Studio Charrette helps homeowners, developers and businesses respond to council letters, alleged planning breaches, retrospective applications, breaches of condition and formal enforcement notices.
Clear planning strategy. Fast initial assessment. Practical options before deadlines close in.
Send the notice, property address, photographs and any plans you have. We can assess the planning position and identify the strongest route forward.
Clear, practical advice quickly.
Advice tailored to the actual planning position.
Regularisation where that is the right route.
Help where a formal appeal is appropriate.
We help clients at all stages of the enforcement process, from initial council contact to formal action.
Received a planning contravention letter, warning or request for information? We can review it with you and explain the best way forward.
Carried out building work without the required planning permission? We can assess whether retrospective planning, lawful-development evidence or another solution is appropriate.
Concerned about a potential or actual breach of planning condition? We can assess the requirement, the evidence and the options available to resolve it.
Planning enforcement is easier to manage when the planning facts are established early and the response is deliberate.
We review the notice, planning history, photographs, drawings and site circumstances to understand the issue and the risk.
We explain the available routes, likely implications and whether the strongest response is negotiation, retrospective planning, lawfulness evidence, compliance or appeal.
We prepare and manage the agreed planning work, liaise with the relevant parties and keep the case moving toward resolution.
Planning enforcement is the process through which a local planning authority investigates and responds where it believes there may have been a breach of planning control. This can include unauthorised building works, a change of use or failure to comply with a planning condition.
Depending on the case, the authority may seek information, request corrective action, invite an application or serve a formal enforcement notice. A formal notice can require works to be removed, a use to cease or another specified remedy to be completed within a set period.
The earlier the planning position is assessed, the more time there is to consider lawful-development evidence, retrospective planning, negotiation, an appeal or practical compliance measures before options narrow.
Enforcement cases often overlap with retrospective planning, appeals and lawfulness evidence. Keep the planning response connected.
Prepare and manage an application to regularise development where planning permission should have been obtained.
Planning appeal support where an adverse decision or enforcement position needs to be challenged through the appropriate route.
Seek formal confirmation that an existing or proposed use or development is lawful.
Check the effective date and any appeal or compliance deadline, then gather the full notice, planning history, plans, photographs and earlier council correspondence for review.
In some cases this can be an appropriate route, but it should be assessed against the planning merits and the status of any formal enforcement action.
Formal notices can carry compliance obligations and deadlines. Ignoring them can materially reduce the options available and may create further legal or planning consequences.
If you have received a council letter, planning contravention notice, enforcement notice or are concerned about an unauthorised development, send us the information and get a clear initial route forward.
Prefer to speak? Call 0203 581 1233.
Tell us what notice or council contact you have received, the property address and a short summary of the works or use involved.
