Required supporting information
Applications for a certificate of lawful existing use or development can be made through ePlanning. They must have the following supporting information.
To establish that the existing use or development is lawful you must show that
- the change of use occurred more than 10 years before your application
- the use has continued without interruption for at least 10 years
- the use has not increased or intensified during those 10 years
- no formal enforcement action has been taken in the respect of the use.
With regard to the use has continued without interruption for at least 10 years, without interruption does not mean that the property has had to have been occupied by guests on every night for the last 10 years. A holiday home is still a holiday home, even when it is empty. But, the length of break between periods of use will be taken into consideration in determining whether the use has continued without interruption. Also, the property cannot have been used for another purpose during the 10 years. For example, use as a private residential tenancy or as your only or principal home for any part of the preceding 10 years would be considered an interruption.
With regard to the use has not increased or intensified during those 10 years, an example of increase or intensification would be where part of your property was used for the first 5 years and then the whole property was used for the next 5 years.
We need evidence to support the application that the use does not need planning permission. We will consider whether the evidence you provide is proof enough to justify a certificate. Examples of evidence might include:
- Receipts for guests staying at the property
- Advertisements and reviews
- Extracts from business accounts
A list of the documents you have supplied must be submitted to clearly evidence the dates when the property was in use. Numbering and naming the documents on this list will help to clarify the dates.
You may need to gather information from your records and confirmation from other sources to evidence your application. You will need to evidence that the use continued uninterrupted and without increase or intensification.
Applications that do not have the required information will be refused.
Please note, that under section 153 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 it is a criminal offence to provide information which is false or misleading, or withhold information in respect of an application for a certificate of lawfulness.