Can anyone submit a planning application?

Except where paragraph (2) applies, an applicant for planning permission must give requisite notice of the application to any person (other than the applicant) who on the prescribed date is an owner of the land to which the application relates, or a tenant.

The four ownership certificates

Article 14 requires the applicant to certify that the notice requirements have been met. The certificate used depends on what you know about the other owners.

Where some or all owners cannot be traced (certificates C and D), notice is also published in a local newspaper, after reasonable steps to find them (article 13(1)(b)).

Two definitions decide who counts. An "owner" is the freeholder or anyone with a lease that still has at least seven years to run (section 65(8) of the 1990 Act). The owners who must be notified are those who hold that interest on the "prescribed date", which is 21 days before the date of the application (article 13(7)).

Three situations where certificate A is wrong

• You own a flat on a long lease. The freeholder is an owner of the land, so notice goes to them and you sign certificate B.
• You are buying the house and want permission before you complete. The seller is still the owner. Serve notice on them and sign certificate B.
• The work touches land you do not own, such as a wall built on the boundary line. The neighbour owns part of the application land and must be given notice.

A certificate is a legal statement. Under section 65(6) of the 1990 Act, knowingly or recklessly issuing a certificate that is false or misleading in a material particular is an offence.

The protected title and the work

The 1997 Act (c. 22) that governs the statutory register restricts who may practise or carry on business under one particular professional title (section 20). It says nothing about who may design a building, draw plans, apply for planning permission or apply for building control approval. Designers of house extensions work under many titles. A title tells you about registration with one body; it does not tell you whether the person has done projects like yours.

What to look for in whoever designs your project

• Planning experience with your council. Ask for recent applications they have made there. Applications and decisions are recorded on the council's public planning register, usually searchable online, so you can read them. How to read a site's history is in how to read a planning history.
• Building Regulations knowledge. Ask who will produce the drawings and specification for building control, and how the structural engineer's information will be coordinated into them.
• Competence under the Building Regulations. Since 1 October 2023, regulation 11F of the Building Regulations 2010 requires anyone carrying out design work to have the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours to do it so that the work, if built, would comply.
• Your duties explained. Regulation 11K(1) says a designer must not start design work unless satisfied that you are aware of your duties as client. A designer who explains them at the start is meeting that duty.
• Insurance. Ask whether they hold professional indemnity insurance, to what level, and whether it covers the services you are buying.
• A written appointment. Scope by stage, fee, exclusions and who deals with which consultant. The stages are set out in design appointment stages. If they supply a service to you as a consumer, the Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 49, treats the contract as including a term that it will be performed with reasonable care and skill.

What this means for you

You can apply yourself, or anyone can apply on your behalf. Check the ownership position before you sign the form, serve any notices before the application goes in, and choose whoever designs the project on evidence of their work.