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If work has already been completed and you require retrospective approval this can be gained for both planning permission and building control through a lawful development certificate (LDC) for existing use¹ or a regularisation certificate respectively.

Retrospective permission may be required for both planning permission and building regulations. However, just because one is needed, does not mean that the other one will be. It should be judged on a case-by-case basis depending on the work completed. Planning permission and building regulations approval are different permissions which should both be considered at the time of development or retrospectively, further information on the differences is available here.²

Retrospective approval may be required if work has been completed by someone who lived there prior to you and didn’t gain the appropriate permissions. Alternatively, if you didn’t apply for building regulations approval while development was happening then you will need to submit an application for a regularisation certificate.

If rejected, then you may be required to revert the work back to its original state or make the changes recommended by the building control body or Local Authority.

If an installation has been in place for 10 years or more it may be lawful by default if in continuous use. The time limits and costs for both types of approval are available on their specific pages on the Planning Portal which can be found below.

Lawful development certificate³

Regularisation certificate⁴

1. https://www.planningportal.co.uk/planning/planning-applications/consent-types/lawful-development-certificate
2. https://www.planningportal.co.uk/applications/building-control-applications/building-control/building-regulations/difference-between-building-regulations-and-planning-permission
3. https://www.planningportal.co.uk/planning/planning-applications/consent-types/lawful-development-certificate
4. https://www.planningportal.co.uk/applications/building-control-applications/building-control/how-to-get-approval/pre-site-approval/regularisation