose to the local planning authority specifying the land and describing the use, operations or other matter.

For the purposes of this Act uses and operations are lawful at any time if—

no enforcement action may then be taken in respect of them (whether because they did not involve development or require planning permission or because the time for enforcement action has expired or for any other reason); and

they do not constitute a contravention of any of the requirements of any enforcement notice then in force.

For the purposes of this Act any matter constituting a failure to comply with any condition or limitation subject to which planning permission has been granted is lawful at any time if—

the time for taking enforcement action in respect of the failure has then expired; and

it does not constitute a contravention of any of the requirements of any enforcement notice or breach of condition notice then in force.

In determining for the purposes of this section whether the time for taking enforcement action in respect of a matter has expired, that time is to be taken not to have expired if—

the time for applying for an order under section 171BA(1) (a "planning enforcement order") in relation to the matter has not expired,

an application has been made for a planning enforcement order in relation to the matter and the application has neither been decided nor been withdrawn, or

a planning enforcement order has been made in relation to the matter, the order has not been rescinded and the enforcement year for the order (whether or not it has begun) has not expired.

If, on an application under this section, the local planning authority are provided with information satisfying them of the lawfulness at the time of the application of the use, operations or other matter described in the application, or that description as modified by the local planning authority or a description substituted by them, they shall issue a certificate to that effect; and in any other case they shall refuse the application.

A certificate under this section shall—

specify the land to which it relates;

describe the use, operations or other matter in question (in the case of any use falling within one of the classes specified in an order under section 55(2)(f), identifying it by reference to that class);

give the reasons for determining the use, operations or other matter to be lawful; and

specify the date of the application for the certificate.

The lawfulness of any use, operations or other matter for which a certificate is in force under this section shall be conclusively presumed.

A certificate under this section in respect of any use shall also have effect, for the purposes of the following enactments, as if it were a grant of planning permission—

section 3(3) of the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 or section 7(1) of the Mobile Homes (Wales) Act 2013;

section 5(2) of the Control of Pollution Act 1974; and

section 36(2)(a) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Section 191: Certificate of lawfulness of existing use or development.

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