Southampton City Council: Dan Wilden is pleased to have secured a certificate of lawfulness to confirm various uses are lawful at a site in Southampton. The uses comprised two flats, a retail unit and a commercial storage building.
We were approached by our client to seek a certificate of lawfulness for the long-term uses at the site as they required this certainty in the process of selling the site. There was very little recent planning history, but it is obvious that the various uses had been going on for many years. Luckily our client, the current owner, and one of the long-term tenants were able to confirm in statutory declarations that all the uses had been taking place for over 10 years. In addition there was also a largely complete set of tenancy agreements.
With sound evidence available, the Council agreed to issue the certificate, although like so often at the moment it did take several weeks of chasing to finally get the certificate issued!
If you are wondering whether you can obtain a certificate of lawfulness, why not speak to Pure Town Planning to find out what the requirements are and whether you have sufficient evidence?