Planning portal

[flanagaj]

Just got a nasty shock and wanted to make sure others are aware too.  I had no idea that the Planning Portal charge an £85 fee on top of the Planning departments fee.  I paid the £297 fee to discharge conditions and the planning department then write to me telling me I have only paid £227.  The portal is not very transparent when it comes to how much they are deducting.

LPA have informed me that you can discharge conditions directly and avoid the extortionate fee.

[Nickfromwales]

Just now, flanagaj said:

Just got a nasty shock and wanted to make sure others are aware too.  I had no idea that the Planning Portal charge an £85 fee on top of the Planning departments fee.  I paid the £297 fee to discharge conditions and the planning department then write to me telling me I have only paid £227.  The portal is not very transparent when it comes to how much they are deducting.

LPA have informed me that you can discharge conditions directly and avoid the extortionate fee.

£85, nasty shock?!

 

Don’t have kids whatever you do, that’s a left shoe these days. 

[flanagaj]

13 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

£85, nasty shock?!

 

Don’t have kids whatever you do, that’s a left shoe these days. 

It's a nasty shock, given that for said £85 they basically forward the application onto the LPA.  As a software dev, I wish I could write an app that charges £85 to do very little.

[Alan Ambrose]

There's nothing like a government-mandated monopoly owned by a hedge fund is there?

 

There's a few of these around.

[DevilDamo]

How can you underpay? The PP include the service charge fee when you make the payment online or via BACS.

[DevilDamo]

19 hours ago, flanagaj said:

Just got a nasty shock and wanted to make sure others are aware too.

Btw, the PP service charge fee for Planning applications was first introduced in 2018. So for those who deal with PP submissions, it would not be a shock to them. And plus, you would have known about an additional fee when your Planning application was submitted.

[flanagaj]

14 hours ago, DevilDamo said:

How can you underpay? The PP include the service charge fee when you make the payment online or via BACS.

Good question.  My CC statement clearly shows I paid £297 and planning received £85 less than I paid

[DevilDamo]

8 hours ago, flanagaj said:

Good question.  My CC statement clearly shows I paid £297 and planning received £85 less than I paid

The application fee is £298.00 plus the PP service charge fee of £85.00. So you should have paid £383.00 in total. So how have you managed to pay £297.00 in total?

[flanagaj]

4 hours ago, DevilDamo said:

The application fee is £298.00 plus the PP service charge fee of £85.00. So you should have paid £383.00 in total. So how have you managed to pay £297.00 in total?

It's a long story.  Due to a previous incorrect householder submission.  So I think the fees got messed up and were not correctly added.

[DevilDamo]

1 hour ago, flanagaj said:

It's a long story.  Due to a previous incorrect householder submission.  So I think the fees got messed up and were not correctly added.

You had submitted a Householder application in relation to a new build!?! 🤔

[flanagaj]

10 minutes ago, DevilDamo said:

You had submitted a Householder application in relation to a new build!?! 🤔

Yes.  I screwed up!  Topic closed

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, flanagaj said:

Yes.  I screwed up!  Topic closed

You fought well, and were humble in your defeat.

 

I salute you sir, the whole world salutes you! 🙌

[flanagaj]

7 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

You fought well, and were humble in your defeat.

 

I salute you sir, the whole world salutes you! 🙌

The valuable lesson.  Save the +£80 fee and submit directly to the LPA.    

[kandgmitchell]

I remember when the PP first arrived. No more printing seven sets of drawings and copying forms in triplicate. In those days I had a proper office photocopier with an automatic sorter attachment as well as a huge A1 copier and a plan printer. It was one of the kids jobs after school to walk the post down to the village post office in the form of large packets addressed to local authorities. Then along came the PP which was free to use and you could load everything up digitally and send it off through the web. Great! Over the next few years the large office machines went ( two guys bought them to send to Africa I think) along with most of the filing cabinets. All shrunk to a computer, a screen and a box of floppy discs and even they went to be replaced with a solid state external drive.

 

The PP then went private ( now doubt to improve customer experience - it always is the excuse) and started to charge, I think £25 at first, then gradually it has crept up and up to the point where it's better to send an application direct now that all LA's have adopted the digital world.

[DevilDamo]

4 hours ago, kandgmitchell said:

it's better to send an application direct now

Maybe only with some LPA’s. One of mine charges a minimum fee of £50.00 fee to receive an application outside of the Planning Portal.