How to Check Planning Permission on a Building Plot Before You Buy

A plot with planning permission can still be a dud. The consent may have lapsed, been granted in outline only, or carry conditions that cost months and money before you can put a spade in the ground. The good news is that almost everything you need sits in public documents, free to read, long before you exchange contracts. Set aside an afternoon, make a flask of tea, and work through the council's planning register methodically.

Find the right council and the right portal

For most building plots, the decision-maker is the district, borough or unitary council. County councils deal with minerals and waste sites, and national parks have their own planning authorities. In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland the systems and registers look different, but the principle holds: find the local planning authority's online register and search it yourself.

Most councils run a Public Access-style system where you can search by application reference, address, postcode, or by clicking on a map. If the plot has no proper address — land to the rear of 14 Ashfield Road is a classic — the map search is your friend. Drag the map across the site and nearby applications appear as pins.

Search the surrounding streets too. A permission granted for a neighbouring plot tells you a great deal about drainage, access and whether the council is minded to approve similar schemes.

Read the decision notice, not the summary

The online summary is a snapshot. The decision notice is the document that counts, usually a two or three page PDF with a reference number, a description of the development, the decision itself and a list of conditions.

The decision notice is the permission. Everything else is commentary.

Check these first:

• Whether the permission is full or outline
• What exactly was approved — number of dwellings, access arrangements, footprint
• The decision date and any condition setting a time limit

Outline permission approves the principle of development and the means of access. Appearance, landscaping, layout and scale are reserved for a later application. Buying an outline plot means funding another stage and carrying the risk that reserved matters are refused, or approved on terms you dislike.

Download the decision notice, the approved plans and the officer's report. Officer reports explain why something was approved and often flag the issues that could sink a future application.

Decode the conditions

Conditions are where plots quietly get expensive. Some are routine; others are precisely why the seller is selling.

• Pre-commencement conditions must be discharged before any work starts. They commonly cover materials, drainage, contamination, archaeology, tree protection and highway works.
• Starting work before discharging them can invalidate the permission and leave you facing enforcement action.
• Check whether each condition has actually been discharged. Search the portal for discharge of conditions applications linked to the original reference.
• Look for conditions that remove permitted development rights. These can stop you adding extensions, outbuildings or a garage later.
• Affordable housing, education and travel plan obligations usually sit in a Section 106 agreement, which is often not published on the portal. Ask the planning department for a copy, or have your solicitor request it.

Also ask about the Community Infrastructure Levy. Self-build and custom-build exemptions exist, but they must be applied for at the right point in the process. Speak to the council's CIL team before you assume a figure.

Confirm the permission is still alive

A condition on the decision notice normally requires work to start within three years for a full permission. For outline consents, reserved matters must be submitted inside three years and work must start within two years of the final reserved matters approval — unless the notice says something different. Some permissions granted around the pandemic were extended by legislation, so read the notice rather than trusting a rule of thumb.

Implementation means more than a token gesture. Digging foundations or laying a trench generally counts; parking a site hut usually does not. If the seller claims work has started, ask what was done and when, and request evidence. You can also ask the council's enforcement team to confirm the position in writing.

If the permission has lapsed, you are buying land with a planning history and no consent. That can still be a sensible purchase — but price it as an application risk, not as a consented plot.

Look beyond the permission: constraints, enforcement and policy

• Enforcement: search for enforcement notices, breach of condition notices and stop notices. Anything already built without permission becomes your problem once you own the land.
• Constraints: flood risk zones, conservation areas, Green Belt, Tree Preservation Orders, listed buildings, protected species, contaminated land, public rights of way and access to the highway.
• Policy: the adopted local plan, any made neighbourhood plan, and any emerging plan. An allocated site is a stronger bet than a one-off approval that went against officer advice.
• Services: is there a legal right of access over that track? Can water, power and drainage realistically be connected?

A checklist you can work through

1. Search the council portal by address and by map.
2. Download the decision notice and approved plans.
3. List every condition and note whether it has been discharged.
4. Check Section 106 obligations, CIL liability and any contributions.
5. Confirm the permission has been implemented and how long remains.
6. Search enforcement records and check the site's constraints.
7. Ask the duty planning officer to confirm the position in writing.

Before you commit

If the plot is unusual — Green Belt, flood zone, no road frontage, a listed building nearby — an hour of a planning consultant's time is money well spent before you exchange. Your solicitor should check title, access rights, covenants and the Section 106 agreement, and nothing on a council portal replaces legal advice about the land itself. For auction lots, read the legal pack in full and treat anything missing as a question to resolve, not a detail to hope about.

The register will not tell you everything. It will tell you whether the permission is real, current and workable — which is the difference between buying a building plot and buying a very expensive field.

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