Types of Planning Enforcement

There is no single planning enforcement process. What the council can do, the notice it serves, whether you can appeal and how long you have all depend on what has gone wrong. This page lists the types of planning enforcement in England, what each notice or route is for, and when it applies. If you have just had a letter you were not expecting, work down the page in order, because the first question is always whether the council can, or will, act at all.

For the wider picture, how a breach is defined, why most ordinary planning breaches are not themselves criminal offences, and how councils find out, start with our planning enforcement overview.

If planning enforcement has just started

• The order of enforcement, and where you can appeal: start here, the whole sequence and which notices you can challenge
• Someone reported me: what happens now: the first few days, step by step
• How to report a breach of planning control: what to check first, and what the council will and will not tell you
• How a planning enforcement investigation works: what an officer may and may not do on your land
• Interview under caution: why staying silent is rarely free
• Planning Contravention Notice (PCN): 21 days to answer, and an offence to ignore
• Section 330 Notice: the letter asking who owns the land
• Unauthorised encampments: moving people on, and when it is a planning breach
• Enforcement time limits: the 4 and 10 year rules, and when a breach can become immune from enforcement
• Planning enforcement order: how a council acts after the deadline where a breach was deliberately hidden

The notices a council can serve

• Enforcement notices & how to appeal: the main notice, and the deadline that cannot be extended
• Section 173A: asking the council to withdraw a notice, relax a requirement or extend compliance after service
• Enforcement Warning Notice: the letter inviting you to apply instead
• Stop Notices & Breach of Condition Notices: the faster tools, used where waiting would cause harm
• Breach of Condition Notice: for a broken condition, and it carries no appeal at all
• Temporary Stop Notice: the one notice that can stand on its own
• Completion notices: for a permission started and never finished
• Section 215 Notice: untidy land: nothing to do with a breach, and it appeals to the magistrates
• Listed Building Enforcement: an offence from the moment the work is done, with no time limit
• Tree preservation order offence: not knowing about the order is no defence
• Advertisement enforcement: displaying a sign without consent, and the discontinuance notice
• Crown land enforcement: how councils act on Crown and Duchy land, and why the Crown is not prosecuted
• Hazardous substances enforcement: the contravention notice, the standalone offence, and how to challenge it

Appeals, and what happens next

• Enforcement appeal grounds: all seven, and what each one actually wins you
• Human rights and enforcement: what a council has to weigh before it acts
• Under-enforcement: when complying with a notice quietly gives you permission
• Ignoring an enforcement notice: the two narrow defences, and confiscation
• Direct action: the council does the work: and recovers the cost from you
• Planning injunction: the court route, and why it is the serious one
• Section 106 breach: what happens if you break one: the injunction and works powers, and how to vary or lift the obligation
• The enforcement register: what goes on it, and when it comes off
• Buying a house with an enforcement problem: what a buyer inherits, and how to check before you commit
• The planning ombudsman: the one route if the council did nothing

Putting it right

• Retrospective planning permission: applying after the event, and how an application can affect later enforcement appeal options
• Section 70C: when a council may decline to determine an application that overlaps with a pre-existing enforcement notice
• Reverting to a previous lawful use: the five step test, and the one step limit
• Listed buildings at risk: urgent works and repairs notices

If a council has not yet decided your application, see the types of planning application. If a decision has gone against you, see the types of planning appeal.

Relevant legislation behind the types of planning enforcement

Links below go to legislation.gov.uk. Always check the “Changes to Legislation” panel at the top of each provision, because amendments are often listed there before they are written into the text. Each page linked above sets out the law for that particular notice or route in full.

• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 171A, what counts as a breach of planning control
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, Part VII, the main enforcement powers, notices and appeals

Other Enforcement Sections

Types Of Planning Enforcement Page Updated: 26th August 2026