The order of planning enforcement, and where you can appeal

 

Planning enforcement is not a single event. It is a sequence, and every step in that sequence has its own rules about whether you can argue back.

Some steps carry a full appeal to a government inspector. Most carry none at all. Two letters that look almost identical when they land on your doormat can have completely different rules, and the one that looks least alarming is often the one you cannot challenge.

This page sets out the order of planning enforcement, from the first report through to the last resort. That is the whole planning enforcement process in one place. It then gives you the map: notice by notice, whether there is an appeal, who decides it, and when the door shuts for good.

It deliberately does not repeat the detail. Every notice below has its own page on this site, and this page links to each one.

This page is written for England. Wales works differently on two of these notices, and that is flagged where it happens. It sits inside our wider guide to planning enforcement.

Whilst we are happy to give you some help via this page, it is often easier to consult a professional. If in doubt – STOP – and reach out to us. We are here to help. Contact us here. 

 

The order of planning enforcement, step by step

 

No two cases run exactly the same way, and a council can stop at any point. This is the shape it usually takes:

• somebody reports a breach, or an officer notices one
• the council opens an investigation and works out whether there has been a breach at all
• if it needs facts it does not have, it can demand them, by a planning contravention notice or a section 330 notice
• the council then decides whether formal action is expedient, and this is a choice rather than a duty
• very often it stops here: the council may take no further action, ask you to put things right informally, or invite you to apply for permission
• if permission looks likely, it may send an enforcement warning notice telling you to apply
• if it does act formally, it serves one of the notices set out below
• the notice then has a period before it takes effect, and a separate period for doing the work
• if you still do not comply, prosecution, direct action or an injunction can follow

The appeal, where there is one, almost always belongs to that second-to-last step. Miss it and everything after it becomes much harder.

 

Where you can appeal, notice by notice

 

This is the part nobody sets out side by side, and it is the reason this page exists. The answers are not consistent, so check the one you have actually received rather than assuming:

• Enforcement notice: a full appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. There are seven ordinary grounds, lettered (a) to (g). For relevant demolition of a building in a conservation area in England, section 174(2C) adds a separate set of three cumulative grounds concerning urgent necessity, the absence of a practicable repair or support alternative, and whether the demolition was the minimum necessary. You have to lodge it before the notice takes effect, and lodging in time suspends the notice until the appeal is decided. See enforcement notices and how to appeal, and the enforcement appeal grounds for choosing between them
• Breach of condition notice: no statutory right of appeal. Judicial review is the route for challenging the legality of the notice itself, and appealing a separate enforcement notice does not suspend it, which is exactly why a council may serve one alongside. See breach of condition notice
• Planning contravention notice: no appeal. It is a demand for information rather than a decision, so there is nothing yet to appeal against. See planning contravention notice
• Section 330 notice: no appeal. Another demand for information, and you must be given at least 21 days to reply. See section 330 notice
• Enforcement warning notice: no appeal, and ignoring it is not an offence either. It tells you the council thinks permission might well be granted and invites you to apply, so ignoring it usually just leads to a formal notice. See enforcement warning notice
• Stop notice and temporary stop notice: you cannot appeal against what they prohibit. See stop notices and temporary stop notices
• Section 215 notice on untidy land: there is an appeal, and it is the odd one out. In England it goes to the magistrates’ court, and in Wales to the Welsh Ministers. It has to be brought before the notice takes effect, which is at least 28 days after it is served, and in England either side can then take the case on to the Crown Court. See section 215 notice
• Completion notice: in England there is an appeal to the Secretary of State on three grounds, and it is open to anyone with an interest in the land, and even to a licensee, whether or not the notice was served on them. In Wales there is no appeal at all: instead, anyone served can insist on the chance to be heard before the notice is confirmed. See completion notices
• Tree replacement notice: an appeal to the Secretary of State on five grounds, and the notice has no effect while that appeal is running. See protected trees and the replacement duty
• Listed building enforcement notice: an appeal to the Secretary of State, on a longer list of grounds than an ordinary enforcement notice. There is no time limit on when a council can serve one, so age is never a defence. See listed building enforcement
• A decision not to enforce: no appeal, for anybody. The neighbour who reported the breach has no appeal either, and the routes are the council’s own complaints procedure, then the Ombudsman, then judicial review. See the planning ombudsman

 

Why so many of them carry no appeal

 

It looks arbitrary. It is not quite.

The notices with no appeal are mostly of two kinds. Some are demands for information rather than decisions, so there is nothing to appeal against yet. Others are built to work fast, on the view that a slow remedy would be no remedy at all.

Where there is no appeal, the protection usually sits somewhere else instead. A breach of condition notice cannot be appealed, but if you are prosecuted there are defences you can run in the magistrates’ court. An enforcement warning notice cannot be appealed, but nothing happens to you for ignoring it beyond the council moving on to a notice that does bite.

The practical effect is that your argument still happens, just later and somewhere else: in a courtroom, in a complaint, or in an application for planning permission.

 

Judicial review, and the six weeks that catch people out

 

Judicial review is the fallback wherever there is no appeal. It challenges the way a decision was reached rather than whether it was the right decision, and it is a court claim, not a planning appeal.

The deadline is the thing to know. For decisions under the planning Acts, the claim has to be filed within six weeks of the grounds arising. That is far shorter than the three months people expect of judicial review generally, and it is not the same clock as the 28 days that applies to some other routes, so never carry a deadline across from one route to another.

Two more things are worth knowing before you spend money. The court must refuse both permission and a remedy where it looks highly likely that the outcome would not have been substantially different anyway. And a claimant who loses can be ordered to pay the other side’s costs.

If this is your only route, take advice quickly. Six weeks is not long.

 

When the right to appeal closes for good

 

With an enforcement notice, the date to watch is the effective date written on the notice itself, not the date it arrived. Once that date passes without an appeal, the right is gone however strong your case was.

After that, three things follow. You are legally required to comply, and failing to do so is a criminal offence. You also cannot save the argument for later: the law stops you raising in court almost anything you could have raised on the appeal. And if you did appeal and lost, the only route left is the High Court, on a point of law alone, within 28 days, and you need the court’s permission to bring it at all.

Even then the High Court does not simply cancel the notice. It rules on the point of law and sends the case back to be decided again.

That is the pattern across the whole order of planning enforcement: the earlier you deal with it, the more doors are still open.

 

What it costs

 

Lodging an appeal against an enforcement notice does not itself carry a fee.

There is a cost if you also ask the inspector to grant planning permission for what you have done, because that ground carries a deemed application with a fee attached. See our planning application fees guide for the current charging rule. That part of your appeal falls away if the fee is not paid, or the whole of it if ground (a) was your only ground. Our planning fees page sets out where charges sit and how they are worked out. We do not print figures on pages like this one, because they change.

The court routes work differently again. A magistrates’ court appeal and a judicial review both carry their own court fees, and both carry the risk of paying the other side’s costs if you lose. That risk is usually the bigger number, and it is the one people overlook.

If permission is refused, whether on an appeal or on an application you make to put things right, our guide to planning appeals covers what happens next.

 

Should you appeal at all?

 

Not always, and it is worth a hard think well before the deadline.

An appeal is public, slow, and can be expensive. If you lose, the time you were given to comply simply starts running again from the decision, so you have bought delay rather than a result. Sometimes the better move is to comply, to apply for permission properly, or just to ask the council for more time, which it can grant and often will.

Where an appeal genuinely earns its keep is on scope. Arguing that what the notice demands goes further than it needs to is usually more realistic than arguing that nothing should have been enforced at all. Get the requirements cut back, comply with what is left, and you may end up with permission for the rest: our page on under-enforcement explains how that works.

What you should not do is nothing. Every route on this page has a deadline, most of them are short, and once one passes the argument is over.

Order of planning enforcement relevant legislation

These are the sections that decide whether a notice can be appealed, and to whom. Check the “Changes to Legislation” panel at the top of each page below before relying on the wording.

• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s172: the power to issue an enforcement notice, which a council may use rather than must
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s172ZA: the enforcement warning notice in England, which carries no right of appeal
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s174: the appeal against an enforcement notice, and the grounds for it
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s175: the effect of appealing, including suspension of the notice
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s187A: the breach of condition notice, which carries no appeal at all
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s208: appeals to the Secretary of State against a tree replacement notice
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s217: the untidy land appeal, to the magistrates in England and the Welsh Ministers in Wales
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s285: the bar on raising later in court what could have been raised on appeal
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s289: appeal to the High Court on a point of law, with permission required
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s330: information notices, and the minimum period you must be given to reply

Other Enforcement Sections

 

 

 

Order Of Planning Enforcement Page Updated: 22nd August 2026