|
|
Enforcement notices
Lawful use certificates
Staffordshire County Council v Challinor
[2007] EWCA Civ 864.
The Court of Appeal held that an enforcement notice which had become effective after an unsuccessful appeal, or the time for appealing had expired, superseded lawful use rights even if they were the subject of a certificate of lawful use. The Court of Appeal held that the judge in the High Court had erred in law in deciding that the prohibition in s.285(1) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 on challenging an enforcement notice other than through the appeal provisions in s174 of the 1990 Act did not override the conclusive nature of the certificate of lawful use, and that activities within the scope of the certificate were not in breach of the enforcement notice. The certificate did not establish that the use had continued up to the date of the enforcement notice subsequently issued and if the certificate was not relied on as a ground of appeal against the enforcement notice, the latter superseded it.
The Court of Appeal stated that it was an oversimplification and a misinterpretation of the authorities to contend that an enforcement notice could not take away lawful use rights. Therefore, while an enforcement notice would be interpreted so as not to interfere with permitted development rights or with rights to use land for a purpose ancillary to a principal use which was itself not being enforced against, there was no general right to assert existing use rights at a time when the enforcement notice had come into effect after an unsuccessful appeal or in the absence of an appeal. It did not make any difference that existing rights had been the subject of a certificate, which only certified that the use was lawful at a particular point in time. The Court considered that a certified use could be abandoned and the decision in M&M (Land) Ltd v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2007] EWHC 489 (Admin) was approved.
Back to top
|
|
|