Apply for retrospective planning permission

If building work has been done on your property without the proper permissions, you can apply for retrospective planning permission on the Planning Portal.

We will treat the application in the usual way, and the fact that work has already been carried out will not influence our decision.

We can issue an enforcement notice if the retrospective application is refused, which means you may have to put things back to how they were.

You can appeal against an enforcement notice at GOV.UK but you must do this before the date the notice takes effect.

You do not need to apply for retrospective planning permission if:

• a development, building or structure has existed for 4 years or more
• the use of the the land has existed for 10 years or more

This is because after this time the work has become lawful.

You should instead apply for a lawful development or lawful use certificate