8. Can you help me as I'm buying a property?

While you may choose to conduct your own research, your solicitor will typically instruct a Local Authority Search, which will provide much of the information that you, as the purchaser, and potentially your mortgage lender, are interested in. Our Local Land Charges pages have further information and guidance.

A lot of information you may be interested in when considering purchasing a property is readily available to you using both our address history search and our interactive map.

S106 agreements can also be found alongside the documentation under the relevant planning application.

Planning application documentation and decisions from 2003 onwards can be found on our website via the links above. Planning application documents and decisions pre 2003 can be supplied but a planning reference will be required. You will therefore need to research these on our interactive map or our register before submitting a request. If you do not supply a reference number you are likely to be charged for this service. 

Planning advice for works to a prospective purchase

If you require planning advice for works you are considering on a potential purchase, you will need to follow the Certificate of lawful use application process. This will confirm if you require planning permission and if not, you have a formal document verifying this. A decision on this type of application is 8 weeks.

If you know possible works will need planning permission you may want to seek pre-application advice to gauge the likely success should you submit an application. Costings and timescale are shown on our Table of charges.

Do I need planning permission? Would I get planning permission? covers both the above options

Need some advice sooner?

We appreciate when buying a new property timescales are key. However, we are unable to deal with these requests any quicker than the set timescales. You may find advice from a local Independent Planning Advisor helpful as they are likely to have experience of developments within the Borough.  Any external advice will not represent the formal views of the council.