What changed on 25 April 2024?
For England, the relevant dividing date is 25 April 2024:
- Building, engineering, mining or other operations substantially completed on or after that date generally have a ten-year enforcement period. Qualifying operations substantially completed before it retain the four-year period. [2][3]
- A breach consisting of a change of use of a building to a single dwellinghouse on or after that date generally has a ten-year period. A qualifying change before it retains the four-year period. [2][3]
- Other breaches generally remain subject to a ten-year period; they did not all previously enjoy four-year protection. [2]
For physical operations, the relevant milestone is substantial completion, not simply the builder’s first day or an invoice date. For a change of use, establish the relevant use history. These are different questions and can require different evidence. [2][3]
A certificate is an evidence-based decision
The applicant must establish the facts. The council assesses an existing-development application on the balance of probability, with sufficiently precise and unambiguous evidence. Planning merits and neighbours’ views about whether the development is desirable are not the legal test for this application. [4]
Prepare a coherent chronology supported by the available records. As a practical evidence checklist, consider dated photographs, contemporaneous drawings, invoices and statements from people with direct knowledge. Ask the adviser to explain what each item demonstrates and any gaps; an old photograph may show that work started without proving when it was substantially completed. This checklist is a way to organise evidence, not a statutory list of documents that guarantees success. [4][2]
Age alone is not enough
Do not assume that “more than ten years old” resolves every case. Existing enforcement action, the statutory second-bite provisions and concealed breaches can affect the position. Unauthorised relevant demolition has separate treatment. Check the full legal history before relying on an ordinary limitation period. [5][2]
A building-regulations issue or separate listed-building-consent requirement is not cured by a planning certificate. The government’s certificate guidance expressly separates these regulatory regimes. [4]
Read the certificate’s boundaries
An existing-development certificate relates to the state of affairs on the date of the application and to the development or use actually described. It is not advance permission for further alterations. Check the plan, description and extent carefully before relying on it in a sale or a later project. [1][6]
Keep the application evidence as well as the decision. False statements or withheld material information can lead to revocation; a certificate should not be pursued through an incomplete account designed to conceal the real history. [6]
Fees and next steps
Ask the adviser to confirm the current application fee and whether an existing-development certificate, rather than retrospective permission, fits the facts. Announced planning-fee changes intended for 8 December 2026 are subject to Parliamentary approval; obtain the final operative fee for your submission date. [7]
Where a transaction depends on immunity from enforcement, have the dates and evidence checked by an appropriately experienced planning adviser or solicitor.