Planning application appeal

chick99936

How much does or can an appeal cost? Just trying to work out if it's worth going for it or not.

GDB2222

Isn’t it free?

neilmcl

chick99936 said:

How much does or can an appeal cost? Just trying to work out if it's worth going for it or not.

There's no cost.

https://www.gov.uk/appeal-planning-decision

Section62

chick99936 said:

How much does or can an appeal cost? Just trying to work out if it's worth going for it or not.

It isn't just the cost, the value of appealing depends on the grounds the application was refused and whether there's a realistic chance of convincing a third party to make a different decision.  You will - usually - need to be willing to put in a bit of effort to win an appeal.

Sometimes it is more beneficial to look at what alterations to the plans could be made to make them acceptable to the authority.

Can you give us some clues what the issues were with your application?


Edit: I should have started this post by mentioning that whilst each party is responsible for their own costs in the appeal, it is possible for costs to be awarded against any of the parties in certain situations.... e.g. if someone makes an appeal just for the sake of it and the inspector decides they have been unreasonable in doing so.  Resolving the issue by submission of revised plans is the preferred approach.

chick99936

Thankyou, basically we haven't put in for the planning yet but our agent has told us we will be fighting it in an appeal, we are trying find out a rough cost (aware that the actual appeal is free) before we go for the planning just incase we don't have the money for the appeal. The agents fees for the planning are costing £4000, but we haven't asked about the appeal costs. We are totally new to this but don't have a huge amount to be able to throw into the project. We are trying to find out how much other people have had to spend on appeals to see if its do able for us

Section62

chick99936 said:

Thankyou, basically we haven't put in for the planning yet but our agent has told us we will be fighting it in an appeal, we are trying find out a rough cost (aware that the actual appeal is free) before we go for the planning just incase we don't have the money for the appeal. The agents fees for the planning are costing £4000, but we haven't asked about the appeal costs. We are totally new to this but don't have a huge amount to be able to throw into the project. We are trying to find out how much other people have had to spend on appeals to see if its do able for us

I'd suggest if the agent is telling you that you will need to appeal before the application is even submitted that indicates* the application is so far removed from acceptability in accordance with the LPA's policies that significant work would be required to support an appeal.

However, that work should normally be done and submitted as part of the application - for example an application to build a house in a greenbelt field should already contain the applicant's arguments for why it is necessary and justified for that house to be built in that location.

Have you confirmed with the agent what they are including in the £4k?  You need to ask the agent what they expect the additional appeal costs to be.


(*There are exceptions to this - one of which is when submitting two duplicate applications with the intent (from the start) of appealing one if the LPA doesn't make a decision within the statutory timescale... but that would only be relevant if you've asked the agent to get the application approved asap)

chick99936

Thankyou, yes basically it is building on greenbelt land. We've asked the agent and he hasn't given a specific amount for the appeal, im going to speak to him tomorrow and ask more questions, he's mentioned possibility of needing a barrister, but again didn't say what for.

chick99936

Have you confirmed with the agent what they are including in the £4k?  You need to ask the agent what they expect the additional appeal costs to be.

The £4k covers the initial application and works leading up to the decision 

Section62

chick99936 said:

Thankyou, yes basically it is building on greenbelt land. We've asked the agent and he hasn't given a specific amount for the appeal, im going to speak to him tomorrow and ask more questions, he's mentioned possibility of needing a barrister, but again didn't say what for.

Typically you'd have a barrister if the appeal is by hearing/inquiry and there are complicated points of planning law. They will examine/cross-examine witnesses (e.g. you and the council's representatives, as well as any expert witnesses employed by either side).  In effect they are paid to present your case in the best possible light, and pick as many holes as possible in the council's case.  Again, typically you pay them for the time at the hearing, plus preparation.  Which will usually include developing your own witness statement.

Depending on the level you need, I would not expect you to have much change out of another £4k just to pay the barrister.  If you paid a lot less than that I'd be querying why you needed a barrister in the first place. If the agent told you to allow £10k I wouldn't be surprised.

If the appeal was by written representations then you might use a barrister to read through your representations and help make them more robust - the cost of that would (hopefully) be much lower.

In my experience, barristers would normally get involved in situations where the applicant was very very keen for consent for a particular development, or where the development involved multiple properties and the potential gains made the expense worthwhile.  If either of those fit your circumstances then see what the agent is proposing and whether you are willing to take a gamble.  If not, then I'd suggest you need to get the agent to nail down the costs far better than they have so far, or else consider alternative options which might be acceptable to the planners.

twopenny

What you say seems to indicate that your proposal is going against the rules and regs.

If you could explain the problem and why objection should be made people may have suggestions.

Though you may be able to work out for yourself if your application is reasonable or what the potential objections could be.

As I understand it locally, green belt seems to be non existant at the moment. I've seen 2 applications go through for 1) a floodlight placed 12 mtrs from a bedroom and houses built on protected land so it's open season on planning applications it seems.