Return of Fee - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)
Return of Fee
Wonder if anyone can shed any light on the intepretation of Regulation 9a of the Fees Regs which introduces:
Any fee paid by an applicant in respect of an application for planning permission or the approval of reserved matters shall be reefunded to the applicant in the event that the local planning authority fail to determine the application within 26 weeks of the date when a valid application was received.
This does not apply where: "the applicant and the lpa have agreed in writing that the application is to be determined within an extended period."
PPG says (004 Ref ID: 21b-004-20140306)
"If the applicant has not exercised this right of appeal, and the application remains undetermined after 26 weeks, then the fee paid by the applicant will be refunded to them (unless a longer period for the decision has been agreed)."
Now my intepretation of the regs is,that the fee can not be returned if the period for determination has been mutually extended beyond 26 weeks.
However, if the determination period has been mutually extended beyond 13 weeks but not beyond 26 weeks than under the regs, the fee can still be returned. Would others share this intepretation or do people believe that any agreement to extend the time regardless of length invalidates the ability to reclaim the fee.
Anyone aware of case law on this matter?
You’re correct that the right to a fee refund only applies if an application has not been determined within 26 weeks and an extended determination period has not been agreed.
There is guidance about the impact of extensions of time agreements on the PAS website at http://www.pas.gov.uk/agreements-for-extensions-of-time and in the guidance on PPAs under the Pre-applications Suite http://www.pas.gov.uk/documents/332612/6261492/Pre+app+section+3v2/3b3b990c-c5c0-4385-ad2c-048ce015de08
I think you will find that the correct interpretation is, an agreement to extend time of determination has to be agreed with the applicant before the 13 week deadline. if a LPA goes over the statutory time period an agreement to extend still has to be sought and gets a further 13 week period of determination but the applicant can legally appeal to the SOS for non determination. If the applicant does not appeal to SOS and the application has not been determined by the 26th week stage the LPA has to refund the application fee.
At this point the applicant can apply to SOS for non determination for breach of government planning guarantee.
Any extension of time for determination has to be agreed before the 13 week (16 weeks for EIA) statutory period expires.
Hi Malcolm,
I can't find anything that says an extension of time has to be agreed within the original statutory period. Can you point us to the relevant regulation?
It's probably also worth pointing out that an agreement to extend the time does not 'have to be sought'; it is optional but without it an applicant can appeal against non-determination.
If an extension of time is agreed there is not necessarily a 'further 13 week period of determination'. The further period will be whatever is agreed between the LPA and the applicant. And what would be the point of agreeing an extension of time after the 13 weeks had ended if, as you say, the applicant could still appeal against non-determination and reclaim the fee (after 26 weeks)?
As an aside, many people seem to think that LPAs are failing if they don't determine major applications within 13 weeks. They are only failing if by some action (or inaction) of theirs the application process is unnecessarily delayed; not because they failed to hit an arbitrary numerical target.
Have a case which is getting very old and which has been the subject of a now expired extension of time. The applicants agent is under the belief that once 26 weeks has elapsed beyond the end date of the extension of time they can have the fee back. Is this correct as the fee regs seems quite clear that the 26 weeks is counted from the date the application was received valid and does not apply where an extension of time has been agreed.