Validation of your application
Once we receive your application, it is checked by officers to make sure that we have enough information to properly assess it - in other words, to make sure that it is a ‘valid’ application. The validation process will normally happen within five days of us receiving your application, however, in busy periods this can take longer.
If we have what we need, we will write to you or your representative to let you know who your case officer will be and their contact details. Your case officer will be your point of contact with us throughout the rest of the application process. We will also give our target date for a decision on your application, which will usually be either eight weeks (for smaller applications, house extensions, and so on) or thirteen weeks (for larger developments such as ten or more new flats, and so on).
If there are any errors in your submitted application or any of the required supporting information is missing, we will write to you or your representative and explain that your application is ‘invalid’, and list the further information that we require before we will begin to assess it. If the further information is not supplied within 35 days, we will return your application to you without assessment.
The date that we receive all the necessary information to process an application marks the starting point for our assessment of the application, which is also known as the ‘valid date’. If no additional information is required, the valid date will be the date that we originally received your application.