The Law Society has warned of the uncertainty and chaos changes to the new Localism Bill could cause to the property market.
The changes would strengthen the power of local planning authorities to tackle abuse of the planning system. At present the following time limits apply to local planning authorities who wish to take action for breach of planning control:
* For development involving the carrying out of operations without planning permission, four years from the date the operations are substantially completed
* For change of use of a building into a single dwelling house, four years following the date of breach of planning control
* For any other breach of planning control a time limit of ten years applies
Under the proposed changes the local planning authorities would be able to pursue a planning enforcement order at any time after it becomes aware that there has been a breach of planning control. Furthermore they can require the property owner to remedy that breach. Therefore any new owner could become liable for past breaches of planning control committed by the previous owners. If the new owner conceals any breach that they become aware of they could become liable for such concealment.
The Law Society president Linda Lee has commented, “These reforms could have a serious effect on both the residential and commercial property markets..”. She envisages that it will not only delay transactions but also that it will increase the level of due diligence buyers will need to do and may involve them incurring considerable expense.