A South Down’s homeowner has saved £27,000 in CIL Liability thanks to the persistence and proactive nature of the ET Planning team.
The CIL Levy Charge
The development in this case was for a barn conversion and the replacement of another agricultural building of the same footprint in order to create five self-contained holiday lets.
Due to complications in the planning application the homeowners had to apply for a further retrospective planning permission, but this time received a hefty Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) charge totalling £27,000.
CIL Regulations
The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Regulations are extremely complicated, and very rigid in the way they’re applied. Unfortunately, Local Authorities do not always get it right as was the case with this development.
In this case, the floor area of the development had been in use for 6 months of the last 3 years from when the planning permission was granted and so should have avoided the CIL Levy charge.
How the CIL Levy Charge was dismissed
The ET Planning team has a wealth of experience of successfully submitting Regulation 113 CIL Review to the chargeable amounts in Liability Notices served by local authorities.
Drawing on this, the ET Planning team were able to support their client by detailing a timeline of events which proved that the floor area was lawfully in use.
Even with this, the claim was initially rejected however, the ET Planning team worked proactively with the South Downs Planning Authority to supply further supporting evidence.
The Planning Authority finally conceded that the case put forward by ET Planning was accurate and that the development was in line with CIL regulations. As such, no CIL Liability was due.
The result
Not only has the homeowner in this case made a huge saving but any CIL that had already been paid by the client was also repaid by the council.
This CIL case also encourages other homeowners and developers to check the CIL Liability that is due on their sites as this can often be incorrectly calculated by local planning authorities, as seen in this case.
If you have received a CIL Levy charge and believe it to be inappropriate for your development and would like expert advice on your case, please contact the ET Planning team and one of our CIL specialists will be in touch.