Return of Fee

Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

Open group | Started - July 2012 | Last activity - This week

Gary Collins, modified 7 Years ago.

Return of Fee

New Member Posts: 7 Join Date: 12/08/13 Recent Posts

Looking at previous discussions it looks as if the jury is still out on whether applicants can get a fee refund if their application is determined beyond any agreed date. Being cautious I am asking my officers to constantly extend time periods in order to issue all decisions in time and avoid the liability of a fee refund. With drawn out s106 agreements this can involve numerous extensions of time, taking up a lot of officer time and creating a lot of stress for managers! Does anyone have any examples of good practice out there to manage this situation more effectively. One of my officers has recently suggested that, when a s106 is required, both parties could agree a generic extension of time to "whenever the s106 is completed". Once the PP is issued following the completion of the s106, the date of determination would then be entered as the agreed determination date. Do you see any problems with this? I guess one drawback is that either party may eventually lose patience and will want to force the issue, but this could be avoided by having say a 28 day notice period where either party could say that the previous agreement will expire on a specific date (leaving the LPA enough time to determine the application in the absence of the s106 and still avoid the fee refund liability).

Former Member, modified 7 Years ago.

RE: Return of Fee

Extensions of time are the best thing to happen to PS returns in years, stopping the stupid 'withdrawn apps in week 7' /free go merry go round. CLG might stop taking them into account if Councils are gaming them, so I'm not sure if it's a good idea to start discussing 'strategies'!

How many fees have you returned so far? If it's 'none' you're in good company. How many applicants won't extend the time when you ask? Not many, I bet. In my experience 99% of applicants and agents think fees are a reasonable cost and are pretty understanding about helping Councils hit their arbitrary targets provided you don't mess them about. But if you/your managers are stressed, I dread to think what it's like for your officers. By all means stress about big majors where a refund would sting, but play the percentages. In the very unlikely event a householder asks for a fee back, it's not going to break the bank.

Thinking about the S106 idea, for me the acid test on whether an extension stacks up legally is whether you think you could use it to convince PINS that a non-determination appeal couldn't be made. I don't think you would be able to resist a non-determination appeal on the back of an agreement to extend the period to some vague date contingent on an event that might never happen. But if you could, why not just extend them all to "the date the planning permission is issued" and be done with it?

The main thing is to get the decision out as soon as possible. Having said that, where you're working with the applicant and despite your best efforts it goes over 8 weeks it's obviously important to use extensions to keep the CLG numberwangers happy regardless of the refund risk. And it is tough to remember to extend time periods before they expire when you're carrying a big caseload. But ultimately it should be a collaborative thing with applicants. They don't want to go back to the days of eleventh hour 'withdraw or refuse' conversations.

Then again, maybe I'm wrong and planning fees will be the next PPI.. :-)