SDLTM22520 - Reliefs: Compliance with planning obligations

Conditions to be fulfilled for the transaction to be eligible for relief

All three of the following conditions must be fulfilled before the transaction is eligible for relief.

Enforceable against vendor

The first condition is that the planning obligation must be enforceable against the vendor.

This means that there must be a planning obligation in place against the vendor before the transaction is effected. Additionally that planning obligation must be capable of being enforced, whether through the courts or by other means. It does not matter that no action has been taken to enforce the planning order, it must just be capable of being enforced.

Purchaser is a public authority

The second condition is that the purchaser is a public authority. There are lists of these

HM Treasury also has the power to prescribe additional persons for the purposes of this section by Treasury order.

Five year time limit

The final condition is that the transaction takes place within five years of the date the planning obligation was entered into or modified.

It is the latest of these dates from which the time period runs.

For example, if the planning obligation was entered into on 1 March 2004 and subsequently modified on 20 September 2007 and modified again on 25 June 2008 and then became the subject of a compulsory purchase order, the transaction must take place by 24 June 2013 at the latest. This is the last date which is within the period of five years commencing with the date of the last modification (that is 5 years from 25 June 2008).