How a planning enforcement investigation works

 

Somebody has told the council about your land, or an officer has driven past and noticed something. What happens next is a planning enforcement investigation, and it is the least understood part of the whole system.

The council has real powers here. It can send someone onto your land. It can put questions to you in writing that you commit a criminal offence by ignoring. If you turn the officer away, it can ask a magistrate for a warrant.

It also has real limits, and they are tighter than most people expect. There has to be a proper reason. The visit has to be at a sensible time. Your home is treated differently from the rest of your land. And the whole investigation, however long it drags on, does not stop the clock that eventually makes a breach untouchable.

This page explains what the council is allowed to do while it is looking into a suspected breach, what you have to put up with, and what you do not. It sits inside our wider guide to planning enforcement. If a letter has already landed on your mat, start with someone reported me to planning enforcement. If you are the one thinking of reporting something, read how to report a breach of planning control.

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. 

 

 

What the council is trying to find out

 

An investigation is not a punishment and it is not a decision. It is fact finding, and the Act is specific about the facts the council is entitled to go looking for. There are four of them:

• whether there is, or has been, a breach of planning control
• whether it should use any of its enforcement powers
• if it should, which power, and how
• whether something it has already required has actually been done

The last one matters more than it looks. An officer can come back months later purely to check that a notice has been complied with, and that is a lawful reason to be there in its own right.

None of these powers switch on automatically. There has to be a reasonable ground for entering, judged against the particular purpose the officer has in mind. A hunch, or a neighbour with a grudge and nothing to show for it, is not enough on its own.

 

Officers can come onto land, and it need not be yours

 

Someone acting for the council can enter land at any reasonable hour to look into any of those four questions. Two details in that sentence do a lot of work.

The first is that the officer has to be authorised in writing by the council. That is not a form of words, it is a document, and you are entitled to see it.

The second is that the power is to enter land, not only the land under suspicion. If the only way to see what is going on is from the field next door, the officer can go into the field next door, and it makes no difference that the neighbour owns it, occupies it and has done nothing wrong at all. Government guidance says exactly that.

The government can authorise someone to enter as well, but only to work out whether an enforcement notice ought to be issued, and it has to consult the council before it does so.

 

Your home is different: the 24 hour rule

 

A building used as a dwellinghouse is protected in a way the rest of your land is not. Entry to it cannot be demanded as of right unless the occupier has been given 24 hours’ notice first.

Read that carefully, because three things follow and most people only spot the first.

The obvious one is the protection. If an officer arrives unannounced and asks to come into your house, you can say no, and saying no is not obstruction.

The second is less comfortable. What the 24 hours protects is the building used as a dwellinghouse. Your garden, your yard, your paddock and the shed at the bottom of it are not that building, so the extra notice does not attach to them in the same way. The reasonable hour rule still does.

The third is that an officer can still knock and ask. What the rule stops is a demand, not a request, so if you say yes you have let them in, and there is nothing to undo afterwards.

Note too that the notice goes to the occupier, who is not always the owner. A landlord can be entirely unaware that a visit has been arranged with the tenant.

 

If you refuse, a magistrate can issue a warrant

 

Turning the council away is not the end of it. A justice of the peace can issue a warrant letting an authorised person in anyway. The council has to swear written information before the magistrate, and it has to show a reasonable ground for entering for one of those four purposes, plus one of the following:

• that admission has been refused
• that a refusal is reasonably expected, even though nobody has actually refused yet
• that the case is urgent

The middle one is worth pausing on. The council does not have to be turned away first. If it reasonably expects a refusal it can go straight to the magistrate.

Ignoring the request has the same effect as refusing it. If no reply is received within a reasonable period, the law treats that as a refusal, so silence buys you nothing and may cost you the chance to arrange a visit on your own terms.

A warrant is not a standing invitation, and it is narrower than people fear:

• it authorises entry on one occasion only, not repeat visits
• that entry has to happen within one month of the warrant being issued
• it has to be at a reasonable hour, unless the case is urgent

If the month runs out without the warrant being used, it is spent, and the council has to go back to the magistrate and start again.

 

What the officer must do while they are on your land

 

Three duties sit on the officer, whether they are there under the ordinary power or under a warrant:

• if you ask, they must produce evidence of their authority and say why they are there, before they enter
• they may bring other people with them, but only as many as are necessary
• on leaving, if you are not there, they must leave the land as effectively secured against trespassers as they found it

The first only bites if you ask. Nobody has to volunteer it, so ask, politely and early, and write down the name.

The third is the one owners of yards, paddocks and building sites should hold on to. If an officer lets themselves through a gate while you are out, that gate has to be shut behind them.

 

Getting in the way is a criminal offence

 

Wilfully obstructing someone who is exercising a right of entry is a crime. It is dealt with in the magistrates’ court and carries a fine of up to level 3 on the standard scale, currently £1,000.

The word doing the work is wilfully. Refusing entry to your house when no notice has been given is not obstruction, because the officer had no right to demand it. Being out when they call is not obstruction. Padlocking a gate on the morning of a warranted visit, or standing in front of the works and refusing to move, is a different matter.

There is nothing to gain from it in any event. Obstruction does not make a suspected breach go away, and it hands the council a reason to reach for a warrant it might not otherwise have bothered with.

 

If they damage something, or repeat what they saw

 

Two protections here are almost never mentioned, and both are worth knowing about.

If damage is caused to your land or your possessions while a right of entry is being used, whoever suffers the damage can recover compensation from the authority that signed the written authority. It is worked out using the same machinery the Act uses for compensation generally, so it is a proper claim, not a goodwill payment.

The second protects businesses. If someone who entered your land goes on to disclose a manufacturing process or a trade secret they picked up while they were there, that is a criminal offence, unless they were passing it on as part of the job they were authorised to do. It is by far the graver of the two offences on this page: in the magistrates’ court the fine has been unlimited since 12 March 2015, and it can be sent to the Crown Court, where it carries up to two years in prison, a fine, or both.

If your site involves a process you would not want a competitor to hear about, say so at the time, and say it in writing.

 

The letters that make you answer questions

 

Walking the land only tells the council so much. What it usually needs is names, dates and uses, and two letters make you provide them:

• a section 330 notice, which asks who has an interest in the land: who occupies it, who takes rent from it, and who else you know to be involved. You get at least 21 days, and not replying without a reasonable excuse is a criminal offence
• a planning contravention notice, which goes much wider and asks what is actually happening on the land. It also runs for at least 21 days, and it carries the same kind of teeth

Both deserve the same care, for the same reason. Your answers are written evidence, in your own words, handed to the people deciding whether to act. That does not mean every compelled answer is automatically admissible in later criminal proceedings: the obligation to answer and the criminal court’s decision on admissibility are separate questions. See our guide to an interview under caution for the distinction and the relevant authority.

Answer them, answer them inside the deadline, and answer them accurately. If the dates of a use are what decides whether the breach is still enforceable, that is the moment to take advice, before you write rather than after.

Neither letter is an interview, and no caution comes with either. If the council later invites you in for a recorded meeting instead, the investigation has turned into something else, and our page on an interview under caution explains what that means for you.

 

A planning enforcement investigation does not stop the clock

 

This is the most valuable thing on this page, and hardly anybody is told it.

Breaches do not stay enforceable for ever. In England the council generally has ten years from the breach, with a four year limit still applying to some older cases. After that the development becomes lawful and cannot be touched.

The Act sets out, in one short closed list, what counts as the council taking enforcement action, and only the things on that list stop time running. In England they are an enforcement notice, a breach of condition notice, and an enforcement warning notice.

A site visit is not on that list. Neither is a warrant, a section 330 notice, a planning contravention notice, a case reference, a site file, or eighteen months of correspondence. The council can investigate you thoroughly and at length, and the clock runs the entire time.

Our page on enforcement time limits sets out the periods themselves, and the narrow further window the council gets where it has already taken, or tried to take, enforcement action.

 

Is there a fee?

 

Nothing is charged for being investigated. The council does not bill you for an officer’s time, for a visit, for a warrant, or for the letters it sends, and there is no fee to reply to any of them.

Cost arrives afterwards, out of whatever the investigation turns up. If it ends with you applying for permission after the event, or for a certificate confirming that what you already have is lawful, then the ordinary application charges apply, and our guide to planning application fees sets out how they are worked out.

The other real cost is advice. A short conversation early is almost always cheaper than a long one after a notice has been served.

 

There is nothing to appeal against

 

You cannot appeal against being investigated. There is no form and no deadline, because the route does not exist. The same goes for every step described on this page: the visit, the warrant, the section 330 notice and the planning contravention notice all sit outside the appeal system.

A right of appeal appears later, and only if the council decides to act. An enforcement notice can be appealed, and our guide to planning appeals covers how that works. The deadline is strict: the appeal has to be made before the date the notice says it takes effect, and nobody can extend it.

If you believe a step in the investigation was unlawful, for instance that a warrant was obtained on a false basis, the only challenge is judicial review in the High Court, and those deadlines are very short. Our guide to judicial review explains that route.

 

If an officer turns up at your gate

 

• ask for their written authority, read it, and note the name and the department
• ask what they are there to find out, which they have to tell you if you ask
• remember that your house is different: without 24 hours’ notice you can decline, and it is not obstruction
• if it is only the yard or the garden, letting them look is usually the sensible course
• offer a time that suits you rather than simply refusing, because a refusal, or silence, can be turned into a warrant
• go round with them if you can, and take your own photographs of whatever they photograph
• avoid answering questions about dates or history off the cuff, since the same points will come back in writing and can be answered properly then
• write down afterwards who came, when, how long they stayed, and what they looked at
• take advice before you reply to any formal notice, not after

If an officer has been in touch and you are not sure where you stand, you can reach us via here to help.

 

 

Planning enforcement investigation: relevant legislation

The primary sources below are on legislation.gov.uk. Check the “Changes to Legislation” panel at the top of each page for any amendments not yet incorporated into the revised text.

• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s196A: entry without a warrant, the four purposes, the reasonable hour test, and the 24 hour rule for a dwellinghouse
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s196B: entry under a warrant, when a magistrate may issue one, and the one occasion, one month and reasonable hour limits
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s196C: what an authorised person must do on the land, wilful obstruction, compensation for damage, and the trade secret offence
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s330: the power to require information about interests in land
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s171C: the planning contravention notice
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s171A: what counts as a breach, and the closed list of what counts as taking enforcement action
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s171B: the time limits after which a breach becomes immune
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, s118: how compensation for damage caused on entry is assessed

Other Enforcement Sections

 

 

 

 

Planning enforcement investigation Page Updated: 22nd August 2026