Certificates of Lawfulness and Legal Agreements

Certificates of Lawfulness (CLEUDS) are decisions obtained from the local planning authority confirming that the use and operation of proposed or existing developments are ‘lawful’ in planning terms.

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CLEUDs can be extremely useful where a building or use has taken place over a stipulated length of time (ten years for use or contravention of a condition, four years for construction, or when a building is converted to a single dwelling house), particularly where these changes do not meet planning policy and could be rejected if a planning application was submitted. This is particularly important when significant money and investment have already been incurred for any development.

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The Certificate can also be used for proposed development and can be helpful where there is doubt over the use of, for example, permitted development rights or for like for like repairs for listed buildings.

We are very conversant with Certificates and what is needed to put together a comprehensive and effective application.

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