Ownership certificate - planning application validity - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

My neighbour bought the house next door at auction. He now wants to turn it into a large HMO. He submitted the planning application to the council but only gave his name. The house is actually owned by his limited company of which he is the director. The company name is on the title deeds. He filed in ownership certificate A with his name. No mention at all of the company. Is the application still valid?

If the applicant and Certificate A are different legal persons then I would say the Certificate is definitely incorrect. Whether to invalidate a running application will be up to the LPA. In my experience the approach taken to this issue varies between authorities. I think that I would raise the concerns with your LPA and proceed from there.

I would second Graham's advice and add that I think the courts and planning inspectors take the view that if an application has unfortunately been accepted as valid incorrectly then you're stuck with that, but they also tend to be fairly relaxed about personal owners and corporate owners (if the company is itself owned by the same person as named). But raise your concerns ASAP with your local council and see what they say.