{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/town-and-country-planning-general-development-procedure-order-1995/article-24",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/town-and-country-planning-general-development-procedure-order-1995/article-24.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/1995/419",
  "legislation_title": "The Town and Country Planning (General Development Procedure) Order 1995",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/town-and-country-planning-general-development-procedure-order-1995",
  "path": "article/24",
  "kind": "article",
  "number": "24",
  "heading": "Certificate of lawful use or development",
  "text": "(1) An application for a certificate under section 191(1) or 192(1) of the Act (certificates of lawfulness of existing or proposed use or development) shall be in writing and shall, in addition to specifying the land and describing the use, operations or other matter in question in accordance with those sections, include the following information—\n(a) the paragraph of section 191(1) or, as the case may be, section 192(1), under which the application is made;\n(b) in the case of an application under section 191(1), the date on which the use, operations or other matter began or, in the case of operations carried out without planning permission, the date on which the operations were substantially completed;\n(c) in the case of an application under section 191(1)(a), the name of any use class specified in an order under section 55(2)(f) of the Act (meaning of “development”) which the applicant considers applicable to the use existing at the date of the application;\n(d) in the case of an application under section 191(1)(c), sufficient details of the planning permission to enable it to be identified;\n(e) in the case of an application under section 192(1)(a), the use of the land at the date of the application (or, when the land is not in use at that date, the purpose for which it was last used) and the name of any use class specified in an order under section 55(2)(f) of the Act which the applicant considers applicable to the proposed use;\n(f) the applicant’s reasons, if any, for regarding the use, operations or other matter described in the application as lawful; and\n(g) such other information as the applicant considers to be relevant to the application.\n(2) An application to which paragraph (1) applies shall be accompanied by—\n(a) a plan identifying the land to which the application relates;\n(b) such evidence verifying the information included in the application as the applicant can provide; and\n(c) a statement setting out the applicant’s interest in the land, the name and address of any other person known to the applicant to have an interest in the land and whether any such other person has been notified of the application.\n(3) Where such an application specifies two or more uses, operations or other matters, the plan which accompanies the application shall indicate to which part of the land each such use, operation or matter relates.\n(4) Articles 5(1) and 20(4) shall apply to an application for a certificate to which paragraph (1) applies as they apply to an application for planning permission.\n(5) When the local planning authority receive an application to which paragraph (1) applies and any fee required to be paid in respect of the application, they shall, as soon as reasonably practicable, send to the applicant an acknowledgement of the application in the terms (or substantially in the terms) set out in Part 1 of Schedule 1.\n(6) Where, after sending an acknowledgement as required by paragraph (5), the local planning authority consider that the application is invalid by reason of the failure to comply with the preceding paragraphs of this article or any other statutory requirement, they shall, as soon as practicable, notify the applicant that his application is invalid.\n(7) The local planning authority may by notice in writing require the applicant to provide such further information as may be specified to enable them to deal with the application.\n(8) The local planning authority shall give the applicant written notice of their decision within a period of eight weeks beginning with the date of receipt by the authority of the application and any fee required to be paid in respect of the application or, except where the applicant has already given notice of appeal to the Secretary of State, within such extended period as may be agreed upon in writing between the applicant and the authority.\n(9) For the purpose of calculating the appropriate period specified in paragraph (8), where any fee required has been paid by a cheque which is subsequently dishonoured, the time between the date when the authority send the applicant written notice of the dishonouring of the cheque and the date when the authority receive the full amount of the fee shall not be taken into account.\n(10) Where an application is refused, in whole or in part (including a case in which the authority modify the description of the use, operations or other matter in the application or substitute an alternative description for that description), the notice of decision shall state clearly and precisely the authority’s full reasons for their decision and shall include a statement to the effect that if the applicant is aggrieved by the decision he may appeal to the Secretary of State under section 195 of the Act (appeals against refusal or failure to give decision on application).\n(11) A certificate under section 191 or 192 of the Act shall be in the form set out in Schedule 4, or in a form substantially to the like effect.\n(12) Where a local planning authority propose to revoke a certificate issued under section 191 or 192 of the Act in accordance with section 193(7) of the Act (certificates under sections 191 and 192: supplementary provisions), they shall, before they revoke the certificate, give notice of that proposal to—\n(a) the owner of the land affected;\n(b) the occupier of the land affected;\n(c) any other person who will in their opinion be affected by the revocation; and\n(d) in the case of a certificate issued by the Secretary of State under section 195 of the Act, the Secretary of State.\n(13) A notice issued under paragraph (12) shall invite the person on whom the notice is served to make representations on the proposal to the authority within 14 days of service of the notice and the authority shall not revoke the certificate until all such periods allowed for making representations have expired.\n(14) An authority shall give written notice of any revocation under section 193(7) of the Act to every person on whom notice of the proposed revocation was served under paragraph (12).",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f1",
      "text": "Sections 191 to 194 were substituted by section 10(1) of the Planning and Compensation Act 1991 (c. 34)."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f2",
      "text": "Section 195 was amended by paragraph 32 of Schedule 7 to the Planning and Compensation Act 1991 (c. 34)."
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [
    {
      "type": "words omitted",
      "affecting": "uksi/2006/1281",
      "affecting_title": "The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (Commencement No. 9 and Consequential Provisions) Order 2006"
    },
    {
      "type": "words substituted",
      "affecting": "uksi/2008/550",
      "affecting_title": "The Town and Country Planning (General Development Procedure) (Amendment) (England) Order 2008"
    },
    {
      "type": "words substituted",
      "affecting": "uksi/2008/550",
      "affecting_title": "The Town and Country Planning (General Development Procedure) (Amendment) (England) Order 2008"
    },
    {
      "type": "omitted",
      "affecting": "uksi/2008/550",
      "affecting_title": "The Town and Country Planning (General Development Procedure) (Amendment) (England) Order 2008"
    },
    {
      "type": "words inserted",
      "affecting": "uksi/2008/550",
      "affecting_title": "The Town and Country Planning (General Development Procedure) (Amendment) (England) Order 2008"
    },
    {
      "type": "inserted",
      "affecting": "uksi/2008/550",
      "affecting_title": "The Town and Country Planning (General Development Procedure) (Amendment) (England) Order 2008"
    },
    {
      "type": "substituted for art. 24(5)-(9)",
      "affecting": "uksi/2008/550",
      "affecting_title": "The Town and Country Planning (General Development Procedure) (Amendment) (England) Order 2008"
    }
  ],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1995/419/article/24",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T13:15:55.554418+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}