Re: Incomplete development - consent for 4 houses but only build 3? - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

If the original permission has been correctly implemented i.e. all prior to commencement conditions complied with and discharged and the development as been built in accord with the approved plans this would protect the rest of the permission for all time only very minimal works is require subject to complying with conditions to implement and thus retain a permission it can be as little as digging the foundation trench

The procedure whereby a local authority can issue a Completion Notice is, as far as I am aware, a relatively little used procedure. From the evidence I have seen they are generally only used where incomplete development is causing a nuisance (e.g. an eyesore or public health risk) or is having an adverse affect on a Conservation Area or listed building. There has to be a good Planning reason for issuing a Completion Notice, and they need to be approved by the SOS, and as with other Planning procedures can be contested via appeal.  If upheld, a Completion Notice can extinguish a partially implemented permission, but should not affect anything already built. However, in practice this usually seems to be limited to situations where, for example, a council wants to redesignate a site due to a change in local plan policy (such as where a 'token start' has been made but the site lies dormant), and can thus also be used to address problems associated with ‘land hoarding', where for example this may be having an adverse impact on the local economy. If only one of four houses was left unbuilt, and assuming the site was left in good order and not adversely affecting a CA/LB, it is difficult to see the justification for a Completion Notice.

You will need to check the wording of the conditions as some of them may require certain elements of the build to be completed in their entirety before any of the dwellings could be occupied, so by not completing the fourth house you may then effectively be barred from occupying the other three. Would it not be better to just make a fresh application for just three houses?

Thanks Katie, Yes, when I got Martin’s reply I checked the conditions, and luckily none of the common “visitor” parking areas that must be completed before, etc, etc, are on that 3rd garden, for the 4th house. But now you got me worried about this standard condition: "No development shall take place until full details of both hard and soft landscape works have been submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority and these works shall be carried out as approved. The works shall be carried out before any part of the development is Occupied…." Could it be construed that because the access way and its landscaping to the 4th house was not implemented, this condition is not discharged? I guess a fresh application may indeed be the prudent way forward. Peter

Hi Peter,

Sorry I never received a notification of your reply and have only just seen it.  If you are required to put in landscaping across the whole site then I agree failure to build the fourth house and its associated landscaping could put the rest of the development into breach, so a new application or a variation of that condition would be required. Although as we are now seven months on I am assuming you have resolved the situation?!