Three stages have to be completed before a valid enforcement notice can be served.
- The authority needs to formally resolve to serve an enforcement notice. This decision can be made by one of its committees, usually the Planning Committee, or by a senior officer who has been given power to authorise such notices under delegated authority.
- Issue the enforcement notice, i.e. effectively draft it and ensure that all the required information, including an annotated site plan, is included within the enforcement notice document.
- Serve copies of the notice on all relevant parties, i.e. the owner and occupiers and any other person with an interest in the land, e.g. freeholder, leaseholder and any bank or building society with a mortgage. This has to be done within 28 days of the notice being issued. Service can be by various methods, e.g. sending it by recorded delivery, hand delivering it to the relevant address, etc. Service should be completed on all parties within 28 days of the notice being issued.