LDC Express
How it works

Five steps, one fixed price, council-ready bundle.

From "my solicitor asked for an LDC" to a signed council certificate, handled end to end.

  1. Qualify in 5 minutes Answer a short questionnaire about your property and your project. Our pre-validation checks every clause of GPDO Part 1 Classes A, B and E against your measurements, the same rules the council's planning officer will use. If your project fails, we tell you before you pay. No charge.
  2. Pay £349, plus the council fee Paid through Stripe as separate line items: our £349 fee and the council's statutory fee. For an extension or loft that fee is £274 for a proposed-works certificate (Section 192) or £548 for a retrospective one (Section 191). For an outbuilding such as a garden office it is £136 and £272. Any VAT due on our fee is shown at checkout. On a conveyancing deadline? Tick Express at checkout for a £100 premium: your case goes to the front of the drafting queue, usually ready the same working day and always within one, against up to 3 working days on Standard, and it is filed ahead of other cases once you approve.
  3. We draft within 2 working days From your answers plus six site photos, we draft the Statement of Truth with clause by clause proof of compliance, complete the application form, and write the cover letter to the council. You upload the one thing we can't make for you: an OS-licensed site location plan with your property outlined in red (about £10 online; we tell you exactly where to buy one and check it before filing). Express cases are drafted the moment payment clears. You review and approve every document before we file.
  4. Council decides within 8 weeks We file by email with your council's planning team, pay the council fee on your behalf, and handle every question from the case officer as your agent. The 8-week clock is statutory. Most councils decide inside it. You track progress in your dashboard.
  5. Certificate or refund If the council grants, we deliver the signed PDF to your dashboard and notify your conveyancer. If they refuse, we refund the full service amount within 14 working days, £349 on Standard, £449 on Express. The council fee stays with the council, as a matter of statute, so it isn't part of our refund. Filing also puts the work on the council's record, which usually rules out indemnity insurance as a fallback afterwards — we tell you this before you pay.

What we handle

  • The application form, cover letter and Statement of Truth — everything the council needs to validate an LDC application.
  • Statement of Truth drafted to the structural standard Inspectors look for.
  • Filing by email with the council's planning team, fee payment, and case officer correspondence.
  • Direct dashboard link for your conveyancer to track progress without pinging you.

What you need

  • Your address and postcode.
  • Exact measurements (depth, height, volume or footprint depending on class).
  • Six photographs: front, rear, both sides, curtilage with existing outbuildings, boundaries.
  • An OS-licensed site location plan with your property outlined in red, about £10 from an Ordnance Survey accredited supplier. We point you to one and check it before filing.
  • Rough year the house was built and whether it has had any previous extensions.

Pricing, at a glance

Standard service fee£349
Express tier (optional, front of the drafting queue + priority filing)+£100
Statutory council fee, extension or loft (s.192 proposed)£274
Statutory council fee, extension or loft (s.191 retrospective)£548
Statutory council fee, outbuilding (s.192 proposed)£136
Statutory council fee, outbuilding (s.191 retrospective)£272
Total, Standard£623 / £897 extension or loft · £485 / £621 outbuilding

If the council refuses we refund the full service amount. The council fee is set by regulation, indexed each 1 April, paid at filing and isn't recoverable from us. A refusal also tends to close off indemnity insurance, because the council now knows about the work.

Start the 5 minute qualifier →
We cover every council in England. Enter your postcode in the intake form and we auto-detect your local planning authority. The GPDO rules, fees, and filing route are all national, so the process is the same wherever you are.

Full refund conditions

If your council refuses your Lawful Development Certificate — or the application is invalidated for any reason other than your misrepresentation or a failure to supply information we asked for — we refund our service fee in full within 14 working days, £349 on Standard, £449 on Express.

The council's statutory fee (£274/£548 for an extension or loft, £136/£272 for an outbuilding (proposed/retrospective)) is paid by us to the council on your behalf at submission and isn't recoverable from us, so it isn't part of the refund.

Filing also puts the development on the council's record. Most planning indemnity insurance policies require that the council has never been approached about the work, so if your application is refused, indemnity is usually no longer available to you as a fallback. We say this again on the payment step before you pay.

The guarantee doesn't apply where the council's refusal cites information you materially misrepresented at intake (undisclosed listed status, Article 4 Direction, live enforcement action), where you didn't respond to a case officer request within 10 working days, or where you changed the project after we filed and the refusal relates to the change.

Full detail in our Terms of Service.