Section 215 TCPA 1990
s215 is usually delegated to Planners. Has your Council delegated the power to non-Planners? If so...
- Who else has the delegation?
- Do these staff simply investigate cases under s215 or they also authorised to serve s215?
- Do you have to seek a Seniour Planners approval to take a case forward?
- Does s215 prove more useful in an empty homes context when the power is delgated to 'non-Planners'?
Please share your experience.
Cheers
Nick P-G
Reading BC
01189373091
Section 215 Powers
My predeccessor here at Kensington & Chelsea, Robert Wood, highlighted this particular underused weapon in the long term empty toolkit and put together a committee report that went to RBKC Planning Committee (copy is available if you require). They approved the delegation of powers down to frontline officer level. I have subsequently served a 215 on the owner of one of my long time empties and I now have the legal lever whereas before I could only ramp up the enforcement threat by sending increasingly stronger letters. We have monthly meetings with our planners and the trade off for their support to us having 215 powers is that we take the lead in empty residential property and they get the referals for empty commercial stuff. The refurbishment works for this particular property have come to a halt after running out of cash but the front of the property has boarded up windows, building rubble in the garden, flaking paintwork etc.
I have photos and happy to email out if you want a kind of benchmark to see how bad something was that needed my 215 intervention. Might be useful to persuade managers to support the Committee Report request for delegation of powers?
I am monitoring the notice and fully expect to have to take works in default action which on one hand gives me the charging order and subsequent enforced sale procedure option and if the does the 215 works then neighbour complaints will reduce and I will follow up with HA2004 Improvement Notices to deal with the internal problems. At least its a legal process started with a defined outcome and timescale in mind.
Plus points for the 215 option is that if subsequent CPO activity is taken the owner cannot claim the extra compensation for loss payment and the only minus so far is that you cant ask for anything in the schedule that would be new ie you can ask for repairs to or replacement of say a front wall but you cant ask for a new wall to be provided.
Good luck
richard.clark@rbkc.gov.uk
S215
I am an Empty Property Officer and I use S215 powers. I do all of the investigative work, create the notices but have to get the Chief Exec to sign it, because he has the Planning function under his jurisdiction , manage the work in default, try to obtain repayment and ensure the debt is put towards any other debt suitable for enforcing sale of a property.
It has worked really well. Most of my owners comply anyway and it has freed up time for our Planning Enforcement Officer to deal with other issues. The Planning Department was keen to support my suggestion that I begin to use this tool because it has streamlined my enforcement work and enabled them to deal with other issues. Win-win all round.
Power to serve a s215 notice
Power to serve a s215 notice remains delegated to our Development Control (DC) manager, but this year he has agreed to my doing preparatory work for vacant properties, incl warning letter and drafting notice. I can attend his weekly meetings with DC Enforcement Officers to discuss individual cases, and assess whether he considers they warrant this power. It is still early days, but this new arrangement looks promising.
Advantages:
Graham Everett
215's
I have the power to serve 215 notices and here at Nottingham we have two dedicated 215 officers in our Public Health department. Cases are investigated by us and notices drawn up by us and signed by a senior EHO. We have prosecuted for non compliance. Please don't serve the notice and fail to follow it through.
My personal experience of our planning department (who normally deal with 215's) is that they are very reluctant to enforce the law and front people out, they tend to rely on pussy footing, which of course is laughed off by the serious empty home owner.
NB The 215 notices are an essential part of the Compulsory Purchase process. You must have an uncomplued notice in your back pocket to avoid the 7.5% basic loss payment.
can someone enlighten me as
can someone enlighten me as to how serving the section 215 then allows you to not pay the compensation element in a CPO
thanks
S215 s and CPO etc
You should ask Chris Skinner at Yarmouth - he's very helpful about all this - cfs@great-yarmouth.gov.uk. He's happy to answer questions.
It's not just 215s that stop the Basic Loss Payment part of the compensation - there are various Notices that should be in force and not complied with at the time of the CPO - others include Cat1or 2 Housing Act Notices / S48 Listed Building/ Prohibition Notices - these are all gleaned from my notes from Chrs's CPO course in March! If you want to know more detail I would definitely ask him - and post the answer up here!
Our s215 system is similar to Graham - we are working closely woth our new Planning Enforcement Officer - we put the properties forward; he serves the notices and follows through - and getting some good results!
notices and loss payments
i contacted chris and he was able to supply some useful information
he provided me with a list of notices that if not complied with allow loss payments to be avoided
If you have notices issued under
* S215 Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (untidy site or building)
* S11 Housing Act 2004 (improvement notice category 1 hazard
* S12 Housing Act 2004 (improvement notice category 2 hazard)
* S48 Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
And they are valid but have not been complied with at the date the CPO is confirmed, then the entitlement to basic and occupiers loss payment is avoided.
Prohibition Orders under s20, s21 and s43 Housing Act 2004 and a demolition order under s265 Housing Act 1985 have the same effect.
however chris did not know why these notices allow loss payments to be withheld and others do not. can anyone shine any light on this? i think we need to know why these notices have this effect before blindly going off using them without understanding the mechanism behind it.
thanks
Mark