CIL Liability Notice and Demand Notice Explained

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A CIL liability notice tells you the Community Infrastructure Levy charge for a development and how it has been calculated. A demand notice comes later and tells the liable person what has to be paid and when.

The two notices do different jobs. Understanding that difference matters if the amount changes, a notice is served late, liability is transferred, the land is sold, development starts or you want to challenge the CIL calculation.

CIL liability notice and demand notice for a development

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What is a CIL liability notice?

Under regulation 65 of the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010, the collecting authority must issue a Liability Notice as soon as practicable after the day on which planning permission first permits the development.

The notice is the formal statement of the chargeable amount. It identifies the development, shows how the levy has been calculated and records relevant relief, exemption and instalment information.

A Liability Notice is not the same as an invoice arriving after work starts. It sits earlier in the CIL process and gives the people involved a chance to check the calculation before commencement.

Who should receive the Liability Notice?

Regulation 65 requires the notice to be served on the relevant person, anyone who has assumed liability to pay CIL for the chargeable development, and each person the authority knows to be an owner of the relevant land.

For an ordinary planning permission, the relevant person will normally be the applicant. For development under a general consent, such as some permitted development rights, the relevant person is normally the person who submitted the Notice of Chargeable Development.

That service requirement is important. A person can be affected by CIL even where somebody else made the planning application, especially where no one has formally assumed liability before commencement.

Assuming liability to pay CIL

Anyone wishing to take responsibility for the levy can submit an Assumption of Liability Notice, currently Form 2. The statutory procedure is in regulation 31.

A valid assumption takes effect when the collecting authority receives it. The person who has assumed liability becomes liable when the chargeable development commences.

You do not have to assume liability simply because you own the land. But if nobody has assumed liability when the development starts, regulation 33 can make the owners of the land liable by default. Failing to assume liability can also affect payment windows and instalments.

Can assumed liability be transferred?

Yes. Regulation 32 provides a formal transfer procedure, currently using Form 4. Before commencement an assumption can also be withdrawn using the appropriate form.

Do not assume that selling the site automatically transfers a CIL assumption to the buyer. If liability is meant to move, use the statutory transfer process and keep the collecting authority’s acknowledgement.

After commencement, an assumption can be transferred but cannot simply be withdrawn. The timing matters, particularly where a sale happens during construction.

When must a revised CIL liability notice be issued?

Regulation 65 requires a revised Liability Notice where the chargeable amount or certain relevant particulars change, or where a new instalment policy changes the arrangements for the development. The authority also has a wider power to issue a revised Liability Notice at any time. A later section 73 permission is one situation where the CIL position and notice history need particularly careful checking.

When a new Liability Notice is issued for the same chargeable development, an earlier Liability Notice ceases to have effect. That does not mean that everything which happened while the earlier notice was in force is erased.

This distinction was considered by the Court of Appeal in R (Braithwaite and Melton Meadows Properties Ltd) v East Suffolk Council [2022] EWCA Civ 1716. An earlier Liability Notice had been issued late and served on the wrong person. The Court of Appeal held that the defective notice was not automatically a legal nullity. Unless and until it was quashed, it remained legally effective and could later be superseded by a revised Liability Notice.

The case is an important warning not to assume that a procedural defect makes CIL disappear. The correct challenge route and timing still matter.

Segrue and later evidence

R (Segrue Investments Ltd) v Swindon Borough Council [2026] EWHC 2080 (Admin) adds an important modern layer. The dispute concerned later evidence about existing-building use and requests for revised Liability Notices after the ordinary review period had been missed.

Segrue argued that later evidence about the building’s use should lead to revised Liability Notices under regulation 65. The High Court rejected the attempt to use regulation 65 as a general late-review mechanism. The purpose-built regulation 113 review and regulation 114 appeal machinery was an adequate alternative remedy, and the later evidence could and should have been advanced through that route within time. The council was not required to reopen the substantive CIL calculation simply because better evidence arrived after the deadlines; saying that the statutory review and appeal periods had expired was a legally adequate reason.

It should not be read as a safe alternative to the statutory review and appeal deadlines. The judicial review was also out of time, and later correspondence asking the council to reconsider the position did not simply restart the judicial-review clock. If the original chargeable amount is wrong, use the formal review route in time wherever it remains available.

What is a CIL demand notice?

The Demand Notice comes later. Once the authority receives a valid Commencement Notice, or determines a deemed commencement date because development has already started, regulation 69 requires it to serve a Demand Notice on each person liable to pay CIL.

The Demand Notice sets out the amount payable by that person and the date or dates on which payment is due. It reflects the payment procedure and any applicable instalment policy, relief, exemption, surcharge or other adjustment.

A revised Demand Notice may be needed where the commencement date, levy amount, instalment position, liable person or amount payable later changes.

CIL liability arises on commencement

It is tempting to think that CIL only becomes a real debt when a council eventually sends a Liability Notice or Demand Notice. That is not how the statutory scheme works.

In R (Herod Property Ltd) v Westminster City Council [2026] EWHC 2122 (Admin), the High Court confirmed the importance of commencement in fixing CIL liability. The notices administer and notify that liability; they do not create the underlying charge simply by arriving in the post.

This is also consistent with Braithwaite, where the Court of Appeal rejected an interpretation which would have created the fiction that liability only arose when a later revised notice was issued.

A revised demand notice does not wipe an old late-payment problem

The same point matters after payment has fallen due. In London Borough of Lambeth v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government; Thornton Park Ltd [2021] EWHC 1459 (Admin), revised Liability and Demand Notices were issued after the chargeable amount changed.

The High Court held that issuing revised notices did not extinguish late-payment surcharge liability which had already accrued. Liability and due dates arise from the statutory scheme; replacing a notice does not turn back the clock on an earlier missed payment.

This is particularly important where a development is amended after commencement. A lower later calculation may change what remains payable, but it does not necessarily erase the consequences of having failed to pay an earlier amount when it was due.

What if the Liability Notice amount is wrong?

The ordinary challenge to the chargeable amount starts with a written review request under regulation 113. It must normally be made within 28 days beginning with the day the Liability Notice stating the chargeable amount was issued.

If the review does not resolve the problem, a regulation 114 appeal to the Valuation Office Agency must normally be made within 60 days beginning with the day that original Liability Notice was issued. The review does not restart the 60-day clock.

Commencement can close those routes. Do not start work while relying on a chargeable-amount review or appeal without checking the effect first. See our full CIL appeals guide.

What if the Demand Notice is wrong?

There is no single general appeal simply because you dislike a Demand Notice. The correct route depends on what is wrong.

a disputed deemed commencement date can be appealed to the Planning Inspectorate under regulation 118
a surcharge has its own regulation 117 appeal grounds
a wrong chargeable amount normally uses the regulation 113 review and regulation 114 VOA appeal route
an apportionment between owners has a separate regulation 115 appeal

The deadlines are short and they do not all start from the same document. Identify the actual decision being challenged before calculating the appeal date.

Costs and the planning application

A Liability Notice and Demand Notice form part of the CIL collection regime. They are separate from the fee for the underlying planning application or prior approval. See our planning application fees guide.

If the underlying planning application is refused, that is a separate planning decision and can usually be challenged through the normal planning appeal route.

Relevant CIL rules and case law

Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)

CIL Liability Notice Page Updated: 4th September 2026