Certificate of Lawful Continuance
A Certificate of Lawful Continuance can be issued to regularise something that had simply evolved into a business. There is no requirement for you to have one if you propose to stay in residence and to continue trading as you are.
Not having a Certificate of Lawful Continuance (CLEOD) does not mean the previous trade was unlawful or illegal which was confirmed by the local authority.
If you are the current owners of a property for example a Wedding venue you may continue to trade at current levels subject to being accountable to the local authority with regard to any abatement or enforcement notices.
If you have operated without these permissions for the time frames described below that’s OK as the time for enforcement has long since passed so long as your neighbours do not raise objections. If you do start to upset the neighbours this is when you could be on difficult ground as you will always be accountable to planning laws but the requirement for permission will probably have passed as set out below.
In our case we had evolved from simply being a private residential house to offering occasional Bed and Breakfast to a few weddings a year from 2008 to the date the Certificate of Lawful Continuance was issued. We have not received any complaints and so everyone was happy.
What is a certificate of lawful continuance? It is planning permission granted for specific activities at the premises and is transferable to a new owner. If you sold to a new owner who wanted to continue with the business they would need to start afresh as they would not be eligible to apply for a CLEOD.
See next two paragraphs.
Source https://planninglawblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/lawful-use-need-for-continuity-clarified.html
An application for a Lawful Development Certificate is made in respect of an existing use, that use (in addition to having been continuous and uninterrupted throughout the 4-year or 10-year period, whichever is applicable) must also be in existence when the application is made.
“There is, however, a requirement that the use must actually subsist on the date when an application for a Lawful Development Certificate is made, although (having regard to Panton and Farmer) this does not imply that the use must have been continuous since the date on which it became lawful, following 10 years’ continuous use in breach of planning control.”
If you are in the process of selling a private home from where you have run weddings and events to an entity who wishes to continue to host the same type of events then a CLEOD will be required.
Your estate agent will probably be inexperienced in these matters so take the lead and insist with immediate effect on total transparency with all communications, your potential buyer will also need to agree to this so that anything said between the potential buyer and the agent is relayed in full to you and preferably cc’d to you at the time. We had an appalling experience with our estate agent who was later sacked for withholding important material facts that significantly contributed to avoidable losses.
Here are a few thoughts.
- Ensure your buyer agrees to indemnify you for any expenses such as closing the business, cancelling events, a Reservation agreement is well worth putting in place.
- Approach your local authority, be honest, explain you are selling and the new people want to operate as a business.
- They will either say apply now or apply later but will usually give a firm indication.
- If it’s apply later and they will give full support then the buyer should continue on their watch.
- Gather your supporting evidence for the planning application, invoices and receipts for events, advertising, thank you letters and awards, seating plans and guest lists. We put in 170 pages of evidence.
- Submit the planning application in your name not the buyers name unless they have done the reservation agreement and put down some capital held “As agent” to avoid having a smart ass buyer who is just enjoying seeing his name on the planning application whilst making you jump through hoops without any commitment.
In the above scenario the buyer may well try (foolishly) to increase the volume of stated events in order to achieve his end objective instead of doing the later application for intensification of use. - Do not mislead anyone – if you did 21 events a year and you can prove it then PROVE IT WITH EVIDENCE. Do not make the mistake many applicants make and try to mislead the local planning office. Their hands are tied and your application unsupported by evidence will be declined or withdrawn if you are fortunate.
- Engage with your neighbours and suppliers. Larger properties tend to require a revenue stream to support them otherwise they end up in disrepair and this benefits nobody.
- Have clear policies in place that respect your neighbours, Guests and suppliers and make them known in advance, this make life easy later on.
- Do not let your estate agent lead but seek their guidance by all means.
- Do not waste £50k with planning agents when you already have good relations with your local authority and neighbours. These good relations are invaluable.
During our planning application process we did not have a single comment that was in opposition to our application. After the Certificate of Lawful Continuance is issued move on to completion of the sale.
Your buyer will be able to continue to trade in the same manner as you with the detail set out in the permission document. Should the new owner wish to apply for an intensification or variation of use this is a simple matter of agreeing the terms with the local authority and submitting a simple planning application. In this case having regularised the CLEOD there is an advantage to the new owner.
Should the new owner not wish to offer Weddings and Events there is no requirement on their part to do so. In our case the property remains a private dwelling with the benefit to any new owner to trade should they so wish.
Above all respect your local planning authority, they are here to help, in our case after the certificate was issued they wrote to advise us that should we or another party at a later date wish to apply for change of use to a full on hotel they should apply under which specific policies and proceeded to set them all out.