LDC Express

Step 1 of 9

Is your project already built, or planned?

This decides whether you need a Section 192 (proposed) or Section 191 (retrospective) Lawful Development Certificate.

A few yes/no checks

These decide whether your property qualifies for permitted development. If any answer puts you outside what we cover, we will tell you straight away. There is no fee for this.

Is the property in England?
Is the property a house (not a flat or maisonette)?
Is the property listed?
Is the property in a conservation area, National Park, AONB (National Landscape), World Heritage Site, the Broads, or an area designated under section 41(3) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981?
Is the property in an Article 4 Direction area that removes permitted development rights for your type of project?
Was your house created by converting another building under a prior-approval route, such as office, shop, agricultural or commercial to residential (Part 3 Class G, M, MA, N, P, PA or Q), or built under the Part 20 new-dwellings route?
Does any planning permission for your house, including one for an earlier extension or a garage, have a condition that removes permitted development rights? This is common on houses built on newer estates. It would be listed in the decision notice for the house's original planning permission, which is on your council's planning website and in your conveyancing papers.
Was any part of the house, an earlier extension or a garage built without the planning permission it needed, or has the garden been extended into a field or neighbouring land?
Has the council ever refused a certificate or planning permission for this work?
Your property address

We'll use this to pre-validate and to tell the council which property the certificate covers.

Which type of project is it?

Pick the one that matches the work you're planning.

Garage? One standing on its own in the garden is an outbuilding. A new garage joined to the house, or turning an attached or integral garage into a room, is under Rear or side extension.

Not sure which class? If the conveyancer's letter just says "LDC" — pick the closest match or "Something else" and we'll sort it from your description.
We'll let you know when we open up

We certify Classes A, B and E. These are the classes where we have enough case law to stand behind our refund guarantee. We are adding more. Leave your details and we'll email you the moment yours is covered.

Extension or garage conversion

All measurements in metres. If a measurement breaks a limit, we will tell you straight away.

What is the work?
Does the work add, alter or replace a chimney, flue or soil pipe on the outside?
Does the work change the roof of the main house, beyond joining the extension's own roof to the wall? For example re-roofing it, adding rooflights, or cutting into it.
Do the exterior materials match the existing house (colour, brick, render, roof)?
Loft conversion / roof alteration details

Measure the dormer. Three numbers off a tape measure. We work out the volume from them — you don't need to calculate anything.

Did you measure inside the dormer or outside? Inside is easier and is fine. The rules measure the outside, so if you measured inside we add an allowance for the thickness of the walls and roof, and check it by hand before filing.
Has the roof been enlarged before this work? An earlier dormer, or a hip-to-gable. The rules add every roof enlargement together.
Does any part of the enlargement exceed the highest point of the existing roof?
Does any part of the roof work stick out beyond the roof slope on the front of the house, where that front faces a road, lane, private drive or footpath? B.1(c). Work on the back or side slopes is fine.
Has the house ever had extra storeys added on top of it under the "upward extension" permitted development rights (Class AA)?
What kind of roof work is it?
Was a chimney, flue or soil pipe added, moved or replaced on the outside? A soil pipe is the wide waste pipe from a bathroom. Adding one outside for a new shower room counts. One routed inside the house does not.
Does the work include a balcony, roof terrace, verandah or raised platform? A Juliet balcony (a railing across a door, with nothing to stand on) does not count.
Does any part of the new roof work stick out beyond the outside face of a wall of the original house (as first built, or as it stood on 1 July 1948 if older)? Overhanging tiles, gutters, fascias and barge boards don't count. Work that joins the original roof to the roof of an extension is the exception.
Is there any new window or rooflight facing the side, towards a neighbour? Including a window in a dormer's side wall, in a new gable wall, or a rooflight on a side roof slope. Not a window facing the garden or the street.

Materials. The rules ask that the work looks similar to the existing house, so the council needs both described.

Are there new rooflights on any roof slope? Velux-style windows in the roof itself.
Is the project a combination of hip-to-gable + crown roof + new dormer + chimney removal?
Outbuilding details
Will customers or clients visit it, or will anyone who doesn't live in the house work there? Working from home yourself is fine. Visitors, staff or a business run from it can stop the building counting as for household use.
Does it contain a full kitchen (hob + oven + sink beyond a handwash)?
Does it contain a shower or bathtub?
Does it contain a bedroom or sleeping accommodation?
Does it contain a WC only (no shower, no bath)?
Does the outbuilding have more than one storey, such as an upper floor or a mezzanine you can stand on?
Is any part of the outbuilding within 2m of a boundary?
Does it sit forward of the front wall of the original house?

Don't know? Open Google Maps, right-click your property, and use "Measure distance" to trace your plot boundary.

Show me how
  1. Open Google Maps and zoom in on your property in satellite view.
  2. Right-click any corner of your plot boundary, then choose Measure distance.
  3. Click each corner in turn to trace the boundary of the house and its garden. Leave out any paddock, field or separate plot you also own.
  4. Click back on your starting corner to close the shape — Maps shows the total area in m².

Add up the ground area of this building and everything else on the plot apart from the original house, however old: extensions, a conservatory, a garage, sheds, garden rooms, a swimming pool and an oil tank. Leave out the original house, patios, paths and driveways. For example: this building 12m² + garage 18m² + shed 6m² = 36m².

Is the land clearly part of the domestic garden (not a paddock, field or adjacent parcel)?
Does it have a verandah or balcony, or decking or a platform more than 0.3m high?
When was it built, and what evidence do you have?

A retrospective certificate relies on one of two arguments. Either the work was permitted development when it was built, which needs no waiting period and is usually the stronger case. Or it has been in place long enough to be immune from enforcement. Since 25 April 2024 that period is 10 years in England; work substantially completed before that date keeps the old 4-year period. If your answers flag a judgement call, we check the case by hand before drafting anything.

You sign your statement online, the same as everything else. A few councils ask for it to be made as a statutory declaration instead, signed in front of a solicitor or commissioner for oaths (the fee is set by law at £5). If yours is one of them, or asks for one later, we'll tell you and send you the document.

Since it was built, has anyone from the council contacted you about it (enforcement notice, warning letter, visit)?
Which best describes your situation? Most loft conversions and extensions built to the permitted-development limits fall into the first group, and that's the stronger case — it doesn't depend on how long the work has been there.
Is the property currently being sold?
Has anyone suggested indemnity insurance for this? Filing an application tells the council about the work, and most indemnity policies require that the council has never been approached. We ask so we don't take a case that would leave you with fewer options than you started with.
Photographs

We need at least 6 photos to submit your application. You'll upload them after payment from your customer dashboard — just confirm you can take them now.

Can you photograph: front elevation from the street, rear elevation, both sides, curtilage showing existing outbuildings, and boundary fences?
How do we reach you?

Asking now so we can save your progress and pick up where you left off if you come back. You won't be charged anything yet.

Do you live at the property this application is about? The council's form asks for your own postal address as well as the address of the property. They are usually the same, but not if you have already moved out or are applying about a place you let.
Do you own the property? The council's form asks for your interest in the land. You count as an owner if you hold the freehold, or a lease with at least 7 years left to run.
Does anyone else own the property, or part of it? For example a joint owner, a landlord or a freeholder. A mortgage lender doesn't count.
Do you work for the council, serve as a councillor, or have a close relative who does? The council's form asks every applicant this. A yes doesn't stop the application; it means a committee decides it rather than an officer alone.
Check your answers

Choose your service level

LDC Express service fee£349
Council fee (pass-through)£274
Location plan (OS 1:1250, red line drawn by us)£29
VAT at 20% on our fee and the plan£75.60
Total£727.60

If the council refuses, we refund our £349 fee and its VAT in full, £418.80 in total. The £274 council fee and the £29 location plan aren't refundable. The council fee goes to the council when we file, and the plan is bought for you and yours to keep.

Once filed, the council has up to 8 statutory weeks to decide. That's their clock — we can't influence it. What we control (drafting, filing, chasing) we move fast on.

Before you pay

Filing an application puts the work on the council's record. Most indemnity insurance policies require that the council has never been approached about the work, so after we file you will usually not be able to buy one.

If they refuse, we refund our £349 service fee and its VAT in full. We cannot refund the council fee, and we cannot restore the indemnity insurance option.